Two layer whole wheat chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting

I felt like something yummy for dessert. I almost made Chef Michael Smith's peanut butter brownies. Why not?  The recipe called for 1 cup of flour, and.....I ran out. Ooops.  Like seriously, who runs out of flour.  I forgot to put it on the list. I had just come from the grocery store too. I did however have whole wheat flour. It got me thinking, what is a dessert better suited to whole wheat flour? Well generally you can just substitute 7/8th of a cup of whole wheat to 1 cup all-purpose. That doesn't mean it will be a good substitute however. While looking around for ideas I thought why not just go for a good old chocolate cake. And if you're going to make a chocolate cake, you need to have a good frosting, and of course two layers. By the way, the hot water helps the cocoa to dissolve and also makes the batter nice and smooth. It will look thinner than you might be used to, but really it works!

Two layers of chocolate cake ready to go

So what's the best thing about a two layer cake? The extra icing in the middle of course! Well that, and I get to use my cake top remover, a.k.a. cake slicer. Not only do you get nice flat layers, but you get to eat the part you cut off.  I like this frosting quite a bit. The slight orange flavour is awesome. Edit: I tried part white flour and part whole wheat, also very good. I was walking by the dairy section at the grocery store, and saw the cream cheese.  So there is an alternate cream cheese icing recipe that also works very well. Notice the icing recipes are almost identical except the milk is replaced with cream cheese.

Next Time: Maybe try a different frosting, although this one is really good

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 10/10

Two layer whole wheat chocolate cake with creamy chocolate frosting
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup very hot water, not quite boiling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 8"x8" round or square pans.
2. In a large bowl, add all the dry ingredients and stir well with a whisk.
3. In your mix master bowl, mix the eggs and sugar for a few minutes. Add the milk, oil, and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add the dry mix to the wet a little bit at a time, and mix for a couple minutes. 
5. Very slowly and carefully, add the hot water while the mixer is on slow. It may splash, so use a guard or drizzle it. The batter will be thinner than you think it should be.
6. Distribute between the two pans, and cook for around 35 minutes or until done.
7. Let cool completely, and frost it up!

Creamy Chocolate Icing Sugar Frosting

Ingredients

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 8 Tb cocoa powder
• 1 stick butter (8 Tbsp or 1/2 cup)
• 3 or 4 Tbsp evaporated or condensed milk (can use regular milk)
• 3 or 4 Tbsp of orange juice 
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. In a large bowl, sift the cocoa and icing sugar. Mix well.
2. Cream the butter in your mix master bowl, and slowly add the icing sugar mixture. Add the vanilla, and then a little of the milk and orange juice as you go. Once you've added all the sugar, add more icing sugar if it is thin or more milk or o.j. if it is too thick.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 3  cups icing sugar
• 8 Tb cocoa powder
• 1 package (8oz) cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. In a large bowl, cream the cream cheese and butter.
2. Sift the cocoa and icing sugar, then slowly add to the butter mixture.
3. Add the vanilla.  If too thick, you can add a little milk.