recipe: 'perfectly chocolate' chocolate cake

so, baking this THREE layered cake for the hubs birthday last week made me realize a few things...

i need to beg one of my cake stands back from my mama...

i need more than one cake pan.. it doesn't pay to be cheap..

i am in serious need of some new rubber spatulas, i'm down to one..

sometimes it is necessary to pawn off as much cake as you can on willing family members, otherwise the exercise to food intake ratio will have to drastically tip in the direction i hate most!

but seriously.. look at how GOOD that looks.

my first from-scratch cake ever.

with from-scratch icing too!

i'm pretty pleased with myself.

(please excuse the sloppy icing at the bottom..

some little fingers tried to be sneaky when i wasn't looking!) 

there is nothing quite like spending all day making & icing only to find out that in 10 years of marriage your husband failed to mention that chocolate cake was his least favorite cake.

in fact, he doesn't really like it at all.

.........

my eyes probably bugged out at his confession..

i mean, it's a WELL known fact that we in my dad's family are professed chocoholics.

heck, i collect hershey's memorabilia tins for goodness sake.

he could have spit in my face & i'd have been less shocked.  

so, i tried to rescue myself from a breakfast of chocolate cake for the next two weeks..

( uhm, not that i would do that. )

& called my dad & aunt (his sister) to come take some cake off my hands.

my dad asked why after 10 years of marriage i didn't know my hubs didn't like chocolate cake,

to which i replied that he must have withheld that tidbit of information knowing it would have been dealbreaker in getting married :)!

anyways..

so my secret chocolate cake recipe isn't so secret.
i got it off the back of the hershey's unsweeetened cocoa box.

it's also available here on their website.
i figured the hershey's people have had a few years practice...
so it was a good starting place to make a cake from scratch. :)

....now don't get all snobby on me because it's not godiva or some other snooty chocolate.

don't get me wrong.. that stuffs okay for sure.

but i'm american & i like my good ol' fashioned hershey's chocolate just fine! :)

xo-k

ps. i should mention i ended up with 3 layers because i used 8" pans instead of 9".

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