a twelve layer cake...yup, twelve layers

My brother-in-law had his birthday several weeks ago and my sister asked me to make the dessert for the dinner party that we had for him.  I knew he liked chocolate so I went searching for good chocolate cakes.  As a searched, and searched, I discovered that most chocolate cake recipes require coffee.  What is with that?  I mean, really, coffee doesn't even smell good, it can't taste good!  So, being very distraught, I continued to search and found a recipe for a 12 layer cake!  I found another recipe for a simpler chocolate cake, but the 12 layer one looked so much fun and I was just dying to try it out...so I did.  Here's how it went and the recipe.

What you'll need---
1) 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2) 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3) 1/4 tsp salt
4) 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
5) 2 1/2 cups sugar
6) 6 large eggs, at room temp
7) 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
For the Icing--
8) 3 cups sugar
9) 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
10) 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut up
11) 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
12) 1 tbs vanilla extract
13) 12 disposable cake pans---trust me, this will make is so much easier than reusing regular cake pans

Step 1: Position racks in the center and bottom third of the oven and preheat to 375.
Step 2: Lightly butter four 8 1/2 to 9-inch cake pans (you can bake the cake in 3 batches, but I did it in four because my oven is hot and I didn't want to use 2 racks).  Line the bottoms with rounds of parchment or wax paper.  Flour the pans and tap out the excess.

It's a lot of pans!

Step 3:  Making the cake!  First, sift together the sifted flour, baking powder and salt.  Sift the mixture again and set it aside.
Step 4: In a mixer (I would recommend using one for this cake), beat the butter and sugar on high speed until light in color and texture, about 3 minutes.

It should like this.

Step 5: Beat in the eggs, one at a time, always scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure it all gets mixed in.

Step 6: On low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture.  Then add 1/2 of the milk, another 1/3 of the flour, the last 1/2 of the milk and finally the last 1/3 of the flour.  Mix until it is smooth, once again, always scraping down the sides.

Ya, it's a lot of cake batter

Step 7:  Using about 1 cup for each layer, spread the batter evenly in the pans.  It will be a very thing layer.

Like so, well, spread the batter throughout the pan.

Step 8: Stagger the pans on the racks so they are about 2 inches apart from each other and the sides of the oven.  If you are using two racks, try and make sure that they aren't over lapping each other either.  Bake the layers until the feel firm when pressed in the center and when they are beginning to pull away from the sides of the pans.  It should take around 12 to 15 minutes.  Repeat this until the have baked all the layers.  This is why it is best to use 12 disposable pans so you don't have to wait for the pans to cool and then wash them.  Keep this process as easy as possible!  Let the cakes cool and remove them from the pans.

Step 9:  While the cakes are cooling, you can make the icing!  Bring the sugar, cocoa, butter and evaporated milk to a full boil in a large saucepan (you want a large one, this makes a lit of icing)

Step 10: Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the icing has thickened slightly.  It will be like a chocolate syrup you'd put on ice cream, but it will thicken as it cools.

Step 11: After you have let it cook on medium-low for about 3 minutes, stir in the vanilla.  Then let the icing cool until it is thick enough to spread, but still pourable.  This takes a little bit of time, but the cakes need to cool too, so stick to it!

Step 12:  Now it is time to assemble the cake.  I would recommend either getting a cake board or making your own out of cardboard.  This is what I did and I just wrapped the cardboard in foil.  I then put the board on the cooling rack and put that cooling rack on a jelly-roll pan to catch the excess icing.  Place a layer of cake on the board and then pour around 1/4 cup of the icing on it a spread it around.  Let the excess run down the sides, and trust me, it will drip....a lot!

(Sorry this is a bad picture)

Step 13:  Continue this process until you have done all 12 layers.  Pour the remaining icing over the top of the cake and let it cool.

So after this, you can be done and call it good.  I didn't really like the unfinished look of the icing, so I decided to make a frosting to put over it.  That and I didn't want people to be able to tell it was a 12-layer cake.  So, here is the frosting recipe I used.  It's a way good recipe and if you like chocolate, you'll love this and probably want to put it on anything.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

You'll need---

1) 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temp

2) 8 oz (1 package) cream cheese, at room temp

3) 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4) 1 box (about 3 3/4 cups) confectioner's sugar

5) 1-3 tbs milk

To make it--

Step 1: Cream the butter and cream cheese together with a mixer

Step 2: Add the coca and vanilla.  Then add the confectioner's sugar in small amounts.  Blend it on low until it's all mixed together, making sure you scrape down the sides.

Step 3:  Add 1 tbs of milk and a time until you reach the desired consistency.

It should look like this!

Now you can frost the cake, like so--

It's one big cake, isn't it?

I decorated it for my brother-in-law's birthday.

And then we cut into it!  Isn't is just beautiful?  It was such an awesome cake.

One of the pieces!

This is a pretty easy cake, it's just way time consuming and it made a huge mess in my kitchen!  But it was totally worth it.  It was so good.  Really rich, but really good.  And Paula Deen would be proud....I used six sticks of butter for the entire cake!  Ya, this is not a cake for health nuts, but really, is anything I make?