recipe: absolute best chocolate cake on the planet, and you can quote me on that

This is the only photo I snapped of the BEST chocolate cake that I have ever made. Nathan had his 26th birthday last weekend, so I decided to make him a homemade cake. I must have lucked out, because I found this recipe really fast on the food network website. I made the actual cake from this recipe, and used the chocolate frosting from this recipe.

The recipe is as follows:

Cake:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup boiling water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9-inch cake pans by rubbing with butter, sprinkling with flour and tapping out extra. In a large bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix together with a wooden spoon then set aside. In small bowl combine eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat well with hand mixer. Slowly add boiling water and mix. Add wet ingredients to flour mixture and fold and stir until smooth. Pour batter into pans, dividing evenly. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Remove cake from pans and cool on racks.


Frosting: (I left the coffee out, because the hubster is not a coffee fan)

• 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heat-proof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir until just melted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners' sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don't whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Please believe me, this cake is so easy to make... and MOIST! Oh My Goodness!

Everyone loved it. Word got out about the cake, and neighbors started coming over for a slice....... okay, that last part did not happen. But even my Mother-in-Law liked it.

Can we all say WOW and YAY to in-laws liking their kid's cooking!?

-Stacie