Infamous Chocolate Cake

I love making cakes.  And with my resolution to make my food prettier, it gives me an excuse to make cakes... right?  A friend was throwing a Valentine's Day party so one of my infamous chocolate cakes seemed perfect.  I have never found a better recipe for chocolate cake, but this thing would probably give you a heart attack if you ate the whole thing.  I made a raspberry ganache and raspberry buttercream frosting for decoration.  The biggest problem I ran into was my frosting was too soft.  It sort of ran down the sides while I was trying to decorate.  The fridge became my best friend though, and I eventually got it to go my way.  I also melted chocolate, let it cool on a cookie sheet, then cut it into pieces so it looked like broken glass or mosaic tiles and assembled them on the outside of the cake. 

I stole this from Meg's blog cause she has better photos of the cake than I do.

Due to popular demand!  Here is my recipe for chocolate cake.  It is very bad for you, but it is the best I've ever had! 

1 box Devil's Food Cake Mix

2 small or 1 big package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, vegetable oil, eggs, and warm water.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Pour into well greased pan.

3. Bake for about 45 minutes, but I would check continually on it after 30 minutes to make sure it doesn't overcook.  A toothpick inserted will come out clean.

4.  Cool and decorate!

I've made this as a bundt cake too, which you would cook for 50-55 minutes.  This was for my husband's birthday a few years ago, and it ended up being the same night be proposed!  I covered this one in a dark chocolate ganache and white chocolate covered strawberries.

For the Valentine's Day cake, I made a raspberry ganache and icing.  They turned out too soft, but if you add  more powdered sugar or less jam it should turn out better.

Raspberry Icing

1 cup butter, at room temperature

6 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Directions

1. Cream butter and jam, about 2 minutes.

2. Sift in powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

3. Tint with icing color if desired, otherwise it will be light pink due to the jam.

I tried out some more new things from my cake decorating kit too.  It's a cake strip that you put around the outside of the pan and it makes your cake even!  I don't know how it does it, but your cake won't have that big bump on top anymore!