Chocolate Cake (For Snowstorm Survival)

Friday morning, I stood in line at my neighborhood fried chicken/gas station joint (shout out to Brown's - you have my heart) and I left with a 5-piece and some potato wedges. Certainly don't have me in charge of stocking up on storm provisions, because to me storm necessities are exactly what I left that gas station with. 

Cabin fever set in about 2 hours later and it was already too late - the snow was pounding down relentlessly and I'd be trapped in my apartment for the next 48+ hours with nothing more than 2 1/2 pieces of chicken after a car-ride home and my thoughts. 

Which is what leads us to this blog post. My food thoughts only get worse being trapped inside. I immediately rummage through the pantry and see if I can scrape enough ingredients for a cake. 

I found a recipe for "The Best Chocolate Cake" from Hot Chocolate Hits and it served as my dessert/lunch/dinner/breakfast/best friend this weekend.

What I love about this recipe is it's flexible - brown sugar, white sugar, dark cocoa, whatever cocoa. Even the most inadequate pantry is adequate enough for this cake. And it is MOIST and super chocolatey. Under normal circumstances, this would be an absolutely perfect birthday cake! But in a pinch, it makes for a perfect blizzard cake too.

The recipe makes enough for two 9" cake layers. I definitely didn't need that much cake, so I iced one layer and wrapped the other layer to tuck away in the freezer. I made all of the icing the recipe calls for and it was enough to ice the cake with a tad leftover for midnight emergencies.

You Will Need:

For the Cake:

2 cups light brown sugar (I used 1 cup white and 1 cup dark brown sugar)

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder*

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 cup buttermilk (or add 1 Tbsp vinegar to regular milk)

1 cup strong black coffee

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Icing:

1 stick unsalted butter

2/3 cup cocoa powder (sifted)

1/3 cup milk

3 cups powdered sugar (sifted)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

For the Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter or grease two 9-inch cake pans (or a 9x13-inch pan if you want to make a sheet cake!), line the bottom with parchment paper and dust with flour.

In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until incorporated.

Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the eggs and buttermilk. Whisk to combine. Add the coffee, oil, and vanilla and continue mixing until everything is incorporated.

Divide the batter between the two pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. 

Cool cakes completely before frosting!

For the Icing:

Melt the butter in a small saucepan. 

In a mixing bowl, add the cocoa powder and melted butter and whisk until smooth. Gradually add in the powdered sugar, alternating with the milk - starting and ending with powdered sugar (so sugar, milk, sugar, milk, sugar) and continue whisking by hand until light and fluffy.

Stir in the vanilla and salt.

Now you're ready to frost and decorate your cake!

*I used 1/2 cup raw cacao powder and 1/4 cup black dutch processed cocoa - the stuff I had leftover from homemade oreo-making (this made my cake super rich and oreo-ish flavor, so I'll definitely be making a white buttercream cookies n' creme cake with the other cake layer that's hiding in the freezer!)

And y'all know I didn't stop there. This baking train just kept on moving! I also found a recipe for scratch ciabatta - not entirely pleased with the results, so I'll be on the hunt for a better recipe, but I am in love with a new way to serve brie!

In a mini skillet (or you can use a small baking dish) I put in some brie, topped with walnuts, brown sugar, and bourbon. Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes until that brown sugar gets nice and crusty.

Yum Yum!

The rest of the weekend went extremely slowly and quickly at the same time. I distracted myself with a lot of netflix, laundry, cooking, eating, drinking wine, and doing some paintings to spruce up the new temporary office.

Amanda and I were unpacking our office all week and she found these quotes in a calendar she has. We picked these quotes that we liked and boom - a snowy weekend later, we have office decor.

Looking forward to getting up outta here and being in civilization again! (But will kinda sorta really miss my couch a lot too.)

Hope everyone has a great week!