Big Fat Chocolate Cake

Ryan makes me this cake every year for my birthday. And let me tell you, it tastes as good as it looks. Ryan and I think this cake gets even better after a day or two. We're not sure why, maybe the butter from the frosting soaks into the cake, or maybe we just become addicted to it. The recipe came from our ward cookbook in NC but we have made a few changes to suit our tastes. Our recipe actually uses half the frosting recipe it calls for (and we made it chocolate instead of white frosting). So if you really like frosting you can double the recipe. This is how we make it:

Big Fat Chocolate Cake
Cake:
3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 2/3 cups flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. baking cocoa
1 1/2 cup water

Frosting:
3 sticks butter
1 lb. powdered sugar (about 3.8 cups)
1 Tbsp vanilla
5 Tbsp cocoa
1 Tbsp milk (may need a little more for desired consistency)

Ganache Topping:
1 cup chocolate chips
2 1/2 tsp corn syrup
1/4 cup heavy cream

Cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 9" round cake pans (or use wax paper, which helps a lot in removing the cakes). Mix sugar and oil with a mixer. Mix in eggs. Let rest while sifting flour, soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, mix milk and vanilla. Bring water to boil and pour over cocoa. Whisk cocoa till smooth. To egg mixture alternately add flour and milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Scrape sides of bowl. Add cocoa and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl often. Pour into pans. Bake about 27 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with dry crumbs). Cool cakes completely. You can either frost the 3 layers as they are or slice each layer in half to make a 6 layer cake. You probably want to double the frosting if you slice the cake layers as the original recipe calls for double our frosting recipe.

Frosting: Mix ingredients in a large bowl until smooth and creamy.

Ganache: Place chocolate chips and syrup in a bowl. Bring cream to a full boil. Pour over chips and whisk. Pour ganache over cool and frosted cake.

Enjoy, and try not to eat too much cake in one sitting. Easier said than done.