Housewarming

Today was the big day, big dinner. Tonnes of people came, and so many i had never ever seen before in my life. But they were friendly faces so that was alright. Got up way early in the morning to bake the cake for the dinner. It was a Debbi Field's Devil's Food Cake which basically means a pretty special Chocolate Cake with this wonderful chocolate icing. Did a bit of adjustments but it turned out just right. Think the only problem with it was that i might have beat too much between adding each egg so it ended up too light and crumbly?
Here's the recipe:
Ingredients
Cake:
6oz semisweet chocolate
1,3/4cup boiling water
1,1/4cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2cups sifted cake flour
2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
1,1/4cup softened unsalted butter
1,3/4cup darked brown sugar
4 eggs
1tbs vanilla essence
Frosting:
1,1/4cup softened unsalted butter
4cups sifted powdered sugar
1cup unsweetened cocoa powder (it's very important that this is sifted otherwise your frosting would not be smooth but ugly and lumpy, though the taste wouldn't be affected)
1tbs vanilla essence
1/4cup + 2tbs lowfat milk (use full-fat milk if you want an even richer and thicker frosting)

Directions
Cake:
Preheat oven to 180dcelsius. Butter the sides of 2 springform 9" rounds and place a circularly cut baking parchment on the bottom of the pan.
Chop the chocolate and place into a bowl, pouring the boiling water over it. Set aside for a short while then add the cocoa and stir till smooth, rubbing the unmelted pieces at the sides till it melts into the mixture. Set aside to let cool to rtp.
In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
Next, cream the butter and brown sugar until fluffy for around 4min on medium speed. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and beat well in between each addition.
Beat in the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and half of the chocolate mixture. Beat to combine.
Add the remaining chocolate mixture and beat on low speed until smooth.
Divide the batter evenly between the 2 pans and bake for 30-35min.
Remove to cool on wire racks for 10min or so then remove the springform to let cool completely. After about another 10min, remove the baking parchment and the bottom pan.

Now to the frosting!
Put all the softened butter in a bowl and beat it with your electric mixer until fluffy. You'll know it's fluffy when the butter starts making a slicky little sound and looks pretty glossy.
Whisk together the sifted sugar and cocoa in another bowl and beat about a third of the mixture into the butter. Add the vanilla and beat.
Just keep beating~
Add the remaining of the mixture and beat until the frosting is ABSOLUTELY smooth.
Once your cake is completely cool and that is when you touch your cake, it's no longer warm, you can begin to frost it. I waited around an hour for mine to cool. Used that time to munch on some food, rest my aching feet and watch some tv (jungle book II was showing on cable).
So basically, get a cake stand or a cake plate and put the bottom cake layer on it. If it is slightly volcanoed like mine was, slice off the top to get a nicely flat surface. Do the same for the other layer if it is so.
Using a metal spatula, lop on a generous amount of frosting and in neat gentle circles, (or by simply moving the plate) ice the top. Then place the next layer on top, arranging it such that it is directly above the bottom layer, frost the top and the sides to give a very smooth looking cake.

Debbi Field's used a pastry bag to pipe decorative rosettes but i did mine simply by using cranberries and fresh strawberries. Try using peaches, kiwis or whatever fruits. They go well with such a cake and add a burst of colour to the deep brown richness of the cake as well. Just make sure you keep the cake cool because my cranberries started to bleed after all in the warm tropical air of Singapore. :S