Cocoa Ripple Ring

This is one recipe that really appealed to me from the Better Homes - Desserts CD sent by an online friend and blog reader - Ritu. My additions to the recipe were addition of some lovely blue-green poppy seeds and a generous swig of Cointreau. I'm not the one who generally indulges in icing, but since the ripple cake split horizontally as i was trying to turn it out from the ring, the fudgy icing helped bind the layers together.

I stuck to the recipe apart from the two additions mentioned above.





Cocoa Ripple Ring
Time Taken: Under 45 min
Makes 8 servings
Recipe Source: Better Homes

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What you need:

1/2 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sifted AP flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp poppy seeds

2/3 cup milk
2 tbsp Cointreau or Grand Mariner
1/3 cup presweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup broken nuts

6 1/2 cup ring mould

Directions:
Cream together butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder.
Add to creamed mixture along with poppy seeds alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Mix in the liquor.
Spoon 1/3 of batter into well greased 6 1/2 cup ring mold or 9 x 9 x 2 inch pan.
Mix pre-sweetened instant cocoa powder and broken nuts; sprinkle half over batter in pan. Repeat layers, ending with batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes; turn out of mold, serve warm.

The fudgy top was made using the leftover sweet cocoa-nut mixture, some cream and a tbsp of butter. I had a quite a bit of the cocoa-nut mix leftover after sprinkling between the layers, so it was a good way to put it to use.

The poppy seeds give a lovely spotted look to the cake and the orange liquor gives it the exotic taste. I'm sure this cake will do well as a coffee-cake sans the fudgy topping, but with it, it's just super to carry to a friend's place or a picnic or just to make someone happy! This slice of cake is for my dear friend and her hubby S as they've celebrated their 1st Anniversary this week. Here's wishing you both a lifetime of happiness :)