Shivesh Bhatia's Chocolate Cake Is Big, Moist & Beautiful - Here's The Recipe

From burning Betty Crocker’s Vanilla cupcakes, to baking wonders that make you want to get elbow-deep into them with your inner Brucey-from-Matilda unleashed, 20-year-old Shivesh Bhatia has come a long, long way. To say his Instagram is a gateway to picture-perfect dessert heaven is simply not saying enough. This food blogger has perfected the art of baking and styling, and his work has not gone missed - He won the Outlook Social Media award in 2016 and got featured in Vogue’s list of “20 Under 26” earlier this year.

“I had no idea that it will grow into something so big and will become such an important part of me. I started posting pictures of my cakes on Instagram and surprisingly got a great response from the lovely community. This encouraged me to experiment more and work on my styling and photography- something I love doing now,” he says on his blog. Scrolling through his instagram, we couldn’t decide on which dessert of his to feature, each one a marvel on its own, we were tempted to go with something a little bit more out there like a cookie ice-cream sandwich perhaps. But then we had a bit of a think, and it wasn’t long until we were all in agreement about the only truth in life—nothing beats a beautiful, moist, big chocolate cake with waves of creamy frosting. Shivesh’s chocolate cake, naturally, more than makes the cut. Below, we’re featuring his entire recipe for your delight. Oh yes, you’re welcome.

Shivesh Bhatia’s Chocolate Cake

A few notes before you get started:

• If you don’t have butter milk, substitute it with a mixture of 3/4 cup milk and 1 tsp white vinegar. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes before you add it to the batter
• For the ganache, I used fresh cream by Amul which is easily available in all grocery shops across India
• I used milk chocolate in the ganache. You can use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.

Ingredients

Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup butter milk
• a pinch of salt

Ganache

• 1 cup cooking chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh cream
• 1tsp corn starch or custard powder

Procedure

Cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 170C. Oil a 9” circular cake tin. Dust the with cocoa, tap out extra
• Whisk cocoa, flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a bowl
• In a large bowl, cream oil and sugar.
• Add eggs, one at a time and mix well after each addition
• Beat in vanilla using mixer at low
• Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients alternating with butter milk, starting and ending with flour mixture. Beat until smooth
• Pour the batter into pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean

Ganache

• On a double boiler with flame on medium low, cook cream and chocolate until the chocolate melts
• Add corn starch/ custard powder and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens.
• Remove from heat and pour on the cake