Chocolate Cake with Buttercream (like you've never eaten before!)

I love to experiment with cooking and baking, which I'm sure is quite clear from this blog.  However, last week I had a failed experiment in adapting my go to cake recipe into a strawberry cake.  I had made the cupcakes and then I made a strawberry buttercream to go on top.  The cupcakes turned out not so great and the frosting was ok.  As not to waste the frosting, I decided to make some chocolate cupcakes.  The last time I made chocolate cake from scratch, it was dry and not so tasty.  By chance, I chose a recipe that called for boiling water at the end, which I thought, "hey, if it does not turn out well, then you find something later that does."  Well, this chocolate cake recipe (with my adaptations-half brown and half white sugar and sour cream instead of oil) turned out to be delicious! My husband, a cake hater (I'm working on that), loved this cake.  It is a bit more dense than I had thought, but its down right delicious.

So, last night the husband said, "can you make more of those cupcakes?" Not in the mood, I said I'd make a 9x13.  Also noticing that we had no frosting he requested more.  However, I did not have enough confectioners sugar to make enough buttercream to frost a 9x13 cake.  Then I remembered I had found a recipe on Pinterest for a buttercream that uses white sugar and flour.  That's right, flour.  Always a skeptic, I thought again, if it does not turn out then I know for next time.  I was wrong.  This is literally the best buttercream I have made.  It's light, fluffy and delicious.  Now that I've got you craving chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream, here are the recipes!

Chocolate Cake

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream 

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour pans, or use cupcake liners. (I use a bit of butter or skip this step all together)

2. In a large bowl, stir together sugars, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Add eggs, milk, sour cream and vanilla.  Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed.  Stir in boiling water last.  The batter will be very thin, but do not worry, it is supposed to be.  Pour into pans or cupcake liners.

3. Bake for 30-35 minutes for 8" rounds, about 35-40 for a 9x13 and 15-18 for cupcakes. (This was for my oven, which is not very good at retaining heat and is often much too warm so adjust to your oven)

Buttercream

5 Tbsp. flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar (not confectioners!)

1. In a small saucepan whisk flour into milk, stirring constantly, until it thickens.  It needs to be thicker than brownie mix, mine had a nice gruel like consistency, but that's ok!  Remove from heat and let cool completely.  I put mine in the fridge until I was ready for it.

2. Once cool, stir in vanilla.

3. Cream together the butter and sugar.  This took about 5 minutes on medium speed because you want all the little granules of sugar to be gone (don't worry if a few are left because they'll disappear in the next step).

4. Add the flour, milk and vanilla mixture.  Beat together until it looks like whipped cream.  It took me about 5 minutes on medium high to get there.

5. Frost your cooled cake and ENJOY!

P.S. Sorry I do not have pictures for this one! How boring is taking a picture of a 9x13 cake still in its pan :/