Chocolate Chocolate Bday Cake - for Emi!

I love making bday cakes. Seriously, it’s delivered on fire with a song, and enjoyed by a group. Last night I made a cake for my friend/ co-worker Emi. The recipe was super easy and fun to make. I found the cake recipe on Bake Bree and only altered it a little bit.

Ingredients

Cake:

• *1 3/4 cups flour
  *2 cups sugar
  *3/4 cups cocoa
  *2 teaspoons baking soda
  *1 teaspoon baking powder
  *1 teaspoon salt
  *1 cup buttermilk
  *1/2 cup vegetable oil
  *2 eggs, room temperature
  *1 teaspoon vanilla
  *1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Chocolate Buttercream:

• *2 sticks of room temperature butter
  *3 cups confectioners sugar
  *1/2 cup cocoa
  *1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  *4-6 tablespoons heavy cream

Instructions:

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. 2. Prep two 9 inch bake pans (I use baking spray with flour and line pans with parchment paper)
3. 3. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Mix this mixture until combined. (It took me a bit to get the cocoa combined evenly)
4. 4. Combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. 
5. 5. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
6. 6. Pour in the hot coffee (it will look wet, but that’s okay)
7. 7. Pour evenly into two 9 inch pans
8. 8. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. (My oven is a little stronger in the back so I rotate about 20 minutes in)
9. 9. Let cool completely (about 30 minutes)

Frosting:

1. 1. Cream together the butter and sugar.  Gradually add the cocoa powder. (Seriously, or it will be all over you)
2. 2. Add just enough cream to get the consistency for spreading.  Add the vanilla.
3. 3. I found that I needed to play with the sugar/cream consistency and prefer my frosting a little bit more stiff
4. 4. Then I placed the bottom layer on the cake holder, and frosted it right there. I did the middle frosting, added the second cake. Then evenly frosted all the way round best I could.
5. 5. I put in the fridge while I made a second set of frosting (but no cocoa, so It would be white)
6. 6. Put the frosting in a plastic bag, cut the corner slightly and wrote on the cake!
7. 7. I always put the cakes I make in the fridge for 30 minutes before transporting it just to ensure it sets. (That might change after I go to pastry school…)

I brought the cake to the office and Emi cuts her cake:

And it’s basically gone: