Attempt at Chocolate cake

It's been a while since I last baked a real chocolate cake.  Especially with its own chocolate frosting as well.  But I figured since it's the only way my good friend will accept payment for taking me shopping for my birthday, it's the least I can do!

There was actually another chocolate pie that I wanted to bake but somehow, I couldn't find the recipe.  So my next best was this rich chocolate layer cake. At least that's how it looked in the photo in my cooking magazine and hopefully it will turn out, as this is my first time making it!

I definitely need to clear up my kitchen for some more counterspace!  That combination of dark chocolate and Dutch-processed cocoa powder was so yummy :-)

Okay, into the oven! 

I had to poke it a few times to see if it was done.  I'm suppose to use 2 round 8" or 9" pans but I didn't really want a round cake.  So I thought of just using a rectangular one and cutting it into half:

While the cake is cooling, it's time to make the frosting. I totally needed a refresher course on my food processor. Ha!  The only thing that I didn't like about the frosting was the use of corn syrup.  It did call for light corn syrup.  Somehow I don't remember using that for any other frosting before.  Either way, the frosting turned out yummy too! I used some semi-sweet chocolate instead of milk chocolate chips:

Those are Charlie's hands by the way, doing the "Ta da!" for me.  Since I wanted to really try how it tasted, I had to just cut off the edges on both sides.  One side for me and other side for the boys. Looking pretty good!

I guess that's the only thing about baking isn't it... you have no idea what it tastes like until spending all that time putting it all together and then baking it:

YUMMM!!!  So come to find out, the very edge was a bit dry but when you poke into the inside of the cake, it was really nice and moist.  I hope my friend enjoys this!

I'll have to work on my presentation skills and also frosting skills.  Probably need to get a better plate too. It was the only one that was big enough that I had available at the time.  

Looks pretty similar to the one in the magazine??! He he...

Since it looked pretty bland, I thought I'd throw some blueberries on top.  Ya, again - need to work on my presentation skills.  Ha ha!

Charlie already said that he wants this same cake for his birthday. Well, I have plenty of instant espresso left that I bought online! :-D