A guilt Free chocolate cake embedded with chocolate pieces

Back when I was in college, I used to bake a lot of cookies, cakes and brownies. Can't believe that was about ten years back... college was horrible, it wasn't fun enough. You know how it is when you have all these ideas of how college life is supposed to be, and then when you finally enter college you are rudely shaken out of your senses. Yeah, that's cause I studied in a rural college, wouldn't have made much difference if I studied in Madras though. The colleges here are worse than the ones back home. Here in Madras it's as though they are forcing the students to become gay & lesbians with their homo glorying rules like boys should not talk/look at/or breathe the same air girls breathe in the campus. How absurd is that, doesn't that go completely against science! It's only normal for boys and girls to be attracted to each other... and if an educational institute cannot understand that, how lame is the whole education system here.

Anyway, getting back to focus... over the past ten years, I gradually cut down on all the cakes and cookies, for one simple reason: I still wanted to fit into my jeans. Before I got married, I used to work in a special school with special children and that was a blissful period. At school, we (the staff) were always running around... there was always some commotion happening somewhere with some kid. And weekends were pretty hectic too with doctor's visiting to check these kids and awareness classes for college students, and preparing special evaluation reports. After work I would go walking in the colony everyday and the air was always so clean and the place so beautiful, you could walk forever. Point is, it was pretty easy to stay in shape there... didn't really have to work for it. Now that I'm in a city that is bursting at its seams with vehicles and people, there isn't any place to go walking... which led to me giving up on ice cream, chocolates and the cake/cookies/brownie baking. But a few days back I was craving something sweet, so I made this cake. It's called guilt free, cause I cut down on the sugar & butter and substituted milk instead, to the original recipe... I would have given a link to the original recipe, but it's a recipe I wrote down in my book, under the heading 'This is some deadly recipe, it can bring about world peace... it's that awesome!' Yeah, I crack myself up...

Anyway, getting started, you will need...

Maida : 1 1/2 cup

Baking powder : 2 teaspoons

Baking Soda : 1/2 teaspoon

Salt : a pinch

Eggs : 3

Sugar : 1 cup

Cocoa: 1 cup

Butter : 100 gms

Vanilla Essence : 3 teaspoons

Milk : 3/4th cup

Chocolate pieces (preferably the fruit and nut variety, if you happen to be like me)

First lets work on the dry ingredients, sieve together the maida, baking powder, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Set it aside.

In another vessel put in the butter and powdered sugar.

Drop three eggs into it, and beat it up.

You'll get a nice creamy batter, add the vanilla essence and give it a whirl.

Sieve cocoa onto the maida and mix all the dry ingredients together.

Add batches of maida to the creamy batter and blend it in.

You'll get something like this, its kinda thick... not the right consistency for cake.

So drop in some milk and keep mixing till you get the desired cake consistency.

I had some chocolate at home, I love this fruit and nut variety. Roughly chop up the chocolate pieces.

Drop them into the batter and fold it in.

Lightly grease and flour your baking pan.

Pour the batter into it and stick it in the oven for 20 minutes or so till a knife inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Well, here it is.... just out of the oven.

Now, this is not a cake you bake for others... it's not sweet enough, and that's the first thing they will point out. But if you want to eat a nice cake without feeling guilt, this is it. I think the sugar was enough, and those chocolate pieces you bite into... lends that element of surprise, you never know when you're gonna get one and then when you do it's lovely. I loved this cake, it was a pleasure to eat it, knowing that you are not contributing to clogging up your arteries. So if you are like me, then this is the cake for you... and if you happen to be like Kareena Kapoor or Kate Middleton then please check out Nigella's recipes, they are sinfully good and with a size zero body you don't have to worry about gaining weight. But Kate Middleton really has to eat... she needs some flesh on her cheeks to give her a softer look, she's starting to look scary when she smiles.

I seem to have rambled a lot today...