First time Baking a cake!

I feel that no matter how old we grow, birthdays are always going to be special. For me it is a day of celebration and just being the kid we used to be. And I am eternally excited not only on my birthday - but for birthdays for my entire family!
After all, it gives me the occasion to celebrate and also indulge in a culinary experiment which I avoid otherwise (I am not an ardent cook, at least not at present)!

I make it a point to make birthdays special by being creative each time to celebrate the day. However this time, on Piyush's birthday, my routine with my toddler somehow managed to keep me busy until the last moment to let me try something unique. And here I woken on the day before with no clue how to make it memorable on the day. I frantically sought help from friends and liked the idea of baking a Birthday cake for him. I have never done that before and I thought it will be interesting to do try out something new than cooking some other dish. However cake is laden with sweetness and I was also worried about his every growing waistline!

Then it dawned upon me that I could use sugar substitute and yet make the cake delicious and visually delightful.

Now the time was for searching for a nice recipe which I could tweak. I found few and decided to mix and match - after all whats the fun without little experiment!

Here is the recipe as I recall :) :

Ingredients:

1 cup Maida
1/2 tsp Baking powder
3 tbsp Cocoa powder
6 tbsp Sugarfree Natura
Little olive oil
A dash of lime juice
1/2 tbsp Vanilla extract

Decoration Purpose:
Chocolate/white chips
Slices of Kiwi Fruit

Steps:

Take a glass microwave flat bowl. I had a Borosil rectangle one which I used for this.
grease the dish with oil.
seive Maida, cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, baking soda in a plate. use good quality cocoa powder.
in another pan or bowl, take sugarfree powder. Add 1 cup cold water and stir so that it dissolves.
add ¼ cup oil and 1 tbsp lime juice. stir briskly so that everything is mixed well.
now add vanilla extract or powder.
add the sieved dry ingredients to the wet mixture. mix everything well.
there should be no lumps in the cake batter which should not be thick but thin.
pour the cake batter in the prepared borosil bowl.
Microwave for 200 degrees celsius/392 degrees fahrenhiet for 35 to 40 mins. since temperatures vary for Microwaves, do keep a check.
Once done, check the cake with a tooth pick. the tooth pick should come out clean. if the tooth pick is sticky, then place the cake back in the oven and continue to bake for some more minutes.
When cake becomes warm or cools down, unmould and place it on a wired rack.
 
Since I did not have much time left for frosting the cake, I decorated the surface Chocolate/white chips and surrounded the cake with kiwi fruits slices.

And this is how my cake looked:

Looks yummy right. Not only did it look great, it really impressed all our guests at the party for its yummilicious taste. Even I was surprised how could my first attempt at baking a cake could be so sinfully delicious! But here it was and my husband couldn't stop complimenting me about how proud he was feeling to have me as his wife. Mission Accomplished :P

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Here are the recipes that I referred to as help:
http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/basic-eggless-chocolate-cake-recipe/
http://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/recipe/Sugar-Free-Chocolate-Cake-KhaanaKhazana.html