Flower Petal Cake

This is the cake my daughter wanted for her birthday this year.  I saw it on my friend's blog and it looked so cool, I pinned it on Pinterest for later.  Definitely go to her blog to check her cake out, especially the step-by-step photos and techniques.  I was trying to get everything done for my daughter's big party, and was in no frame of mind to take any step-by-step photos.  It was bad enough that my store was totally out of powdered sugar and I had to use what I had in the house, which was just barely enough.  I was thinking I would run out of frosting, but luckily I didn't. 

My daughter wanted a chocolate cake, so I looked on "The Best of" on Mel's Kitchen Cafe to find her fave chocolate cake, because I really like and trust her recipes.  This one turned out very moist and chocolaty, and I love that it uses buttermilk. 

This icing technique is not hard; just a little time-consuming.  You first frost the sides of the cake with a crumb layer of frosting (to set all the crumbs in.... my cake had a TON of crumbs get caught in the frosting.)  Do the top too, and after it sets, add a thicker layer.  Then you make 4 different colors of frosting.  My daughter wanted one row white, so I only made three colors.  I over-estimated the amount of food coloring and made all the frosting too dark, but oh well. 

You make a row of really fat dots of frosting, about 1 inch, with each color, going up in a row.  (A Wilton 12 tip is perfect.... luckily I have four.)  Then, using a small angled frosting spatula, swipe each dot to the side.  Just go to Domestic Creativity to see what I mean. 

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake
adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

1 ¼ cups unsweetened cocoa powder

2 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 ½ cups sugar

2 ½ teaspoons baking soda

1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

1 ¼ teaspoons salt

2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 ¼ cups buttermilk

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, making sure the baking rack is in the middle of the oven. Use two 8 or 9-inch round cake pans. Prepare your cake pans by cutting out a piece of wax paper to line the bottom of the pan.  Grease the pans, place the wax paper in the bottom of the pan and lightly grease again.  Dust the pans with flour, tapping out excess.  Set the pans aside.

2.  Using a fine mesh strainer, sift together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Add the eggs, yolk, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Mix on low speed (with a handheld mixer or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) until smooth.

3.  Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes for about 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Do not overbake! Remove the pans from the oven and set the pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes. Gently run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and unmold the cakes, removing the parchment paper liners from the bottom of the cakes. Let them cool completely, top sides ups, on a wire rack.

4.  Trim the tops of the cake layers with a long serrated knife to make them level. Frost as desired.

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