The Best Cake I've Ever Made. Ever.

Ugh, I'm 30 as of yesterday.  And our pipes froze yesterday morning which caused some kind of electrical short which means after two days we definitely have hot water but maybe not cold water (waiting on Reid to emerge from the basement where he has been working on it) and the water to the laundry room and basement bathroom is shut off.  

But, I do think I've made the very best cake of all times for my birthday.  It has a chocolate cake layer that uses just a little cocoa in the batter but makes up for it with lots of chopped up dark chocolate stirred in.  Then the frosting almost tastes like a whipped cream with body to it (which it basically is because I used two cups of heavy cream on top of the butter) with Almond Joy inspired add ins of toasted almonds and coconut.

 I served it with coffee ice cream.  And by serving it, I mean I cut a hunk of it for my father in law starting the day before my birthday and have since mostly just passed by and eaten a chunk of it with a fork every now and then.  Honestly, I'm kind of ready to just get on with the year and get down to serious 30's business.  Or at least take a hot shower. 

Kat’s 30^th Birthday Cake

Ingredients:

3 sticks organic butter, softened

2 ¼ cup organic evaporated cane juice

2/3 cup packed lt. brown sugar

4.5 cups all purpose, unbleached flour (King Arthur))

1 cup fine almond meal (Bob’s Red Mill)

1/3-1/2 cup cocoa powder (Hershey)

2 tbsp mocha powder or 2 tsp instant coffee (Ghirardelli or Nescafe)

1 Tbsp baking soda

1 Tbsp baking powder

4 tsp sea salt, fine

4 large +1 small pastured chicken eggs (or 9 small eggs)

2 Tbsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups nonfat Greek yogurt

2 ¼ cups raw buttermilk

17+ oz. finely chopped dark chocolate (Trader Joe’s pound plus bar); chop in food processor

Directions:  Whisk dry ingredients together. Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs and vanilla extract.  Alternate flour mixture, buttermilk and yogurt.  Stir in chopped chocolate.

Bake convection 310 degrees (or 350-360 conventional).  Makes 2 thick 9” layers plus 3 mini cake layers (6-7” foil pans).  Do not overbake-pull toothpick out just before clean.

Frosting:

5 sticks salted organic butter, cut into pieces

2 lbs. confectioners sugar

½ cup dark cocoa powder (Hershey’s special dark)

1 pint organic heavy whipping cream

2 cups toasted almonds chopped in food processor with several grinds of pink sea salt (1/2 tsp?)

2 small packages of sweetened coconut (4 oz packages?)

Directions:  Whip butter several minutes-start with low speed and advance to high speed until fluffy.  Add sugar and cocoa powder and start on “stir’ speed.  Gradually add heavy cream increasing speed as mixture is incorporated.  Once desired consistency is reached, stir in almonds/coconut.