Happy Birthday to ME Chocolate Cake and Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

I baked my own birthday cake. 

What? You don't do that? It's not that my BF didn't offer to buy me the best dessert in town. [Ed. Note: Save your letters! Jeez.] It's just that I was feeling exceptionally specific, and wanted it to taste deep, dark, intensely chocolatey and extra-extra moist. We don't partake in rich desserts very often, so when we do, it needs to be amazing or it's not worth it. Many times we've found ourselves drooling over beautiful confections, only to be nonplussed by the taste. [Ed. Note: Breathtakingly meh™.]

The reason this cake is my go-to is that it has a creamy chocolate bite, and the sour cream frosting has an impressive tang that really sets it off. Also noteworthy, the frosting has neither butter nor whipped eggs (only a smidge of added sugar), making for easier preparation.

The cake itself is adapted from Ina Garten (the recipe is cut in half), the frosting from Smitten Kitchen. 

Bit of a side note, but I had a perfect birthday yesterday. Our inital dinner plans in San Francisco were thwarted (there's a dog flu ripping through our area, so we couldn't find a proper sitter, and we don't take chances with our Marlowe), but we ended up having an even better day and evening sticking closer to home. The BF took me to the movies (Winchester, not our cup of tea) and then to a terrific local restaurant called Timber & Salt. The meal: an appetizer of crispy brussels sprouts with apple gastrique and whipped goat cheese, cheeseburger with horseradish mayo and bacon jam (oh yes), and a bavette steak over sauteed greens and maitake mushrooms in a red wine reduction sauce.

Once home we chilled to the far superior movie A Futile And Stupid Gesture (about Doug Kenney and the rise and fall of National Lampoon), cracked open a bottle of prosecco we'd been saving, made a cocktail with Aperol (my favorite), and tucked into this cake.

Folks, this is my absolute favorite cake. Excuse me while I have another slice.​

Adapted from: Ina Garten and Smitten Kitchen
Number of Servings: makes a one layer 8-inch cake (round or 8x8 square)

Cake
Ingredients

• ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla
• ½ cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 °F. Butter one 8 x 2-inch round cake pan or 8 x 8-inch square pan and line with parchment; butter the paper. Dust the pan with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. In electric mixer bowl fitted with a paddle, mix flour with the sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt at low speed. In a seperate bowl, whisk buttermilk with the oil, eggs and vanilla. Slowly beat buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients until just incorporated, then slowly beat into the hot coffee until fully incorporated.
3. Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean (do not overbake). Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then invert cake onto a rack to cool. Peel off the parchment.

Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting
NOTE: Be sure that your sour cream is at room temperature before you make the frosting. 
Ingredients

• 7 ½ ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• ½ + ⅛ teaspoons instant espresso (optional) 
• 1 ⅛ cups sour cream, at room temperature
• 2-4 tablespoons light corn syrup
• ½  teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Combine chocolate and optional espresso powder (if using), in the top of a double-boiler or in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Stir until chocolate is melted. (Alternately, you can melt the chocolate in a microwave for 30 seconds, stirring well, and then heating in 15 second increments, until the chocolate is melted.) Remove from heat and let chocolate cool until tepid.
2. Whisk together the sour cream (I used a hand mixer), 2 tablespoons of corn syrup and vanilla extract until combined. Add the tepid chocolate slowly and stir/beat quickly until mixture is uniform. Taste for sweetness, and if needed, add additional corn syrup in one tablespoon increments until desired level of sweetness is achieved.
3. Let cool in refrigerator until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. This should not take more than 30 minutes. Should the frosting become too thick or stiff, just leave it out until it softens again.