Classic Chocolate Cake

While I've been baking for a while now, I've only recently began trying to collect recipes for all my favorite classics like red velvet cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate cake. I nailed the red velvet cupcakes and I am so happy with the recipe I've found, but then it was time to find a great recipe for the ultimate, decadent classic chocolate cake. I've made chocolate cake from scratch multiple times before (such as here and here) but wasn't too satisfied with either of their results.


What to do now? This led me to the ultimate search on Pinterest, Williams-Sonoma, Food Network and pretty much all over the internet. I stumbled came upon this recipe for Black Magic Cake that looked and sounded so rich and perfectly chocolate-y that I had to give it a shot. I mean seriously, look at the picture of the cake and tell me that's not a winner...

- crazy conversions from a 2 layer recipe to 3 -

And a good chocolate cake neeeeds a good chocolate buttercream frosting to complement it, so when I saw this Chocolate Buttercream Frosting that had great reviews and very clear instructions I decided to give it a go. There's no way of knowing how a recipe is going to turn out until you actually go out there and try it (unless it has a cup of salt -- NEVER go there...) so all of this baking, creating, and messing around in the kitchen is all for testing and experimentation -- a project my sweet tooth surely approves of!

- overwhelming sticks of butter -

TADA!!!

- time to dig in -

The cake came out perfectly with the smooth, rich chocolate taste I had been hoping to get. The buttercream frosting was also extremely easy to whip up and had a soft, light brown color as pictured that provided a beautiful contrast against the strikingly black cake. Served with a tall glass of cold milk, this classic chocolate cake is the ultimate treat for any celebration or midnight snack.