Chocolate cake

Over Easter weekend, my family watched Brewer's baseball, Pippin took a nap on The Boyfriend's feet, and I baked Beatty's Chocolate Cake. I found the recipe through a simple Google search ("best chocolate cake") and this one from Ina Garten and the Food Network came right up. I love how a chocolate cake can convince me to start blogging again — it was just that good. More like great. More like best-cake-ever.

I followed the recipe almost-exactly, with a few exceptions of note: I added 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of cinnamon to the batter. My "freshly brewed" coffee was actually 1 and a half single packs of Taster's Choice instant coffee (vanilla flavored) mixed in a cup of boiling water. I used all Ghirardelli chocolate (both the cacao for the batter and the semi-sweet chocolate for the frosting). And I omitted the coffee grounds in the frosting. (One reviewer said that adding the coffee to the frosting made it too overtly coffee-flavored, and I was after chocolate-chocolate-flavored.)

Wow. So chocolate-y. So moist. Not too dense at all — the perfect consistency. The perfect chocolate frosting — tastes like a melted dark chocolate bar mixed with buttery, creamy goodness. Seriously, out of this world. And so easy! Who knew? I made a Martha Stewart red velvet cake before, and it honestly didn't hold a candle to this one, for me. My brother, on the other hand, preferred my great aunt's buttercream frosting (which I used in the Martha recipe), but I'm sure that, no matter your frosting preference, you would agree that this cake is just better.

And if you're a chocolate-lover like me, the chocolate buttercream frosting from Ina Garten is definitely the way to go. It's not too rich — just chocolate-y. I am prone to migraines and chocolate has been a known trigger — but even this cake didn't overdo it for me. It's just right. It's perfect. Whoever Beatty is, God bless her and her chocolate cake.

P.S. Not pictured: The cake. (It was eaten. All of it.)