Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Do you ever wake up one morning and just crave something sweet, especially after having one of those weeks. You know what I'm talking about, right? Those weeks when you have to much work to do and no time at all. When you get less than 5 hours a sleep at night and have to drag yourself to work (or school) and try not to fall asleep. The past few weeks have been overwhelming, to say the least. By Friday I was ready to call it quits on everything, instead I decided to transfer my stress and bake. 

 

There's something about a yellow cake layered with chocolate that I can't seem to resist. Instead of making a massive layer cake for myself, I went all crazy math freak and divided my recipe in fourths. That took some time with my calculator. In the end the cake was exactly what I wanted. The only downside was I ran out of confectioners sugar so my frosting turned into more of a ganache then an actual frosting. But who cares, chocolate is chocolate.

 

Yellow Cake Recipe (Adapted from Smitten Kitchen):

3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg at room temp
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two small pans and line with a circle of parchment paper, and then butter the parchment. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy, then add vanilla. Add egg and lemon zest to large bowl. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined. Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until well incorporated. Spread the batter evenly in cake pan. Bake until golden brown for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a rack before removing from pan.

Chocolate Ganache Frosting:

1.5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 cup of confectioners sugar (add 1 cup if you want a real frosting)
1/2 and a quarter stick of room temp butter
1 and 1/2 of a tablespoon of milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse to incorporate and then process until the frosting is smooth.