Happy Birthday, John!

Happy Birthday, John and Happy Solstice too! John requested a chocolate cake for his birthday this year (surprise!), so I thought I’d check out some new recipes online. I decided to try a Black Chocolate Cake Recipe since we’re both fans of dark chocolate. The only change I made in that linked recipe was to use butter instead of shortening. The cake layers came out great – quite dense and didn’t get all puffy/risen in the middle, so no leveling was needed.

For the frosting I used Caroline’s Chocolate Fudge Frosting Recipe, although as many commenters suggested on that site, I used less milk than indicated.

And here it is!

I also shaved some dark chocolate over the top of it to add even more chocolateness, which I’m sure it needed. (Don’t look at the plate around the bottom of the cake as I hadn’t tidied up yet when I took the photo. I said DON’T look!)

Maybe next time I try this recipe I’ll make a double batch of frosting and do some actual decorating around the edges and such.

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