Richard's Double Chocolate Layer Cake

Today is Richard's Birthday Eve, but since he'll be out of the office tomorrow, we're celebrating today. Good thing too because I feel like it's been forever since I baked anything. I've been itching to make this cake for Richard since I made the Hazelnut Cheesecake. It has a good reputation so I thought it would be a good bet and Richard was jazzed to try it. I mean seriously, anything with almost two pounds of milk chocolate and cocoa powder has to taste good, right? This recipe is the epitome of what chocolate cake should be. I followed Epicurious's Double Chocolate Layer Cake but used Dutch processed cocoa even though it said not to. Pure cocoa is just too expensive and can be bitter. I didn't want to chance it. Since Dutched cocoa but already contains alkali, I omitted the baking soda it the recipe. The cake is a really dense then I thought it would be so next time I make it I might just cut the baking soda in half instead of omitting it all together. Nevertheless, I'm feeling confident that it should still taste good. I'm not a big chocolate fan but I think I'm going to have to try a small piece, you know, for educational purposes. :-)

Tasting Update: Richard and I discussed this and we both agreed that it almost had a New York style cheesecake texture. This is not a cake that can be eaten too quickly. One must take small bites and wait before digging in again. Peter S. told me me that he got a little buzzed from it. This is definately one for the books folks. If you want to make an impressive super-duper chocolate cake, this one is it.

This picture was hard to get! Dark chocolate cake is just difficult to capture without creating too much contrast. Thanks Craig for taking the cake slice photo! I swear I can smell a rich chocolate aroma wafting out of my monitor!