Chocolatey Chocolate Sprinkles Cake

This chocolate cake was made for a family who had just welcomed a new baby. There is something so beautiful about a new life coming into this world. SOMEHOW, we humans have been given the responsibility and the privilege to care for another human being. To care for another life more than your very own, to raise them up in this kind of world we live in today, and to be a good role model for them to strive after. Children are gifts and blessings and even though I have yet to get married and start my own family, I have been honored to be reminded of the blessings of a new life. Congratulations Ja family!

Chocolate Cake

recipe from Ina Garten, Food Network

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans

2 cups sugar

3/4 cups good cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream:

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. Buttercream will be very soft.

To assemble:

Take one cake layer and place on cake pedestal with parchment paper strip lining the edges of the cake to catch any frosting spilling. Spread a thin layer of buttercream around until covered, then place the second cake layer on top. Taking most of the buttercream, (leave about 3/4 c in the bowl,) spread the buttercream all over the cake with an offset spatula until completely covered. It is easiest to start with all of the buttercream at the top then work your way down to the base of the cake. Once the entire cake is covered, remove the parchment strips. Using chocolate sprinkles (or any other you want), cover the entire top of the cake, leaving a 1 cm boarder. Take the reserved 3/4 c of remaining buttercream and place it in a piping bag fitted with whichever tip you would like (I used a Wilton 21). Pipe around the base and the top boarder.