Ok.... so I must confess the obvious and then get a little self righteous about it before we get to the fun part of this post. I, dear friends, neatly fit a stereotype. I am a fat girl who loves cake. More specifically I love chocolate cake. A double stereotype for sure with all running associations between women/chocolate and fat people/food. Now mind you I am just using the word fat as a factual descriptor. You can try to be nice all you want about it with euphemisms (zaftig, rubenesque, thick, curvy, etc.) but it all boils down to the an avoidance of the dreaded F-word. So I'm claiming it in on my own terms, lovin' it, and this chocolate cake recipe I pulled from Fine Cooking. The secret? MAYO!!!! I don't even like mayo... but I guess I'll have to amend that blanket statement now to be "I don't like mayo except when it's used to bring exceptional moistness to chocolate cakes." How's that for a mouthful? Speaking of which check out this photo journal of chocolate decadence:







Dry stuff, you know, the usual... flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, baking soda....












Mmmmm.... creaming ingredients (butter, sugar, buttermilk, eggs) are tasty!












It's simple math: Part A + Part B = C (C cake!).
















Action shot!









So post baking I let the two cakes cool at room temperature. Then I used tom baking tips I've picked up along the way to make it a bit easier to assemble. I made sure to ensure the cakes released easily from the pans by lining them with parchment paper on the bottom. After releasing the cakes from the pans I wrapped them in plastic wrap and them sealed them in a freezer bag. I put them in the freezer to firm up and be easier to cut into layers later on. After about 30 min. in the freezer I leveled both cakes and then split eat one into two layers. I then pulled out my ganache and attempted to do a crumb coat to make sure the cake looked sexy sweet upon completion. However, the summer weather had different plans.... Due to my frugality and the heat (I try not to turn on my window AC unit if at all possible) the ganache wouldn't keep its proper consistency and kept melting. After turning on my AC and trying my darndest (i.e. putting the ganache in the freezer to firm up between layer frosting, keeping the cake in the fridge once it was crumb coated) I decided it was not ganache weather. So I added a bit more chocolate and some confectioner's sugar to turn it into frosting. That switch did the trick and my cake was frosted firm and ready to eat!