Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Thank you Livio for all of your help and being my favorite minion ever!

So it was my mom's birthday a couple weeks ago and my boyfriend Livio was in town, and we decided to make something super special for my mom. And well hey, what's more special than a triple layer cake?

Not many things... perhaps new macbooks or maybe a new mustang but those are on a different level of special. But trust me, if you make someone a triple layer cake for their birthday, they will feel special and that is something money can't buy. To top it all off, it's chocolate, and between the layers is chocolate ganache. And Livio thought it was surprisingly simple...and he probably has never baked a cake in his life. So there ya go I think next time you want to make someone a cake for their birthday, forego the box mix and try this one!

Triple Layer Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

For cake layers

3 oz fine-quality semisweet chocolate (sharffen berger or even ghirardeli work great!)

1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee

3 cups sugar

2 1/2 all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch-process)

2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups well-shaken buttermilk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

For ganache frosting and filling

1 lb fine-quality semisweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1/2 stick (1/4 cup butter-unsalted)

To make the layers: (you'll need 3 8-10 inch round cake pans)

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease cake pans. Line the bottoms with rounds of parchment paper and grease the papers as well.

2. Finely chop the chocolate and in a bowl combine it with hot coffee. Let mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

3. Into a large bowl sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In other large bowl with an electric mixer beat eggs until thicken slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a standing mixer or 5 minutes with a hand-held electric beater). Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla, and melted chocolate mixture to eggs, beating until well combined. Add the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined well.

4. Divide batter betwen pans and bake in middle of oven until a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about an hour to an hour and 10 minutes.

5. Cool the layers completely in the pans on racks. Run a thin knife around edges of pans and invert layers onto the racks. Carefully remove the parchment paper from the bottoms and cool layers completely for several hours, or even up to a day ahead (but wrap them over night to keep them moist and at room temperature).

To make the frosting:

1. finely chop chocolate. In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan bring cream, sugar and corn syrup to a low simmer over moderately low heat, whisking just until sugar is dissolved. Remove pan immediately as to not cook the cream and add the chocolate, whisking until chocolate is melted. Cut butter into pieces and add to frosting, whisking until smooth.

2. Transfer frosting to a bowl and cool, stirring occasionally, until spreadable (the better quality the chocolate the easier this is actually).

3. Spread frosting between cake layers and over top and sides. Cake keeps for about 3 days very well and probably can stretch even up to 5. bring the cake to room temp before serving. Oh and I added white pearl sprinkles just around the top near the edge because I thought it was beautiful :-).