Chequered Cake.......Anniversary Special...!!!

When I saw sunita's Chequered cake I just fell in love with the technique which she mentioned for making the chequered cake without the use of any special pan meant for that purpose.I loved it so much that I have decided to make that for our third marriage anniversary(yesterday,6th dec).Check sunita's Eggless chequered cake version here for a detailed description.I personally thank sunita for posting the easy version of this chequered cake which I wanted to try from so long.
I wanted to make the classic yellow sponge and chocolate sponge cake to form the chequer pattern and I simply followed Nita mehta's recipe for making the cake.As I made it on a special occasion I made it rich by applying the cream all over the cake in order to make it bit special to suit the celebrations.
This time the marriage celebrations were more fun as we did a live telecast to our parents and in-laws over the internet while we were cutting the cake.Finally there was someone to clap and sing for us and took part of the celebrations along with us even though they were not around.
I was so tensed upto the time I cut the cake and when I saw the chequered pattern I was overwhelmed with joy and it was all worth the effort.The cake was very moist and light in taste and was a perfect cake for the special day.

Ingredients:

For yellow sponge :
3/4 cup Refined flour/Maida
2 Eggs,at room temperature
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup powdered Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp leveled baking powder

For chocolate sponge:
1/2 cup Refined flour/Maida
1/4 cup Cocoa powder
2 Eggs,at room temperature
1/3 cup oil
1/2 cup + 2tsp powdered Sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp leveled baking powder

For Cream:
2 cups thick cream(chill the cream tetra pack without shaking the pack,take only thick part and discard any water content)
1/2 cup powdered Sugar

For decoration:
100 gms Chocolate
1 Pack of cherries
8-10 Almonds
8-10 pistachios
1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the Sugar Syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
4 to 5 drops of lemon(optional)

Method:

Yellow Sponge:

• Line a 9" round tin with a baking paper and grease it with oil and as well the sides of tin.
• Sift flour and baking powder together.
• Separate egg whites from the yolks.
• Beat egg whites in clean dry bowl till fluffy.
• Add Sugar gradually,beating till thick,fluffy and retains shape.
• Beat in the yolks and essence till thick and fluffy again.
• Add oil gradually,beating till thick again.
• Fold in flour gently with a wooden or metal spoon,by sprinking evenly in 2-3 batches.
• Pour mixture into tin and level the top.Tap the tin gently to get rid of any large air bubbles.
• Bake in preheated oven at 180 deg for 20 mins.
• Insert knife or skewer in the center of cake,if it comes out clean ,remove tin from oven.After 5 mins,remove cake from tin onto a wire rack and let it cool.Cool the pan completely before proceeding to make the chocolate sponge.
  

Chocolate Sponge:
Follow the same procedure as the yellow sponge cake just that add cocoa powder and sieve all the ingredients in the second step.

Sugar Syrup:
Boil water along with sugar until it forms a nice syrupy liquid,strain the water and let it cool.Add lemon juice to it and mix and keep it in fridge.

Cream to spread:

• Beat the cream on medium speed till thick.
• Only after it turns thick,then add powdered sugar and continue beating on high speed till you get the soft peaks.Chill it for some time.
• Divide the mixture into 3 parts.Reserve one part for topping the cake.
• Add very finely chopped cherries to the cream and gently fold in.
• Take out 3-4 spoons of whipped cream from the third portion and mix with 1 tbsp cocoa powder and pour it into the cone made up of baking paper and let it stand in a glass and keep it in the refrigerator until its usage.
  

Assembling the cake:

• Level the cake gently using a knife(to cut) to form a uniform surface.
• Based on the size of your cake take 2-3 cutters which form similar symmetric hollow circles gives 1" width for each circle.As I did not have cookie cutters I used steel containers from my kitchen cupboard.
• Gently press the cake with the cutters to get different symmetric circles and place them aside .
• Place a chocolate sponge on the serving platter.Apply plain cream to the inner circles of the cake and apply cream again.Do the same with the remaining 1-2 circles to form first layer of the cake.Follow the same procedure to make the second layer and keep it aside.
• Pour the lemon-sugar syrup mixture all over the cake to make it enough moist.
• Apply a thin layer of cream(mixed with finely chopped candied cherries) and place the second layer of the cake.
• Pour again the lemon-sugar syrup mixture all over the cake to make it enough moist.
• Apply the plain cream all over the cake and make sure that it is uniformly applied all over and on the sides.
• Stick the finely sliced almonds,pistachios and chocolate shavings on the sides of the cake according to your taste or like I have done for my cake.
• Sieve gently the cocoa powder on top of the cake all over.(And slowly write the message using the cone).This step is completely of your choice and to your creativity.do it in the way you want.
  

Chill it in the refrigerator and slice it gently and serve chilled.



Note:

• I used a ready mix whipped cream packet for making cream and it took hardly 3 mins for me to finish up the whipping process.
• Slice the cake using sharp knife dipped in hot water to get clean cake wedges.

Enjoy the slice of cake with a cup of tea.