Chocolate Midnight Cake

Last week, I promised to share the recipe for Drew's birthday cake, and then I never got back to blogging and didn't share it! However, I didn't forget, and here is the recipe! This is our family's favorite chocolate cake, and the recipe comes from the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor cookbook. It has a secret ingredient (mayonnaise) that some people might not find very appetizing in a cake, but it really makes a difference in the moisture of the cake, I think.

Chocolate Midnight Cake
1 package plain dark chocolate fudge cake mix
1 cup water
1 cup mayonnaise
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour (I used the baking Pam spray this time, and it worked really well.) two 9-inch round cake pans.
Place cake mix, water, mayonnaise, eggs, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well combined.
Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side. Bake the cakes until they spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 28 to 32 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert onto rack, then invert onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow to cool completely, 30 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
8 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
Place the butter, vanilla, and 1 cup of confectioner's sugar in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed to incorporate, 30 seconds. Add the remaining confectioners' sugar alternately with 3 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, blending with the mixer on low speed. Add another 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 1 minute more. Use to fill and frost the top and sides of your cake.
This is a picture of the cake I made for Drew's party. It was for three different people, so I tried to get little decorations that reflected each of their interests! I made two recipes of this cake and baked each one in a 9 by 13-inch cake pan. I frosted the top of one cake with vanilla buttercream and then stacked the other layer on top of it and frosted the top and sides with the vanilla buttercream. I was a little lazy and did the decorative frosting around the edges with chocolate frosting from a can.
Next time you need a chocolate cake, I would encourage you to try this recipe! It is delicious!