Death by Chocolate Cake

I made a chocolate cake last night.  It was just one of those things.  I began craving it and I wouldn't rest easy until a chocolate cake was in my house.  I don't buy boxed cakes, cookies, etc.  Aside from the fact they're packed with God only knows what, they're way too easy to make and I have no will when it comes to sweets.  So the harder it is to make something sweet, or better yet find the time since I'm usually only making dinner/lunch fare, the better. 

But like I said, it had to happen.  So here's how it all went down.

You'll need:
Cake:
1 1/2 cups of semi sweet chocolate chips OR 12 semi sweet chocolate squares (I use Baker's One)
1/2 cup of butter softened
1 (16oz) package of brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 cups of all purpose flour (I've used whole wheat before and it totally worked out)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8oz of sour cream
1 cup of hot water
2tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350.  Melt the chocolate in either the microwave or on the stove until nice and smooth. 

In a mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until well blended.  Add your eggs one at a time, mixing well after each egg.  Add melted chocolate and beat until just blended.

In another bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.  Mix the dry ingredients together so they're well incorporated.  Then add this to your chocolate mix.  Mix on medium.  Add sour cream, mix well until blended.  Mix in your water until well blended.  Stir in the vanilla.

Butter and flour two 9 inch cake pans.  Spoon the batter into the pans and bake for approximately 35-45 minutes.  When they're done, pop them out of the pans and cool on wire racks.

Frosting and I don't always see eye to eye.  I can make the exact same recipe and have it turn out to thick sometimes, then other times its too thin.  So just work with it a little to get it to the consistency you like it to be.

Frosting:
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup of milk
1 (16oz) package of powdered sugar
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa ( I use a little more, because I like it REALLY chocolately)
1 tsp of vanilla or almond extract

Melt butter in a saucepan on the stove with the milk.  In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, cocoa and extract.  When the butter is melted, add this to your dry ingredient bowl.  I will use my whisk attachment on my mixer for this and it tends to break up the sugar.  If the frosting is too thick you can add little splashes of milk to get it thinner and then add powdered sugar if its too thin.  Helpful hint here is: the longer the frosting sits, the firmer it becomes.  This recipe should make plenty of frosting for a double layer cake.  I usually have extra left over.

Frost your cake after the cakes have cooled and have lots of milk on  hand to wash it down with :)