This picture is from the original post- taken with my beloved iPhone:)
So 19th/20th was our first wedding anniversary. V and I completed one year and would you believe it, we could not celebrate it together! I am in India and he is in the States and though he tried he could not get leave from office.
The reason why I mention two days is because we had our Hindu wedding (V is Hindu) on the 19th of March and our Sikh wedding (I am Sikh) on 20th March. Lot of people are kind of taken aback when I tell them ours is an arranged marriage because generally in Indian culture arranged marriages happen within the same religion and only in cases of love marriages, people of different religions marry. While his family and most of my family consider our anniversary to be on the 19th, my grandparents take 20th as our wedding anniversary. I don’t mind it because it gives me two days to celebrate! It also is a good save for people who forgot or couldn’t wish me on the 19th, and a few did use that as an excuse.
Now, since I am at my in-laws and it was our first anniversary and my first trip to India after marriage, my in-laws wanted to invite V’s relatives so that I could meet all of them. My in-laws always hire a cook when they throw a party at home. So the main course and snacks were all the cook’s responsibility. I was pretty impressed by the speed with which this guy cooked. He came at 12 in the noon on the day of the party and within 5 hours prepared 4 different snacks and 6-7 main course dishes! I wish I could work so fast. I guess that’s how the real professionals work.
Since the food was the cook’s responsibility, I thought of making the dessert. I had been itching to make this triple layer chocolate cake for days, and had luckily saved the recipe. I also wanted to try these chocolate roses I had seen on Cake on the Brain a while back. Unfortunately, I did not save the tutorial for the roses and when I sat down to make the cake I did not have the recipe nor the method to make the roses as there was some problem with the internet. I did remember that the recipe called for dark chocolate and corn syrup but had no idea about the proportions. Nor did I have corn syrup on hand so I used sugar and water instead. As a result, I did end up goofing the roses a bit but nonetheless was able to pull off some passable roses.
I think I did over bake the bottom layer a tad bit even though it was in the oven for less than 14 minutes but since I was using a microwave oven I think it baked faster! So do keep an eye on the bottom layer while baking as different ovens will vary in temperature and baking time. Also, as suggested by some on Annie’s Eat, I did not butter the sides of the spring form pan as mentioned in the recipe. But, I feel because of that and over baking, the cake cracked on top. I would still suggest you to not butter the sides, since by greasing, the bottom layer retracts from the sides giving way for the second layer to fill the gaps, resulting in just two layers to be shown on the outside.
I was double minded to post this recipe since the pictures did not come out too great (*update*: I have updated the pictures and they are definitely much better than the original one I posted) as 1) the cake could have been prettier and 2) I hurriedly took the pictures as I had to rush for a “phoolon ki holi” party (it was my first time at such a party and the concept behind it is that people play Holi- a spring time Hindu festival – by throwing flowers at each other!). But, the cake was such a big hit at our party and everyone just loved it. I have to admit it does taste heavenly- c’mon! three different chocolate layer- how could one go wrong! So, despite not-so tempting pictures I would still insist you should try this cake out- you will surely not be disappointed! Promise!