Walnut Praline Cake

Sometimes , you suddenly get a strong urge to eat a particular thing...It dosent necessarily needs to be something extravagant.... a simple thing, like peanuts, a particular fruit or even some namkeen!
My sudden temptation to eat walnuts...lots of walnuts , led me to this yummy recipe!
I was at my regular grocery shop ( I normally shop at departmental stores, but some speciality items like peanuts,pulses and variety of rice are best bought from local stores)..In a spur of moment I asked for walnuts! And I was lucky to have the best quality of vacuum packed ,shelled walnuts!
In I got home and just munched on them till I was satiated..only to realise that I m still left with lots more of them and didnt know what to do!
Then began my search to whip up a nice walnut dessert....( There might be many savoury recipes with walnuts...but I love my walnuts coupled with sugar or chocolates!)
Mediocre brownies and fudges did cross my mind...but What I wanted was a Treat...apure Indulgence!
So with some research and some of my twists , here I come with a gooey,crunchy and a Moist "Walnut Praline Cake"!

Ingredients:

 For the Cake:
1 Cup Maida or All purpose flour
3/4 Cup Sugar
3/4 Cup Oil
1/2 Cup Melted Chocolate ( I used Milk Chocolate ,but you can use Dark Chocolate too )edd
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Soda Bicarb
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup Chopped Walnuts

For Walnut Praline:
1/4 Cup Crushed Walnuts
2/3 Cup Demerara Sugar or Brown Sugar or White Sugar

For Chocolate Icing:
1 Cup Chopped Dark Chocolate
1/2 Cup Cream

Whole Walnuts for garnish
1/4 Cup water mixed with 2-3 tsp instant coffee and 2 tsp sugar.


Preheat oven at 180 deg C. Grease the cake tin and dust lightly with flour.

Sift flour with baking powder and sods bicarb and set aside.

In a bowl ,beat the eggs preferrably with an electric beater till pale and fluffy. Add sugar and beat for 1 min. Add vanilla essence and oil and beat again for 2 mins.
Add melted chocolate and mix.
Gently add the flour mix and beat till a smooth batter is formed.
Dust the chopped walnuts in flour and fold them in the batter.
Transfer the batter in dusted cake tin and bake till a knife inserted at the center comes out clean.
Cool the cake and demould.

Heat the sugar in a saucepan till molten and immediately add crushed walnuts and put off flame.

Mix well and pour over a greased plate.

Walnut Praline..ready in mins!

Cool and crush coarsely.

 

 

Boil cream in a sauce pan and pour it over chopped dark chocolate and wisk till smooth.

Our gooey Ganache!

Cool the chocolate ganache in refrigerator for 10-15 mins or till the consistency is just to be able to spread. Incase your ganache is overfrozen you can microwave it for 5-10 secs ,but avoid overdoing it ,because it might split the ganache .

To assemble, Cut the cake horizontally and drizzle some coffee mixture on both the pieces.
On the bottom layer,pour half the ganache and spread evenly.

Now sprinkle a layer of the walnut praline.

Place the top layer of cake over it.
Pour remaining ganache and cover completely.
Decorate with pieces of walnuts.

Crunchy walnuts and oozing chocolate...indulge!

Cool a bit before cutting.
The crunch from the praline adds a different twist to the otherwise moist and gooey cake!

This is our entry for the event Bake Fest no 14
hosted at http://cooksjoy.com/blog/2012/11/bake-fest-14-event-announcement.html

and
Favourite Christmas recipes at
http://www.zestysouthindiankitchen.com/2012/12/favorite-recipes-event-christmas-recipes.html