Gravity Defying Chocolate Cake (Eggless)

This twice collapsed and revived Gravity Defying Chocolate Cake that I made for my Niece's school christmas party was one of the toughest one to transport on this crazy, rainy, stormy Bay Area morning.  Newton succeeded twice in his law of Gravity this early morning, but the third time, I did, defying it.. or something like that ;)  #TheStruggleWasReal  

This cake truly was a piece of work.  Not because it is any difficult to make, but because of the challenge we went through transporting it, and a couple of collapses for no fault of the cake itself :) Making it was a 'piece of cake' but storing it and transporting it, not so.  Today was one of the stormiest, windy, rainy day that Bay Area has seen in recent times.  But at last the smile on my Niece's face and her description of how happy she felt that her school mates loved it, and all that they said - made it all so worth it.  You may find the picture bit sloppy as it was raining cats and dogs in the background and I had a total of 30 seconds to click a picture.  

It was one of the softest, eggless cake that I have ever baked.  I took my previous recipe and did a couple of minor tweaks.  I did not get to eat a piece, but while decorating, I had to removed some crumbs to level it in order to frost it properly and so I got to taste those crumbs :)  Frosting it was bit challenging as the cake was very delicate and soft and so I had to be extra careful. 

Recipe:

All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cup

Cocoa powder - 1/4 cup

Sour cream - 1/2 cup

Water - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 1 cup (can use brown sugar)

Baking soda - 1 teaspoon

Oil - 1/4 cup

Salt - 1 pinch

Vanilla Extract - 1 teaspoon

Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon

For Decoration:

Butter Cream Frosting - about 2-3 cups (I made this as well, ping me if you need a recipe)

Kit Kat bars - About 16 small double-bars

M&Ms - 3/4 cup + an empty wrapper from a small pack of M&M

Chocolate bar - about 4 oz.

A stick - Possibly edible.  I used Grissini bread stick

• Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Sift All purpose flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt in a container.
• Mix sour cream, oil, sugar in another container till the sugar is dissolved.  I actually powdered the sugar, to make this process quicker.
• Combine all the ingredients and whisk together well.  I used the electric mixer to whisk it - for about 4-5 minutes.
• Grease a cake pan with oil. Generally I put parchment paper at the bottom and apply a couple of drops of oil on the side. Pour the mixed batter in the container and put it inside the pre-heated oven.  
• This takes anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes to bake.  But keep watching after 20 minutes.  Insert a tooth-pick in the middle of the cake, and if it comes clean, that means the cake is done.  
• Once done, take it out of the oven and let it cool.  Once cool, gently invert the container in a plate, the cake should come out easily.  

Decorating:

• Apply a layer of frosting all around the cake and on top of it.  
• Place kitkat bars vertically around the cake.  Cover 3/4 of the diameter.
• Next, take a stick. I used Grissini bread stick (which is hard) as it is edible.  Insert it in the middle of the cake. On top of the stick, put the empty M&M wrapper.  Gently apply frosting to the part of the stick that is visible.   Stick M&Ms all around the stick, and partly on the cake as shown in the picture.  The idea is to show the M&Ms pouring out of the packet, and overflowing from the cake.  Please note:  If you are going to keep the cake in the refrigerator and use it later, either do the stick part later or prepare the stick portion of the decoration but don't insert it yet in the cake until the very end.  And be very gentle with this step.  This tip would help store the cake easily in the refrigerator as well as help transport it easily :) Lesson learned the hard way as mine collapsed twice and I had to re-do this whole step the lat minute.  
• Grate the chocolate on the remaining portion of the top of the cake where there are no M&Ms. 

Enjoy!!   Refrigerate the leftovers, if any.