Food Friday: Too Much Chocolate Cake with Baileys Buttercream Icing

I promised you birthday cake, and here it is. And, man oh man, is it good.



Justyn's birthday was last weekend, and since this is officially his favorite cake, of course I made it for him. I don't make cakes that often... not because they're hard or anything, but just because it makes so much cake, and I never think it's a good idea for 2 people to have a whole cake sitting around just waiting to be eaten. But, for his birthday, I make no exceptions.


It's a bundt cake recipe, and so not healthy. Do not be fooled by my previous rants and raves about eating healthy food, cutting back on meat, sauteing your veggies in water instead of oil, etc. This is a "no holds barred" kind of a birthday cake, and by that I mean I made no substitutions of applesauce for oil, or whole wheat flour or any of that business. I even splurged for the Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. Because it's my sweetie's birthday, and he deserves only the best.

Ahh... the icing. This is the best icing you will ever have (if you like Baileys) and it's so super easy. But, I do have one confession to make. This was not the perfect birthday cake experience. You see, I sort of screwed up. We ended up spending almost all afternoon in Ikea on Saturday (another story for another time, let me assure you), and around 10:00 on Saturday night I realized that I had no Baileys Irish Cream liqueur, and obviously nothing would be open on Sunday (when I needed the cake). I used to have some, but when I moved across the country, the sucky moving company wouldn't pack or move our alcohol. And, since I only use Baileys about once a year, I gave the whole bottle to my mom, whose cabinet it is probably still sitting in as I type this. When I came to this horrible realization, I jumped in the car to go grab some. I mean, it's Saturday night, only 10 o'clock. Surely there are liquor stores open. Well, guess again. Closed. Closed. And closed again.

Shite! What was I going to do? I only needed 4 tablespoons for crying out loud! Maybe I could go to a bar and order a couple of shots, and sneak them home? Nah, something about that doesn't seem like it'll work. I did some research online, and found that some grocery stores carry Irish Cream syrup in the coffee section. Well, I went to my grocery store and they didn't have any. So, I bought some Irish Cream coffee creamer and figured it was my best shot. I threw some of that in, in place of the Baileys, and added some brandy to try and get that "liqueur taste" (and because I had some). Well, let me tell you, it was nowhere near as good as it should've been, and as I result I truly feel like I failed at this year's birthday cake venture. But, let me also say that this cake is so freaking chocolatey and moist, that it's pretty darn good without any frosting at all.

The other thing is, that this is a super easy cake to make. It's not from scratch (I know, I know, but it's so good! It really doesn't even matter). It's not a mix either, it's a hybrid. You know, think "Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee" on the Food Network. It's sorta like that. I found this recipe on All Recipes, which I've mentioned before. And normally I wouldn't try something like this (using a boxed mix as a base) but it had like a million 5 star reviews so I figured it was worth it. The icing recipe is from a similar site, RecipeZaar. It's almost exactly like All Recipes, but All Recipes doesn't allow any brand names in their recipes, so you can't find Baileys anything on their site.

Too Much Chocolate Cake with Baileys Buttercream Icing

Cake recipe taken from AllRecipes, Icing from Recipezaar

Ingredients

Cake:

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix

1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix

1 cup sour cream

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup warm water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Icing:

1 cup (2 sticks) real butter, at room temperature

3 cups powdered sugar

2 teaspoons real vanilla extract

4 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream liqueur

milk, if needed for desirable consistency

Directions

Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan.

3. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate and icing.

Icing:

1. Cream together butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and Bailey's. Add milk if it is too thick.

2. Slather on a VERY cool cake.