The Making Of A 3 Layer Chocolate Cake For My Sister's 32nd Birthday

My sister turns the big "32" today…we're heading out to dinner to celebrate tonight and I offered to make her birthday cake - yay! Another reason to use some of my new kitchen gadgets and not be left with all the baked goods to eat.

I hunted and hunted for the "perfect" chocolate cake recipe. Over the weekend I tried one to make chocolate cupcakes…the batter was dry, dry, dry. This could have had something to do with over baking (over baking is my biggest challenge!), or it could have had something to do with it being a purely cocoa recipe, which used no melted chocolate. The yummiest chocolate things Patrick and I have made, have had melted chocolate added it - I think it really makes for a yummy, deep, rich, moist chocolate cake.

Anyhoo, of all places, I found this decadent chocolate cake recipe from one of my favourite cook books: Eat, Shrink & Be Merry It is called:

Died-and-Gone-to-Heaven Chocolate Layer Cake
Serves:16
Ingredients
3 cups granulated sugar
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 large eggs
1.5 cups buttermilk (regular milk works too)
1 cup strong brewed coffee, cooled
3/4 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
4 oz unsweetened chocolate squares, melted and cooled slightly

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Lghtly grease bottom and sides of three 9-inch (23-cm) round cake pans. Cut circles of wax paper or parchment paper to fit bottom of pans and place in pans. Lightly grease paper. Set pans aside.
Combine sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, beat eggs on high speed of electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until they have thickened slightly and are lemon coloured. Add buttermilk, coffee, oil, vanilla and melted chocolate. Mix on low speed until well blended.
Mmm….melty chocolate:

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix on medium speed until batter is smooth.

Patrick got a DSLR camera over the weekend…so I thought I try out the action setting - neat, huh?

Divide batter evenly among pans. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in centre of cakes comes out clean. Cool in pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans, peel off paper and cool completely before frosting.

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There is nothing "shrinking" about this recipe…it is so bad, yet so good!

I didn't go with the icing that went along with this recipe…it called for cream-cheese and A, I didn't have any and B, it would have to be refrigerated, which is a pain in my keister because I am leaving directly from work for her dinner.

Anyhoo, I made a couple of cupcakes with the extra batter to make sure the cake didn't taste like crap - as my last chocolate attempt did…and it was yum-o!

For the icing/filling I used the chocolate butter cream recipe from Betty Crocker:

1/2 cup butter
4.5 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp Vanilla



You'll have to wait for tomorrow's post for the big reveal…I've added one more element that I'm going to leave for a surprise for the Birthday Girl, just in case she reads this. I don't know why, but I think that the cake shouldn’t be seen by the person who's birthday it is - until the big reveal…but when it is revealed, I think it’s gonna be goooood!