CHOCOLATE Cake!!!

There's just something about chocolate that I love. It's perfect for a bad day...or even a good one of course. It's right up there for ice cream for me...definitely one of my favorite food groups :-)

During my snow day last week I decided to make a chocolate cake. I used to bake cakes a lot. I'm not really sure what happened but I haven't baked one in forever. I love baking, there's something peaceful about it...and cake batter is simply amazing! Josh doesn't really care for sweets much but he does love a good chocolate cake or brownies.

I got this recipe from this Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. This was one of the first cookbooks I bought & actually used.

The cake itself turned out kind of ugly this time. I'll blame it on the consistency of the icing. I ran out of powder sugar & there's not much I could do about it! It's still delicious.


Ingredients
3/4 c butter (room temp)
2 eggs (room temp)
2/3 c unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 c boiling water
2/3 c buttermilk
2 t vanilla
2 1/4 all purpose flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1/8 t salt
3/4 granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar

Frosting of choice (I made Chocolate Sour Cream frosting...Delicious!)

Directions
1. Grease & flour 2 9-inch cake pans & preheat oven to 350.

2. Whisk together cocoa powder & boiling water until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in buttermilk & vanilla.

3. Stir together dry ingredients & set aside.

4. Beat butter, add sugars until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beat until combined. Beat in 1/3 of flour mixture until just combined. Beat in 1/2 chocolate mixture. Beat in 1/2 remaining flour mixture, remaining chocolate mixture then remaining flour mixture until combined.

5. Divide batter between pans, bake 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes, remove from pan then cool completely on wire rack.

6. Trim cake down to even out (I love to snack on the cake top while I'm decorating & waiting on the cake to cool). I brushed the top of each layer of Mocha flavored Kahlua. It adds just a little bit of a mocha flavor (Great for Josh, & not too much of a coffee flavor for me).

7. To avoid cake crumbs in the frosting, brush off any crumbs then ice with a very thin layer of icing. Now ice over this.

I meant to take step by step pictures but I got ahead of myself. I'll try to remember next time.