Devil's Food Cake ~ Baked Sunday Mornings

I know I'm a few days late, but I really wanted to try this cake and I have lots of good excuses for my late-ness.  Sick kids ALL month ranks high on my excuse list.  The diseases never seemed to end ... just rotating from one kid to another ... and always different symptoms & problems.  After a busy weekend, my plan was to bake the cake Sunday afternoon, but, of course, I woke up Sunday morning feeling crummy & I had a terrible sore throat, so I went back to bed.  When I finally felt like getting up, violin practicing had to take priority over baking.  Monday I still wasn't feeling great, so Tuesday was my day for some chocolate baking & good-ness.

Last week when I was caring for sick kiddies, my mom brought me over a slice of the cake that she had made, so I knew before I started that there were some things that I wanted to tweak a little bit.  The cake was fairly easy & quick to make.  I used Trader Joe's bittersweet chocolate instead of the dark chocolate because I wanted my cake to be more chocolaty.  I wasn't in the mood to break out an expensive cocoa powder, so I just used Hershey's Dark Cocoa Powder in my cake.  I also omitted the coffee.  I poured some vanilla extract (probably a couple tablespoons) into a glass measuring cup and then filled it the rest of the way with water & then heated my vanilla/water concoction in the microwave to make it hot.

When it came time for frosting, I knew I did not want to make the *sugary* angel frosting.  I do not, DO NOT like sweet frosting with my chocolate cakes.  I wanted something that complimented the cake and it had to be chocolate.  I considered a chocolate ganache, but went with a chocolate-sour cream frosting ...basically the same as ganache but instead of heavy cream, I use sour cream, so it has more of a tangy flavor and it sets-up a bit better.  I smeared my chocolate frosting between the layers of the cake and then all over the outside.  Turkey was anxious to help put some strawberries on top of the cake.

We served our cake with a small scoop of ice cream, but afterwards wished that I had X-ed the ice cream ... totally unnecessary and almost distracting.  The texture and flavor of the cake was excellent and this would be a great go-to recipe for a chocolate cake.  Personally, I prefer something even darker, richer, and more dense, but not everyone likes my super-rich chocolate stuff, so this recipe would be more of a crowd pleaser.  I'd definitely go with berries again and maybe even some mini chocolate chips mixed in with my batter. 

Hubby took a big chunk of cake to work to share with all the ladies there, so we'll see what they say about the cake.  And then I ate some more cake for breakfast ... couldn't help it!