The cake turned out great and it was rich enough (but not too sweet) to easily feed all 8 couples at Greg's party. Here's the recipe for those of you who wanted it:
Moist and Tender Devil's Food Cake
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 cups water (boiling)
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
8 ounces unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus extra for
greasing pans
1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mousse Frosting:
1 pint whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla
4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate
Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to upper- and lower-middle positions; heat oven to 350 degrees. Meanwhile, grease three 8-inch cake pans with butter and line bottom of each pan with parchment paper round. Combine chocolate and cocoa in medium bowl; pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Sift together flours, baking soda, and salt onto large sheet parchment or waxed paper; set aside.
2. Place butter in bowl of standing mixer and beat at medium-high
speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add brown sugar and beat on high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl with rubber spatula. Increase speed to medium-high and add eggs one at a time, beating 30 seconds after each addition. Reduce speed to medium; add sour cream and vanilla and beat until combined, about 10 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape down bowl. With mixer on low, add about one third of flour mixture, followed by about one half of chocolate mixture. Repeat, ending with flour mixture; beat until just combined, about 15 seconds. Do not overbeat. Remove bowl from mixer; scrape bottom and sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix gently to thoroughly combine.
3. Divide batter evenly among cake pans, smooth batter to edges of pan with rubber spatula. If baking three 8-inch cakes, place two pans on lower-middle rack and one on upper-middle rack. Bake until skewer inserted in center comes out clean, 20 to 23 minutes for 8-inch cakes. In Utah bake at least 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack 15 to 20 minutes. Run knife around pan perimeter to loosen. Invert cakes onto large plate; peel off parchment, and re-invert onto lightly greased rack. Cool completely before icing.
Mousse Frosting:
Melt chocolate with about 1/3 cup of cream (add a little more cream if too thick). Cool in cold bath. (adding the cream helps the chocolate not turn flaky when you fold it into cold whipped cream) Whip remaining cream, vanilla, and sugar to stiff peaks. Fold in chocolate to taste. Stack and cover cakes with a thick layer of mousse. Chill overnight.
