THE Cake

This is INCREDIBLY rich, and SO good. It will put you in a chocolate coma. It even puts ME in a chocolate coma. Have a small piece with a big glass of milk. It's a bit of work, and makes a large cake, so have company over when you make it!

Dark Chocolate Cake:

8 oz unsweetened chocolate
3/4 c olive oil
2 c sugar
4 eggs
1 c powdered sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c cocoa powder
1 c flour
1 c buttermilk
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

-Preheat oven to 375, and (heavily) grease 2 9-inch cake pans.
-In a microwave, melt the chocolate with the olive oil. Once melted, pour into mixer bowl and beat until smooth. Add sugars and eggs and beat until well-creamed. Add remaining ingredients, and beat just until they're all incorporated.
-Pour into cake pans and bake 26-28 minutes, just until center of cake springs back to touch.
-Cool completely in pans before inverting onto a cooling rack. Make the filling.

Dark Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse Filling:

1 c whipping cream
1/4 c sugar
1 c 60% bittersweet cacao chips
8 oz mascarpone cheese

-In a large bowl, whip the cream until fluffy. Add sugar and mascarpone and whip until smooth.
-In a small bowl, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Cool to the touch, then add to the whipping cream mixture and beat until light and fluffy. Spoon carefully on top of the bottom layer of the cake (there's A LOT of filling) and then top with the second layer of cake.
-Refrigerate until ready to frost.

Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:

1 pint heavy cream
11 1/2 oz 60% bittersweet cacao chips
1/2 c butter, softened
4-5 cups powdered sugar

-In a medium saucepan, melt the chocolate chips into the heavy cream until a thick, smooth ganache forms, stirring constantly.
-Refrigerate ganache until chilled.
-When chilled, remove ganache from fridge and beat in the butter and powdered sugar until the frosting is a spreadable consistency. Frost, and chill cake until 15 minutes before serving.
-Store cake in fridge.

*this makes A LOT of frosting - I only used about 1/2 on my cake.