Birthday Cake #2

Let me tell you about my chocolate filled day. I know you are all too eager to sit around and read about it so, I'll make it as short and overly sweet as possible. Just as I had finished cleaning up the house my husband walks in and informs me that we were heading to a friend's house later since tomorrow was his buddy's birthday. Oh my goodness! I just knew a cake was in order. I made sure to drop my husband off at work after his lunch was over, made my stop at the store and went to town for a good 4 hours. I must say, I was impressed with my last cake, but this my friends, this was an accomplishment if I do say so myself. You'd have to really love chocolate to be able to tackle an entire slice of this cake and believe me, I say that after watching three large soldiers make their attempt at sharing one slice. Needless to say, they failed. Now, I'm not quite sure if they failed because of how much cake it was, it was so incredibly chocolatey, or because they all may or may not have had a few beers and dinner before the cake was sliced. Either way, I know it was not because it was bad. It made my whole house smell of chocolatey goodness and was I jealous to watch them eat it? Of course.

I want to talk about how 1/2 way through making my frosting my hand mixer broke. I think it's a sign from the cooking Gods above that I must need that Kitchen Aide stand mixer I've been wanting so badly. The only issue was that I still needed to whip my frosting for an additional 6 minutes. I managed to whip it up the best I could without my mixer, I think it still turned out pretty close to how it was supposed to, just not as fluffy as it should have been. I started sending my husband angry text messages about how the stupid mixer broke and then called my dad and ranted about how the stupid mixer just stopped and then you know what he said? 'Why don't you use an electric drill with a mixer attachment?'. I tried, I failed. It didn't work.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
2 boxes Devil's Food Cake mix (that's right, I used box cake mix and you'd never know!)
(this called for a total of 6 eggs, 2 2/3 cups oil, and some water)
1 cup mini chocolate chips
**2 bags of mini chocolate chips (for the sides)

For the frosting:
1 stick unsalted butter (softened)
2 pkg cream cheese (room temperature)
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa


Directions:

For the frosting:
Cream the butter and cream cheese together for 5 minutes with a mixer. While this is mixing, soft the cocoa and powdered sugar together. I sifted mine twice to ensure they were well blended. Mix 1/2 of cocoa mix into cream cheese mixture and slowly combine with mixer. Add remaining cocoa mix slowly and allow frosting to whip for 6 minutes. It should be light and fluffy.

For the cake:
Prepare batter as direction on box, once mixed, add 1/2 cup chocolate chips per batch. I use two 8 inch rounds that have been greased lightly with butter. Bake according to package. When cooked, remove from oven and allow cakes to cool for 5 minutes on cooling rack. Take a spatula and gently slide it between the edge of the cake and the pan. Place hand gently on top of cake and flip over. If it doesn't come out on your hand, tap around on the bottom of the pan until it falls loose. Place top down on rack until completely cool. Repeat with next batch. When all 4 rounds are completely cool, cut the top of the cake off to make an even and level top. Place first layer on plate (I use wax paper underneath to pull out later for a cleaner look after frosting). Frost top of cake, stack next layer, frost, repeat. Once all of your layers are stacked and frosted on top, frost the sides of the cake. Take handfulls of the mini chocolate chips and press them to the sides of the frosted cake. Once the entire cake (excluding the top) are covered, take a clean spatula and press the chocolate chips evenly into the frosting. This will help them from falling off. Melt 1/2 cup of extra chocolate chips to drizzle chocolate on the top (if desired).



Mmm.