Yellow Cake with Fudge Frosting

I don't know if you've noticed this, but I don't often make cakes. I like cake, but because I don't love frosting (either eating it or the act of frosting a cake), I usually opt for cookies.

The Mr. requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for our Superbowl party. When I do make a cake, it's usually with a Duncan Hines mix. They're good (real good), but I wanted to try one from scratch so I did some googling and decided to try this best birthday cake recipe from Smitten Kitchen and her fudge frosting. 

I liked the cake. Alotalot. It was really moist and I could have probably eaten the whole thing plain. Then I went and frosted it and ruined it. In my frosting-hater opinion. But, that's just me. You might love the frosting. 

I cut the two round 9" round cakes in half so it was a four layer cake. Ambitious for someone who doesn't like to frost cakes. A trick I saw on a Canadian cooking show recently - stick two shish kabob sticks into your cake, lengthwise, so your knife stays steady as you're cutting. Does that make sense? It would probably make more sense with a visual but I didn't take a picture. Another tip - line your cake plate with strips of wax paper so when you're done frosting, you can slide the paper out & have a clean cake plate. 

 Ray Lewis is who I'm talking about. Not Ray my cat. He doesn't like cake. 

Source: Smitten Kitchen (& frosting) 
Makes: (2) 9" round cakes or a 9" x 13" sheet cake & approximately 5 cups of frosting

Ingredients
For the cake
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (cake flour is a specific kind of flour. It was my first time looking for it. It comes in a box, not the typical bag of flour. Just FYI)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon table salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken

For the frosting

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

4 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar (no need to sift)
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons half-and-half or whole milk (I used 2%)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions

For the cake

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Use your 9" cake pan as a stencil to cut out two circles of parchment paper. Line your pans with the paper, then butter them. 

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. 

In a large mixing bowl (I used my stand mixer), beat butter and sugar at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. 

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. 

On low, beat in buttermilk until just combined. 

Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.

Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then drop on the counter several times to get rid of the air bubbles. Be prepared for the batter to spit back at you. Lesson learned on my part. 

Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. 

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack, throw away parchment paper, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

For the frosting
Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe dish, for approximately 10-20 second intervals, stirring after each round, until fully melted.

Once the chocolate is cooled, place all ingredients into a food processor and pulse to incorporate, then blend until the frosting is smooth. Since my food processor isn't big enough, I did this this step in my stand mixer with the paddle attachment. It probably would have turned out better had I used a food processor.