Cake #3 Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate Orange Buttercream Frosting

There's been a cake landslide in Cambridge lately.  After the monsoon, I was in the mood to bake.  We were in the mood for chocolate and there you have it.  Chocolate cake.  With Orange Chocolate buttercream.  Only to get to work the next day and find out someone has heard I have a baking project and recruited me to make a cake for an office baby shower on Friday.  What? 2 Cakes in 1 week?  More on that later.  I do not want to take away from this amazing cake. Devil's Food Cake with Chocolate-Orange Buttercream  

I am starting to think of cakes on a couple of new fronts, like how easy is it to make with ingredients on hand in my pantry and after my first cake, the $30 cake, in terms of cost of ingredients.  I have to say this cake was both easy and complex at the same time.  The only specialty ingredients I needed were dark chocolate, usually a staple in my pantry, but we were out, and "dried lavender blossoms".  Lucky me.   I live in Inman Square, home to Christina's Ice Cream and neighboring spice shop that seems to have every obscure spice - as in if its tough to find, I have found it there, and if they did not carry it, I would have to throw in the towel and substitute, because I could not think of another place to look.  Everything in Inman Square seems to be closed on Sundays, so I thought I had no shot, but surprise again, the obscure spice shop IS open on Sundays (maybe because people like me like to cook on Sundays and cannot plan ahead).  And, imagine my further surprise that a lifetime supply only cost $3.36.  My recipe needed "dried lavender blossoms" and this was "lavender" with what looked like blossoms in the pack, but I was hesitant b/c it was not called the exact name.  It looked a lot like the potpourri in my sock drawer.  It also looked a lot like a plant on my front stoop, but I did not want to poison us if I was horticulturally wrong.  

For the record, I was supposed to get a teaspoon of it out of a spice grinder, but we do not have one.  I used the mortar & pestly instead.  But then I also had to use my fine mesh sieve, since the mortar & pestle yielded some hay-like strands in it that instinct told me would not be great.  I used only about half of the teaspoon I needed - in case I was wrong on my assumptions & substituyions, I did not want to overwhelm & ruin the whole cake.  

I also want to say a bit about the ingredients.  I was being lazy (in comparison to my search for cherries in cake #1) and I only needed chocolate and I needed a slew of other groceries.  Back to Trader Joe's.  For the amount and kind I needed, I wound up with the "Pound Plus" pictured above.  I was worried this chocolate might not be "fancy" enough and could make my whole cake pedestrian when it could be amazing.  Well, in the end, the cake WAS amazing and I was relieved that my choice of chocolate did not bring it down.  
Maybe it was this picture that prompted my husband to declare he would become my official cake photographer - I keep forgetting to take pictures of a slice or inside of the cake.  This one with the salsa coming out of the top, maybe not the greatest.  
One of the things I liked about this cake was the multiple chocolates involved and the complexity of making them.  It is a messy-kitchen cake for sure.  Melting chocolate for the batter, dissolving cocoa, melting chocolate for the frosting, etc.  Many bowls.  Many pans.  Much mess.  Very worth it.  I have been bringing cake to work.  This one elicited comments like, "Restaurant Quality!" "My favorite frosting- I need the recipe" and "Oh, it was too rich.  I cannot finish a piece."  I took that last one as a compliment too.  Wimps.  

We did realize that temperature matters in serving the cake.  Room temperature, as recommended, might be too decadent to eat.  The only way to get through a whole piece is to eat it cold from the fridge - at which time you might even want a second piece.  Kind of the reverse Krispy Kreme theory (that hot you could eat a box, but cold, 2 would clog your heart).  The lavender was there if you knew it, but not overwhelming.  I could have used the full amount.  The orange was only in the frosting and was perfect for some, needed to be more orangey for some and too orangey for others.  So there you have it.  
Me and my kitchen helpers.  To buy me some alone time in the kitchen, I let the girls measure the sugar I needed, but then left them with some tools at the table.  I took all the goods away and was in the kitchen.  Elliot was helping me above, but Samantha was being awfully quiet in her high chair.  I forgot to take away the BAG of brown sugar.  She swiped it from what I thought was out of her reach.  I was in the kitchen a good 5 minutes before finding her below, shoving fistfuls of brown sugar into her mouth.  I am pretty sure that was not a full bag to start - but I was also pretty sure I cleared the table, so who knows.  And since she already had so much of it, it did not bother me to let her keep it the extra 30 seconds it took me to get my camera.