Eggless Chocolate Cake

My son came with a pretty card from the school for the Father's day (he got a card for Mother's day too but I could not bake anything special since we were on our trip to Vegas during that weekend) and that lifted my spirits to make a cake for my family on the occasion of Father's day..I have been (for a while) thinking about baking a chocolate cake. H and myself are fond of chocolate cakes and it looks my son is also following the suit. If you ask him what he wants for his birthday he will say "brown cake" and I am guessing that he is looking for a chocolate cake! When I had this cake it reminded me of my child hood days..I remember baking this cake along with my perima in an oven not the conventional one .."we used to keep the biscuit box on top of the stove and bake"...it tasted the same way....I used to bake it along with her and used to enjoy decorating it with an icing cone...good old days! Thank Goodness I baked it on Friday itself....will you believe it we were without power for almost a day (from Friday evening to Saturday evening) due to severe thunderstorms ...my friends have experienced it earlier....but this was my very first time in the US without power for a day!!..in India it is not that difficult to manage without power but here....everything comes to a grinding halt...you can't even make a cup of coffee without power (wish I had a stove that runs on gas rather than coil!)...back home my folks were hardly able to believe it and asked me questions like..where on earth are you living??,,is it the US and they were proudly saying in Chennai they hardly have power cut these days....All I could think was - "glad I baked it on Friday afternoon"

So with my spirits lifted high I open my beloved perima's notes in search for a chocolate cake and found one.
I made some modifications to it though!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup maida

1/2 tsp Baking Powder,
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 stick butter at room temperature
1/2 cup refined oil
1/2 cup Soda
1/2 Cup Water
1 1/2 cup Sugar (you may add little bit more if you have a sweet tooth)
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
Macadamia nuts roasted and cut into small pieces- sprinkle on top

Sieve Maida, Baking powder, Cocoa Powder and Baking Soda together into a bowl.
Add the butter and refined oil (I use canola).
Mix it well. Add the sugar and mix it well.
I got the tip of using soda from the food network and other food related shows. So I used that too.
Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence and again mix it well.
Pre-heat the oven upto 350 Degree.
Grease the pan and pour the mixture. Top it with macadamia nuts.
Bake it for about 30 minutes or until the fork comes clean!
Enjoy!

When my son got up from his nap he was so happy to cut the cake and he had a piece of it too...Happy Father's day...yesterday we had been invited to one of our friend's son's birthday in Chicago and we had a whale of time ..my son enjoyed the party as well as painting the fish at "color me mine" the place where the party was hosted!