Best Chocolate Cake

I've been getting behind in posting... Such a busy season!

As promised, here is the recipe from the amazing cake that I made for Ian's birthday (she says, modestly). I found this recipe written on a scrap of paper in my box of random recipes. I have no idea who wrote it down, where I got it, or where it came from. It's a mystery. I'm glad I went for it. This cake was extraordinarily rich, moist, and is for serious chocolate lovers only. I was suspicious at first because the recipe calls for cocoa powder rather than "real" melted chocolate, but it didn't matter.

In the interest of time, I used just a standard icing recipe (you know, the one that's on the bag of icing sugar). Next time, I plan on being a little more creative with the icing.

Note: This is a 3-layer cake - luckily I had had 3 cake pans, but if you have to, you can bake this one layer at a time.

* 2 cups boiling water
* 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (use a high quality brand)
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 2 1/4 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 3 - 9 inch round cake pans (I grease with shortening, and then cut out a round piece of wax paper and place it in the bottom of the pan. Just don't forget to remove the wax paper before icing... trust me on that one.) In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
-In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Spread batter evenly between the 3 prepared pans.
-Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
-Frost each cake and layer together (trim top off cakes to keep level)

Here's my finished product: