The Perfect Party Cake

Makes 20-25 servings

ingredients

For Cake:
1 3/4 cups boiling-hot water
1 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
4 oz. fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 (8 oz) container sour cream
1 Tab plus 1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 3/4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
5 large eggs
For Ganache:
8 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate
2 Tab unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp finely grated fresh orange zest
1 Tab Cointreau or other orange liqueur
1 cup heavy cream
For Frosting: Use Orange Buttercream

directions

1
Make Cake:
2
Preheat oven to 350° and place racks in middle and lower third of oven. Butter 3 9-by-2-inch round pans and line bottoms with rounds of wax paper. Butter paper well and dust pans with flour, knocking out excess.
3
Add hot water to cocoa in a bowl, whisking until smooth. Stir in chopped chocolate and let stand 5 minutes, then stir until smooth. Cool 20 minutes. Whisk in sour cream and vanilla.
4
Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Beat together butter and sugars at high speed in bowl of mixer until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and occasionally scraping down side of bowl. Reduce speed to low and alternately add flour mixture and chocolate mixture in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined. Then finish mixing batter by hand with a spatula, scraping bottom of bowl.
5
Divide batter among pans (about 3 3/4 cups in each) and smooth tops. Bake 2 layers in middle of oven and 1 layer in bottom third (do not put top layers directly above bottom layer), switching position of pans halfway through baking, until a tester comes out with crumbs adhering, 30-40 minutes total.
6
Run a thin knife around edges of pans. Invert racks over pans, then invert cakes onto racks. Peel off paper carefully and cool cakes completely.
7
Make ganache:
8
Put chocolate, butter, zest, and liqueur in a metal bowl. bring cream just to a boil in a small saucepan, then immediately pour into bowl and let stand 5 minutes. Whisk until chocolate is incorporated, then chill ganache just until cool, 20-30 minutes.
9
Right before using, beat ganache with mixer just until light and fluffy.
10
Immediately assemble and frost cake:
11
Reserve 2 cups buttercream for decorating. Put 1 cake layer on a cake stand and spread top evenly with half of ganache. Cover with another cake layer and spread top with remaining ganache. Cover with remaining cake layer, then frost side and top of cake smoothly with a thin layer of buttercream. Chill cake, uncovered, until buttercream is firm, about 30 minutes.
12
Generously frost side and top of cake with some of remaining buttercream and chill cake, uncovered, until buttercream is firm, about 30 minutes.
13
Fill pastry bag with reserved buttercream and pipe decorative edge around top and bottom of cake.
14
Chill cake, covered with a large cake dome, at least 6 hours. Bring to room temp (2-4 hours) before serving.

notes

Cake layers can be kept, wrapped well in plastic for 2 days, or frozen for 2 weeks. Defrost layers without unwrapping at room temp. Decorated cake can be chilled up to one day.

Source: Margaret Pietraszek