Birthday Chocolate Cake

Directions

• Cake
• Grease three 9 inch round cake tins with butter. You can use a piece of paper towel to help evenly spread it out.
• Next pour in a small amount of cocoa powder or flour. This is going to help ensure the cake can be easily removed after baking. Gently tap and swirl the pan to evenly coat the bottom and sides with the powder. When you’re done, gently tap out the excess into the cocoa powder you’ll use for the cake.
• Set the pans aside and in a large bowl combine 3 cups of all-purpose flour with granulated sugar, more cocoa powder ( you’re going to need a lot for this cake), baking soda, baking powder, salt and to add a little sophistication, a 1/4 tsp of ground cardamon. You only need a little bit of cardamon to elevate the flavour of the cake.
• Once all the dry ingredients are well combined, it’s time to add the wet starting with 4 large eggs.
• Next pour in 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk.
• Now add warm water, half a cup of neutral oil to keep the cake moist and finally 2 tsp of vanilla extract.
• Use an electric mixer or whisk to combine everything but be careful not to over mix! You want the ingredients to be just combined.
• Divide the batter evenly between the 3 prepared cake pans. Each will take about 3 cups of batter to fill then bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for
  30-35 minutes.
• When they’re done, allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes then you can use a knife to gently separate from the pan and invert onto a cooling rack.
• The cakes now need to cool completely before you can frost them.
• Frosting
• Add 1 1/2 cups of very soft butter followed by 8 oz of softened cream cheese to a large bowl.
• Use an electric mixer to whip the butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy.
• Next add more cocoa powder (told you you’d need a lot) and whip again until combined.
• To make it sweet add icing sugar, you’ll need a lot of this too, about 7-8 cups added gradually and mixing in between until it has the right flavour and consistency.
• Add about 1/3 of the frosting to a piping bag and carefully pipe a circle around the edge of one of your cakes.
• Now you have a barrier for when you add a large scoop of frosting to the centre and use a spatula to evenly spread it out.
• It does’n’t need to look pretty, this is going to be the middle of the cake anyway.
• Repeat this with the other two cakes until you have a total of 3 layers of frosted cake.
• Scrape the remaining frosting around the edge of your cake trying to keep as even a layer as possible.
• You could serve it now but to add a little decorative flair you can use the back of a spoon to press down then quickly pull up to create these little curls all over the top and sides. This cake is seriously so decadent and moist, you’ve got to try it.