Unbelievable Chocolate Cake

If you read this blog regularly, you know that I'm not much of a baker (the fact that things can go terribly wrong if you add too much of something terrifies me and isn't good eats). It's safe to say that when I need cakes made I turn to my girl Betty Crocker for assistance. That's why this post is such a surprise, even to me! This is how it started...

I was surfing the net (yeah I just said that) and saw I picture of chocolate cake so I decided to make it. Literally, that's all that happened. The website that started this chocolate cake obsession was Foodess- I think I need to send her a thank you card... and a Christmas gift, and perhaps my first born. I actually was looking at another one of her recipes first and saw the thumbnail of the cake titled "Moist Chocolate Cake" on the side. Sold. Without thinking about it, I wrote down the recipe, turned off the television, went to the store, came home and started making that exact chocolate cake recipe. The funny thing is that even as I took pictures I didn't plan on blogging about this because I assumed it wouldn't turn out - boy was I wrong. How could I not share this with my fellow foodies??

What You'll Need:

2 C Sugar

1 3/4 C Flour

3/4 C Cocoa (Hershey's Dark Blend)

1 1/2 tsp Baking powder

1 1/2 tsp Baking soda

1 tsp Salt

2 eggs

1 C Buttermilk

1/2 C Unsalted butter (melted)

1 Tbl Vanilla extract

1 C Hot coffee

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and start your coffee so you won't have to wait for the last minute.

Mix your sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Use wisk to make sure everything is fully mixed. I recommend buying a brand new thing of cocoa powder even if you have some because you'll end up using a lot of it, especially if you make your own frosting too (like I did - scroll down).

As your fellow foodie, I just feel like I should warn how much mess the cocoa makes. I mean I literally found it all over my kitchen - and it's the hardest thing to clean. So I warn you, be careful when you're measuring it. Please.

Add your eggs, buttermilk, butter, and vanilla to the bowl of dry ingredients. Use your wisk to mix everything a little so when you use your mixer, flour won't go everywhere. With a hand mixer or a standing mixer, mix your ingredients on medium speed for two minutes, or until everything is fully blended. 

By now your coffee should be done. Pour one cup and pour it in your bowl. I've seen recipes before that call for coffee and I've always ignored them. I will never do that again. If you really don't want to use coffee you can use 1 cup of boiling water, but I suggest trying the coffee first.

Grease your pans with Pam or butter, but make sure you grease it well. Pour the mix evenly into two 9" round pans. I don't have any 9" round pans and didn't feel like buying any so I poured mine into two 8" x 8" square pans. I'm sure this is against some baking rule but I'm not a baker, so I know no such rule. Bake these babies for 30 minutes, insert a toothpick into both and make sure they come out clean.

When they're done take them out and let them cool on a rack. This new, fabulous baker had some issues with the cake sticking to the pan when I flipped it onto the rack. With the mess of cocoa still around me, chocolate batter on my clothes, my hair in a bun I don't remember putting up and the fact that I was still rocking this cake - like hell I was going to let a little sticking mess up my cake now! Of course this just meant I had to make my own frosting to cover of the mess...

So I'll let you in on how this went...

Frosting

What You'll Need:

1/2 C Softened unsalted butter

2/3 C Cocoa powder

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Mix all of your ingredients in a bowl. Use a spoon to mash the butter so it isn't clumpy and to (slowly) blend with the cocoa. I used my the wisk-looking attachment for my hand mixer to whip my ingredients. Guess what - I've never made my one frosting before. And guess what - I probably never will again. Not because it wasn't interesting but because I wasn't sure how sweet it was going to be and Betty Crocker pretty much seems to have her frosting down. BUT I do think the one I made really goes with this cake.

Everything is going to be really clumpy so add milk until you get the consistency you want. Add more powdered sugar for more sweetness.

When you're cake is completely cool start frosting your cake. Mine was not completely cool - but keep in mind I didn't find the recipe until like 8:00 at night so I didn't really feel like waiting a lot longer. Put one layer on a plate or cake platter (I don't own anything like that so I used a cookie sheet, how ironic) and things turned out delicious, not beautiful, but delicious. Put one layer of cake down, some frosting, the other layer of cake, and frost the rest of the cake. I know my frosting isn't pretty but it's so good, I just kept adding it. 

Now for the pretty pictures of what we had. I think I should say that Mike was skeptical over me baking a cake from scratch and hearing there was coffee in it. Now, well he eats a piece every few hours, it's that good. Mike is eating it as I type (I believe it's the 4th piece today *smiles*). I can't blame him. This is the moistest cake I've ever had in my life. It's rich, decadent, and almost fudgy. I'd love to know what anyone else thinks, or if anyone else tries this! I hope you find it as fabulous as we do!