I recently made this cake for a birthday.  In my family there is nothing but chocolate cake – no white cakes, no yellow cakes, no lemon or strawberry or marble – only chocolate so I’ve tried just about every chocolate cake recipe there is.  I personally like to make the chocolate cake with a rasberry jam filling but this particular birthday boy has a “no fruit” with his cake rule so it is all chocolate.  It looks really impressive, and if you wanted to you could even pour a layer of chocolate glaze over the top.  This cake is almost like a brownie, a little chewy on the outside but incredibly moist on the inside and one slice can put you into a chocolate coma!  This time, I was in a hurry and didn’t have enough of the same size spring form pans so I used three different sizes and only frosted the top layer, which actually made it look kind of cool.  The only problem was by using some smaller pans I over filled and had quite an oven mess to clean up – fortunately it didn’t hurt the cake a bit though!   

Amazing Six Layer Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache Icing   

                      Cake   

3         cup    All-purpose flour   

4 ½     tsp      Baking soda   

3         tsp      Salt   

2 1/4   cup    Light brown sugar; packed   

2 1/4   cup    White sugar   

1½      cup    Salted butter; softened   

3/4      cup    Unsweetened cocoa powder   

3/4      cup    Boiling water   

6                    large Eggs; beaten   

3         tsp      Pure vanilla extract   

3         cup    Buttermilk   

                      ICING   

2         lbs      Good Quality Bittersweet Chocolate   

2         cups   Heavy (whipping) cream   

1         cup    butter   

Procedure   

CAKE   

1   Preheat oven to 350.   

2   Grease and flour 3  8- or 9- inch spring form pans.  If you don’t have spring form, you can use regular cake pans but butter and flour really well as this is a really moist (sticky) cake.   

3   In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk and set aside.   

4   In large bowl combine sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add butter and beat to form a grainy paste.   

5   In small bowl combine cocoa powder and boiling water, and stir until smooth.   

6   Add cocoa mixture, eggs and vanilla to butter and sugar; blend well.   

7   Alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the batter. Blend at low speed just until combined – it will look almost curdled but don’t worry, it is supposed to be like that.  Pour into prepared pans.  DO NOT OVERFILL THE PANS!  It will look kind of skimpy but while baking they rise up a lot and will overflow – as they continue baking they shrink back down and turn out very dense and moist with an almost chewy, brownie like outside with a really soft inside.   

8   Bake 25-35 minutes or until a knife inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leaving the cake in the pan, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate to make slicing easier.   

9   After the cakes have cooled, Slice each into two layers and ice with the ganache.   

CHOCOLATE GANACHE   

1   Place the chopped chocolate in a large stainless steel bowl.   

2   In a large, high sided saucepan or large bowl in the microwave, heat cream and butter stirring frequently, until it just starts to boil. Immediately remove from heat and pour over chopped chocolate   

3   Stir until chocolate is completely melted and mixture is smooth. Cool completely and then, using the whisk attachment beat until light, fluffy and spreading consistency.  Once frosted, store the cake in the refrigerator.