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Hi kids!  

Did you have a gorgeous Memorial Day Weekend? It's official - the season of summer festivities is here!

Your social calendars are probably going to be filled with barbecues, dinner parties, and weekend getaways so I want to give you a little secret weapon.

As you may know, I LOVE to cook and bake. It’s the most relaxing and therapeutic hobby (besides knitting) and one of my favorite things to make is chocolate cake. Lucky for you, I’m giving you my divine recipe for chocolate cake and my favorite icing to go with.

I’ve made this for birthdays, dinner parties, and sometimes, just because. It is always a hit. Seriously, it will be the first thing that’s gone at the dessert table. Your friends and family will love you for bringing it.

Now darlings — you’ll have to let me know how your cakes turn out. Post a photo to my Facebook page so I can see. Do you have any other good recipes for summer parties? Let me know in the comments below.

Cheers to a fun and delicious summer!

xx Isaac

Isaac’s Fabulous Devil’s Food Cake

(Makes 10 - 12 servings)

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line the bottoms of two 9” x 2” inch round cake pans with buttered parchment paper.  Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then set aside.  In a separate bowl, whisk the cocoa powder into the 1/2 cup hot water.  Let it cool to lukewarm. Then whisk in the buttermilk and vanilla and set aside.

Beat the butter on medium speed until creamy.  Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy.  Slowly drizzle in the eggs, mixing well.  At medium-low speed, add dry ingredients in 3 small batches, alternating with 2 batches of the buttermilk mixture.  Beat until just combined — don’t over mix!

Pour the batter into the prepared pans.  Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Keep an eye on the baking time — make sure the cake is fully cooked before taking it out of the oven!  Cool completely on a wire rack, then invert cake on to a plate and frost with my Chocolate Fudge Icing.  Hooray for cake!

Isaac’s Favorite Chocolate Fudge Icing

Ingredients

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup light corn syrup

12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, melted and cooled

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened well

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan whisk together the cream and corn syrup.  Set the burner to low heat and bring to a simmer, then remove from heat and pour mixture into a bowl.  Let it cool to lukewarm.  

Add the cooled cream mixture to the melted chocolate and whisk until smooth. Put little dabs of butter all over the top of the chocolate mixture, then whisk them in to blend. Whisk in the vanilla.  Cool the icing until it is firm enough to spread cleanly.

For even more fun, try combining a texture into the icing with a fork or decorating the top with your favorite sprinkles, candies, or chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!