Birthday cake, Martha style

This weekend I had a great excuse to make a cake. Clearly birthdays are one time when calories don't count - so I decided to go all out on my cake this year and made a moist Devil's food cake with a fudgey-ganache-y frosting. Wow. So delicious. You don't even understand. Let's just say we've eaten well over half the cake since Saturday. If I'm lucky there will be a piece to enjoy tomorrow night!

Devil's Food Cake with Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting (Martha Stewart)

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder, plus more for pans
1/2 cup boiling water
3 cups sifted cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment; butter parchment. Dust with cocoa powder; tap out excess. Set aside. Sift cocoa powder into a medium bowl; whisk in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl; set aside. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until creamy. Gradually mix in sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add eggs, a bit at a time, mixing well between each addition; mix until well blended. Mix in vanilla.

3. Whisk milk into reserved cocoa mixture. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture to butter mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the cocoa mixture.

4. Divide batter evenly among prepared pans; smooth tops with an offset spatula. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, 35 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. Turn out cakes onto racks; remove parchment and re-invert. Let cool completely.

Mrs. Milman's Chocolate Frosting:
24 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels
4 cups heavy cream

Put chocolate and cream into a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat; stirring constantly with a heatproof rubber spatula, until thick, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in corn syrup. Transfer to a large, wide metal bowl. Refrigerate until frosting is cool enough to spread, about 2 hours, checking and stirring every 15 minutes. Use immediately.

This cake is soo moist and delicious - and the frosting is very rich. (I actually had to put the frosting in the freezer for a bit to get it to get to be the right consistency, looking at the the comments on the website, many others have had this issue as well)