Super Darcy Dark Chocolate Cake

I think I did a pretty decent job baking Darcy's birthday cake last Thursday. My new baking tin from Lakeland was finally put to good use! It's the perfect size that I've always wanted in a cake - not too big and not too small either. The ones I used before from Prestige were all too big and I've been encountering troubles measuring ingredients whenever I bake a big cake. So here it goes. Tadah! :)

Isn't she a beauty? For this Super Darcy Dark Chocolate Cake, I actually just experimented to get the exact sweetness that I wanted. I know, I'm really bad at following recipes and precise measurement of ingredients gives me headaches (not the qualities of a good baker indeed). But I remember using a lot of cocoa powder, a bit of vanilla essence and cups of vegetable oil in this one. Suprisingly, it came out really good and super moist. Since Darcy's favorite chocolate is Hershey's kisses, I decided to use it as toppers. She loved it and I'm satisfied.

Anyway, it was my first time to make my own chocolate icing as I'm used to just melting a chocolate bar with a bit of butter to frost the cakes I bake 'cause it's easy to whip up. Pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and voila! I'm lazy like that, but I'm really trying to change my ways now.

Here are the ingredients that I used for the chocolate icing:

• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• almost a cup of icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4 tablespoons water

I just mixed the above by hand using a wooden spoon and then frost my cake immediately. Note that the amount of icing sugar can vary. You may choose to add less or more until you get just the right consistency and texture.

With all the baking I've been doing regularly, I think it's high time to invest in a Kitchen Aid, don't you think? I also baked yesterday a cake for my dad's birthday and today happens to be my brother's birthday also, so I'm planning to bake some cupcakes. Lots of special occasions this month! The manual mixing can be pretty tiring.