Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Icing

I made this cake for my friend, Alfonso's birthday. It came out moist and was pretty sweet, but he loved it. It has a ton of sugar in it - so not what I love to bake with but I wanted to do something great for his bday. He loves Buddha and similar things to that. i found this picture online and decided to replicate it on the cake. I don't think it came out too bad for my first hand drawing on a cake. They thought it looked great. Being a perfectionist I know it could be better...I just need to take a trip to Chef Central and pick up some more tools...

I made 2 types of icing because I wanted one white and one Chocolate. You can just do one or the other - but I put a decoration on the top of the cake which is why I wanted it white. The white sugar icing is much more sweet than the Chocolate icing.

Recipe:

Chocolate Cake

2 Cups Sugar

1 3/4 Cup AP Flour

3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 Cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Heat oven to 350F. Grease and line 2 8 or 9 inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Mix for 2 minutes on medium speed. Slowly stir in the boiling water. (The batter is going to be pretty thin). Pour evenly into the prepared pans. Bake for 30-32 minutes, Cool in pan for 10 minutes and move to wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

6 oz chocolate chopped

2 extra large egg whites (room temp)

3/4 Cup sugar

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 tsp salt

3 sticks butter (room temp - not melted)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Set aside and let cool to room temp.

Mix egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt in heat proof mixing bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and heat until warm to touch - about 5 minutes. Beat with whisk attachment for 5 minutes or until stiff peaks form.

Add 1 T of butter at a time on medium speed mixing until just incorporated. Scrape down bowl and add chocolate and vanilla. Mix until blended. If too soft put in refrigerator for a few minutes and beat again.

White Sugar Frosting

2 Cup confectioners Sugar

1/4 Cup shortening

2 T + 1 1/2 tsp milk (more or less if needed)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cream the sugar and shortening together. Slowly add the milk and vanilla until smooth and stiff consistency.