Vanilla Checkerboard cake – Republic Day Special :)

26 January 2015 , India celebrates its 66th Republic Day..Every Indian celebrates the day with great enthusiasm and patriotism .Being brought up in a family of military officers (my grandpa and uncle both served for Army),this day holds a lot of excitement for us..Every year, we all wake up early and have breakfast watching the Republic Day parade.. Till 12 , all of us always remain glued to the TV , feeling a sense of pride with every marching platoon, beautiful jhankis and dances that are performed at Vijay Chowk, New Delhi. 

This year was no different..Around 11 mum served some fried chips with coffee. There was something special about those fried chips that made me want to make this cake.. Guess what?? Well , they were tricolor chips ..

After having those chips , I decided on making a tricolor checkerboard cake.. with saffron(orange), white(plain)  and green vanilla cakes to celebrate our Republic Day.. 🙂

For cake:

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups of maida
• 1 cup of full cream milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 1 tsp of vanilla essence
• 3 tbsp of oil
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice
• Food color (orange and green color)

Method:

1. Sieve maida, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl.
2. Add the sugar in the milk and mix well.
3. Add the dry mixture in the milk mixture, combine everything to make sure there are no lumps of any dry ingredient.
4. Add vanilla extract and oil and again mix well.
5. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice and mix everything well.
6. Divide the batter into three parts. Add green food color to one part and orange color to the second.(No color is required for the third)
7. Grease the microwave safe dish with oil and pour anyone of the batter in it. Keep it in microwave at 720W (80% power setting) for about 4 minutes.
8. Cool the first cake and put the second one in the microwave. 
9. After making the three cakes, reassemble the cake.

For the chocolate ganache:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of Dark chocolate
• 1 cup of Heavy cream

Method:

1. Pour the cream into a small pan and place it over medium-low heat for a few minutes. Keep an eye on the cream , it’s not necessary to boil or simmer it. It just needs to get hot. The cream is ready when you can place a finger in the cream and keep it there for 3 to 4 seconds. 
2. Chop the chocolate in small pieces and add the chocolate in the cream. Stir the chocolate through the cream and let it sit for a few minutes 
3. Mix the ganache and keep stirring untill it comes together.
4. Cool the ganache before using.

Assembly of cake:

1. Cut each cake into three circular parts. I used a cookie cutter for the centre part (smallest one) and a small plate for the medium one.
2. After getting all the three parts for each cake ,start with the assembling. Place the outer circular part(largest part) green color cake first and layer with chocolate ganache in the insides of the cake. Place the second piece of the white color cake and again layer the inside of the white cake with chocolate ganache. Now, place the third and smallest piece of orange color cake in the centre. Layer the whole top of the cake with chocolate ganache.
3. Swap the cut outs between the layers.Pile the cake one on top of the other, alternating the colors.
4. Make sure to add frosting between the layer ..
5. Layer the cake with chocolate ganache in the end.
6. Slice the cake and serve 🙂