Chocolate Poke Cake – a birthday cake

Ingredients:

For the chocolate cake: 

• 1¾ cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup water at room temperature*
• 1 cup milk
• ½ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the chocolate filling: 

• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup unsweetened chocolate chips

For  the chocolate whipped cream topping: 

• 2 cups whipping cream
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1½ cup mini chocolate chips**

Instructions:

For the cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking dish, tap off the excess and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, add wet ingredients. Slowly, pour them over the dry ingredients while beating on a medium speed. (You can use a hand whisk while doing this if you don’t have an electric hand-held mixer.) Pour it into the prepared baking dish and smooth the top.
4. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
5. With a wooden skewers or chopsticks, poke holes all over the top of the cake and set aside. (You can also use a wooden spoon, as per the source recipe.)

For the chocolate filling: 

1. In a heatproof bowl, add chocolate chips and set aside.
2. In a saucepan over low heat, add condensed milk and bring to a simmer. POur this over the chocolate chips and whisk until the chocolate has melted.
3. Pour the mixture over the cake, spreading evenly.
4. Let the cake cool completely or let cool for an hour and keep in the fridge until cooled completely.

For the chocolate whipped cream topping: 

Before beating the whipping cream, make sure that your bowl, beaters and whipping cream are very cold. 

1. In your very cold bowl, add the very cold whipping cream.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat the cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Add powdered sugar, cocoa powder and vanilla extract, and mix using a rubber spatula.
4. Spread on the cooled cake and top with grated chocolate or chocolate chips.
5. Keep in the fridge to chill.

Notes:

* 1 cup brewed coffee can be used in replace of water.

** You can use any chocolate decoration you want. As I have finished all the chocolate chips in the filling, I used grated chocolate instead and balls of Maltesers. 🙂

Source recipe: Chocolate Poke Cake by OMG Chocolate Desserts