Eat Some Wear Some
This chocolate cake is quite possibly my favorite thing in the whole world but to be honest I almost never actually make it – as the birthday cake of choice in my family, my mom is the one who has been making 5 of these a year since before I can remember – that would be a nice round 29 cakes just for yours truly (well actually she made me 3 cakes this year but who’s counting).




This is my sister (left) and me with my Grandpa clearly excited about the cake. Its been around a while.
Decadent Chocolate Cake
Serves:
1 9" cake
Ingredients
1 cup boiling water
66g/9tbl cocoa powder or 3 oz unsweetened chocolate*
8 tbls unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
3 egg whites
1 tsp baking soda
½ cup dairy sour cream
2 cups less 2 tbls all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate Frosting:
3 tbl unsalted butter
1¼ cups semi sweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
4 cups (1lb) confectioners sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
*the original recipe was for unsweetened baking chocolate but we recently started using cocoa powder out of necessity and there is now a big debate over which is better. the cocoa powder makes a slightly more moist richer cake but both are delicious so use what you have!
Preparation
Preheat the oven to 350° F, then grease and flour two 9” cake pans.
In a large bowl, combine butter and cocoa powder or unsweetened chocolate, pour in 1 cup boiling water and whisk or, if using baking chocolate, let stand until melted. Whisk in vanilla and sugar then the egg yolks, one at a time, blending well after each.
Mix baking soda and sour cream together and whisk into chocolate mixture.
Sift flour and baking powder together and add to batter. With a spatula, mix until just combined.
With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold a quarter of the whites into batter, then gently add the remainder.
Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 40 to 50 minutes (rotating halfway through) or until edges have pulled away from sides. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, unmold and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
For the Frosting:
Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan over low heat and whisk until smooth.
Frost the first layer, just on the top. Place the second layer on top of the first and pour frosting over top, push over the edge to frost the sides.