This chocolate cake is quite possibly my favorite thing in the whole world but to be honest I almost never actually make it – as the birthday cake of choice in my family, my mom is the one who has been making 5 of these a year since before I can remember – that would be a nice round 29 cakes just for yours truly (well actually she made me 3 cakes this year but who’s counting).
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Party Games – Pictionary / Telephone
I decided that for the last birthday of my 20s, it would be fun to go old school: a sunday afternoon gathering with pizza, cake and some competitive party games.
First up was a game of pictionary/telephone that had us all crying we were laughing so hard. Here is how you play:
- Everyone will need a pencil and a stack of papers or index cards, each stack with the same number of sheets as people playing.
- Everyone starts with a commonly known saying (either they think of one or you have a bunch written on slips of paper to hand out) – phrases like: “bite the dust” “cat got your tongue” “pleased as punch” “go cold turkey” – you get the idea.
- Everyone starts by drawing that phrase (setting a 1min timer is a good idea) then passing their drawing and stack of paper to the person on the right who looks at it, puts that paper to the back of the pile and writes the phrase they think the drawing is trying to depict.
- Everyone passes to right again, places the phrase at the back of the pile and draws that phrase.
- Repeat until your phrase makes it all the way around the circle and back to you.
*the real fun is going through each stack to see how/when the phrase was messed up
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This is my sister (left) and me with my Grandpa clearly excited about the cake – which I might add is not for either of our birthdays.
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Obviously this chocolate cake is popular with my brother as well, although he seems to be wasting quite a bit of it on his face.
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- 1 cup boiling water
- 3 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 8 tbls unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 3 egg whites
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ cup dairy sour cream
- 2 cups less 2 tbls all-purpose flour, sifted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbl unsalted butter
- 1¼ cups chocolate chips
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 4 cups (1lb) confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350° F, then grease and flour two 9” cake pans.
- In a large bowl, combine butter and unsweetened chocolate, pour in 1 cup boiling water and let stand until melted. Whisk in vanilla and sugar then the egg yolks, one at a time, blending well after each.
- Mix baking soda and sour cream together and whisk into chocolate mixture.
- Sift flour and baking powder together and add to batter. With a spatula, mix until just combined.
- With a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold a quarter of the whites into batter, then gently add the remainder.
- Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 40 to 50 minutes (rotating halfway through) or until edges have pulled away from sides. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, unmold and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.
- Place all ingredients into a medium saucepan over low heat and whisk until smooth.
- Frost the first layer, just on the top. Place the second layer on top of the first and pour frosting over top, push over the edge to frost the sides.
I add an extra egg white for lightness and then I do one and a half times on the icing for real
decadence.
Best cake ever. Happy Birthday!
I highly recommend frequent tasting of the batter and icing.. For safety of course.