Russell’s Birthday Cake: Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

This past weekend was a big weekend for us. Russell was off on Friday for Labor day (he had Monday off too), his birthday was this past weekend, and college football started!  When I asked Russell what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday he said dirt cake. I love dirt cake as much as the next person, but since we were having friends over to celebrate I thought it might be good to have an actual cake as well. Russell loves chocolate cake so I decided to make a small (6”) cake incase someone didn’t want dirt cake for dessert. Russell had a great birthday and Alabama’s weekend opener against Michigan went great, we won 41-14!

I made my new favorite chocolate cake that is so simple. I multiplied the original recipe by 1.5 so I would have enough for a 3-tier 6” cake. You will find below the different amounts that you will need to make different cake sizes. I didn’t get any pictures after the cake was cut, but it was great. I had just enough icing for a 3-tier, 6-inch cake so if you are making a larger cake you will probably need to double the icing recipe below. 

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

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For the cake: I have made this cake recipe before and it can be found here: Chocolate Cake

If you are looking to make...

• 1 dozen cupcakes: use the original recipe (bake for 18-20 minutes)
• 1- 6” inch 2-tier cake: use original recipe (bake for 25-30 minutes)
• 1- 6” inch 3-tier cake: multiply original recipe by 1.5 (bake for 25-30 minutes)
• 1- 8” inch 2 tier cake: multiply recipe by two (bake for 35-40 minutes) 

Hershey’s Chocolate Icing:

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter (8 Tablespoons), melted
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

In a medium sized bowl, beat melted butter and cocoa powder until smooth. Alternately add the powdered sugar and milk. Beat until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Makes around 2 cups. 

Source: Cake--Simply Recipes, Icing-- Hershey’s “Perfectly Chocolate” Icing