The Chocolate Eyestravaganza

The gorgeous eyestravaganza

My brother's birthday theme was eyes. And his cake request was chocolate.

So I'm gonna call this cake the Chocolate Eyestravaganza.

Seriously. If you want a truly chocolate cake, this is for you.

The cake is no mere chocolate cake. It's an American Mud Cake. That means it tastes like a cross between a brownie and a cake. It's moist, it's chocolately, but that doesn't make it too rich.

The filling is whipped ganache. Whipped ganache, folks. It tastes like a cross between moose and a truffle, and it just melts on your tongue.

And the frosting is just regular ganache. (Hehe! As if any ganache is just run of the mill!)

Man, this cake was so fun!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (From Scratch!)

I have been meaning to try baking a cake from scratch for a little while and I finally did it! It was awesome! So, without further ado...

Ingredients:

• 2½ cups flour
• ½ cup cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup hot, strong coffee (I used some of Mom's chocolate coffee!)

The first step is to combine all of the dry ingredients (but not the sugar) in a bowl and set aside.

Next, cream all of the wet ingredients (but not the coffee) together with the sugar. 

Once they are creamed together, slowly add the dry ingredients.

When the dry ingredients are all incorporated in the mix and when your coffee is brewed, slowly pour the hot coffee in against the side of the bowl while mixing. This is kind of like pastry cream, you DO NOT want to cook the eggs! Also, this batter will be thin, so don't worry!

Pour the batter into two, 8" rounds (make sure you spray the pans) and bake at 350°F for 20 to 25 minutes. A knife should come out clean when inserted in the middle indicating that they are done.

Now you can finish this up however you'd like. This is what my brother and I did...

So, to do the cake justice, I added some raspberry jelly to the frosting and only frosted in between the two layers. 

And my brother makes an excellent Ganache, so, we drizzled ganache on top and down the sides until we agreed that it was perfect!

This recipe gets 5 out of 5 cat whiskers! It was simple and amazing. And it was sooooo moist. It's definitely better than a box mix and just as easy!

I found the recipe here.