D.A.H.M.M. Good Chocolate Cake

I'm sitting here writing this blog while eating a piece of cake. What could be more appropriate?

Over memorial day weekend I travelled to Rexburg Idaho for a family reunion on my fiance's family side. Everyone had warned me that there would be tons of people and I probably wouldn't survive. They were right. There were tons of people. Grandparents, their nine kids and their spouses (20 so far) and all their children (about 25 little rascals, only 4 of them older than 12). And myself. We all stayed in one house, and even journeyed to the cabin for a day. This cabin is not large. It's not small, but when you fit all those kids into one living room space and give them lots of sugar and a bunch of pillows, you are just asking for NOISE!!

But, I DID survive! My fiance and I survived mostly because we stayed in the kitchen most of the time. He helping me bake, and I having fun being on one side of the counter while everyone else stayed on the other side. We made delicious sugar cookies as an activity for the kids the next day (see other post).

And we made this cake. The name I came up with after Christmas break 2010. Dad. Alex. Haley. Mom. McKay. There are a few people in my family who don't really like cake. But they like this one. I thought naming it after them would be appropriate tribute.

I made this cake for the first time at home for my little sister's sixteenth birthday on the 30th. My dad loved it so much that I made it again on the 1st. Yes, the first cake was gone by then. I have made this chocolate behemoth 5 times since then, always taking it to some special event with friends. I love peoples' reactions when they see the color of the cake. And then again when they bite into it. And then their eyes roll back in their head, their knees quiver a bit and they say, "That is some "dang" good chocolate cake.

We made this cake to celebrate the 4 high school graduates. Look how happy they are! 

The inside. Yes. "The blacker the chocolate, the richer the taste."

I've always been picky when it comes to chocolate cake. They are either too dry, to bland or too sweet. This is none of those. This cake is perfect. And because of that. For now, this recipe is secret.

This is when I made it for my sister's Birthday. The second time that week I put an orange slice on top. Note: orange juice is acidic and will discolor the frosting.

This time I made it for the adults in the house to celebrate the 4 high school grads at the reunion.