Ragi Chocolate Cake

Having lived and worked a decade down south, as a family we all have developed a taste for Ragi. 15 years back Ragi was not so much known in North India but more used in South for their regular eating. Our cook in Bangalore used to make amazing Ragi dosa, kheer and other stuff. Then as we moved to Delhi the kids choices changed and they had also moved to become teenagers.  Chocolate is their favourite choice and so I decided to experiment with Ragi and Whole wheat chocolate cake.  Tried many recipes and came out with this version.

 It turns out yum, initially I did not tell the kids but now they love it so much that they demand it.  No guesses here the mother will be very happy.

This recipe makes about a 500 gm cake and you will need 7-8 inch pan

Ingredients

1. Ragi Flour- ¾ cup
2. Whole wheat flour/All-purpose flour – ¾ cup
3. Coco powder- 2 tbsp (Could be replaced with drinking chocolate/Bournvita)
4. Oil- 2/3 rd cup ( one could use butter but I prefer oil)
5. Curd- 1/3^rd cup
6. Milk- ¾ cup
7. Sugar- 1 cup (you could use normal sugar, brown sugar or jaggery)
8. Vinegar- ½ tsp
9. Vanilla essence- 1 tbsp
10. Baking powder-1 tsp
11. Baking soda-½ tsp
12. Salt- 1/8 tsp

Method

1. Sieve the dry ingredients Ragi, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Please do this step 2-3 times to ensure you incorporate air in the mix.
2. Mix sugar with dry ingredients
3. Mix the wet ingredients in different bowl – Oil, Milk, Vinegar, essence and curd. Please whisk the curd before mixing with the other ingredients.
4. Now slowly pour this in to dry ingredients bowl which has sugar. Mix lightly with hand as you do not want air which has been incorporated in flour should be lost.
5. Once mixed please pour in greased tin and bake in Pre heated oven for 25-30 min at 180 degree.  Skewer should come out clean once inserted.
6. Remove from oven and cool.

One could do little chocolate frosting by adding molten chocolate or any other frosting over it . It tastes yum either ways.  I have tried replacing curd with egg but it does not come out that well so would suggest stick to curd for this.