Several years ago I had a surprise birthday party for my husband, and I needed to have the perfect birthday cake. I found a moist chocolate cake recipe that had a rich creamy chocolate icing - it stood up perfectly to that warm August afternoon. Since that day, this has been my "go-to" recipe when I needed to impress. From time to time I change the recipe and make it more my own depending on my mood or the situation.
We recently had friends over who got married several month ago. I turned to this cake to celebrate their marriage (it did not hurt that we had a 10 year old bottle of Dom Perignon as well...). I played with the recipe a bit to make it healthier, but let's be real - it is chocolate cake. When I eat chocolate cake I want sweet, dense, richness in ever single bite. So while the amount of white flour is significantly reduced here, and I swapped out whole milk for 1%, you will not miss a thing. This cake is sure to please your toughest critics. I doubled the recipe and made a drop-dead vanilla-rum buttercream filling for the layers. Really, I should have just served the cake for dinner with a few forks. I am still not sure why we even bothered with the main course...
Preheat your over to 350 Degrees. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans (or 4 if you double the recipe), and set them aside.
- 1 2/3 cups organic cane sugar
- 1-3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- 3/4 cup Cocoa powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup 1% milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup boiling water
Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, and then in the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Mix together. Once mixed, slowly add in the water. The mixture will be very thin - don't worry about it. It will all work out! Once everything is pulled together, divide the mixture between the cake pans, and gently tap the bottom of the pans on the counter to remove any air bubbles. Bake for about 29-33 minutes (until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean and the cake starts to pull away from the edges of the pan). Allow the cake to cool in the pan on racks for roughly 10 minutes, then invert the pans and let the cakes cool completely before frosting and assembling.
Frosting (for the outside) - again, this can be easily doubled...
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup Cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency.
Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.
Now for the middle of the cake - the layers - I made a vanilla-rum buttercream. I tend to be the worst kind of baker when it comes to things that I am comfortable with, which means that I do not really measure. However this means that there is a lot more room for innovation, invention, and fun as far as I am concerned. Here is what I did, more or less, and play around to make it your own...
Vanilla-Rum (for the layers)
2 cups vegetable shortening (I like the Organic Kind - Spectrum)
3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup dark rum (don't be cheap, use the good stuff!)
3 tbsp milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Put the shortening in a mixing bowl, and gradually add in the confectionary sugar until it is all incorporated. Add in the rum, milk, and vanilla. The frosting should be thick, but not too thick that you cannot spread it on the cake. If it is too thin, add more sugar. Once it is all mixed, allow to cool in the fridge for about a 30 minutes.
Place the first layer down on your cake stand, and then top it off with some of the vanilla-rum buttercream.
Place the second layer on top. If you have more than 2 layers, continue to fill and stack the cakes until all layers are done - do not put the vanilla-rum buttercream on the top layer.
Frost the cake with a thin- VERY THIN- layer of the chocolate frosting. This is a messy layer often called dirty icing. Let this layer sit and harder (best is to chill the cake in the fridge for an hour or two). Once the icing is hardened, place the final layer of icing on the cake and try to make it look pretty. Who cares if it is a mess anyway, it will still taste good!
