The BEST chocolate cake

 Since I started a home bakery, I have become the resident cake maker for my family. I love this because it gives me some amazing opportunities to try new flavors and practice decorating techniques without as much pressure. So, when I got asked to make my mother-in-law's birthday cake, I jumped to the occasion. It was supposed to be a surprise cake so she couldn't request a flavor herself and we had to guess what she would like best. We knew she loved chocolate so we decided to play it safe and serve a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Now, I realize that I just called chocolate cake playing it safe, but since it is such a popular and universal flavor there was almost more pressure on me to make the best cake ever!

    I started by researching chocolate cake recipes to find out the necessary components to the best chocolate cakes. I always sour cream to my cakes to hold moisture, over mixing is one of the cardinal sins when it comes to baking, and sifting the dry ingredients is very important to making a fluffy cake. However, I knew all of this already. I knew there had to be something special to my cake so I kept looking. 

    That is when I remembered my mom telling me that you should always add coffee to anything chocolate flavored. Coffee can help cut the sweetness and really bring out the the chocolate flavors. I decided to take it up a notch and not only use coffee but freshly brewed espresso to achieve the strong coffee effects without risking adding too much liquid to my batter. 

    With a recipe written to the best of my abilities, I got to baking. I started by mixing together my sugar, oil, eggs, milk, salt, and sour cream. Once those were combined, I added in my vanilla and espresso. Into a sifter I added in my flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and baking powder. I sifted all of my dry into my wet and then used a rubber spatula to mix everything together until it was just barely combined. It was a little lumpy still when I poured it into my pans but that is exactly the way it is supposed to be. I then baked my cake until it didn't jiggle when I shook and there wasn't any raw batter on my toothpick when I stuck it in the middle. I let my cake cool before I removed it from the cake pans and assembled. 

    The frosting for this cake is made in two parts, the ganache and the buttercream. The ganache part I like to start the day before so that it is able to really set up. This results in a better final texture. I make my ganache by heating cream to a simmer then pouring it over semi-sweet chocolate and covering for five minutes. After the five minutes is over I mix my cream and chocolate together until there are no more chocolate chunks. I like to add in just a little bit of salt at this point and mix it until it is dissolved but that is totally optional. I finish my ganache by covering it with plastic wrap, and letting it set in the refrigerator overnight. The if your ganache isn't set enough when you assemble your frosting, then your finished frosting will be too goopy. 

    While my cake is cooling I take out my set ganache and move on to step two of my frosting. I add soft butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and cocoa powder. Using my stand mixer, I whisk everything together until it is smooth. Then I add in my set ganache and whisk it together until it is stiff. Be careful to not over mix everything because that can make it all go flat and soupy. if you feel it getting soupy you can let it set up a bit in the refrigerator and even add some powdered sugar if absolutely necessary. 

    After my cake is cool, and my frosting is done, I start to assemble my cake. I first place my first layer and put a hearty amount of the chocolate ganache buttercream in the middle, I also spread mini chocolate chips around the entire thing but that is totally optional. You could also fill your cake with strawberries, cherries caramel, or anything else that you think sounds tasty. Then I put the second cake on top and made sure it was as centered as possible. I took my frosting and spread a thin layer around the entire cake. This is called a crumb coat. It is meant to seal all your crumbs in your cake and make sure there aren't as many crumbs in your frosting. I put everything in the fridge to let the crumb coat set up. I don't put my frosting in the fridge though because it can set too much. If it does you can whisk it more before you use it again. Check out the chocolate ganache buttercream recipe here!

    After letting it sit in the fridge for about 20-30 minutes, I pull my cake out of the fridge and finish frosting it. I also used a few more mini chocolate chips to the top for a little more texture and decoration along with a few piped decorations around the top. The decorations were super simple and super easy to do while still looking elegant. 

    This cake keeps in the refrigerator for up to a week and out at room temperature for a day or two although the longer it is left out the staler it can get. The sponge of this cake is super light and fluffy but moist at the same time while the frosting is super rich and smooth, creating an amazing balance of light and rich. From now on, this is the only chocolate cake I will be making for any event. You can change the filling however you want and make this cake your own!

 What did you think of this recipe? Questions? Comments? Concerns?