This recipe was found my my husband, Zac. While working at the Sleep Institute he was thumbing through the "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine and he came across the recipe and picture and brought it home. What a find!
Cake:
1.5 C Flour
.5 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 C. Shortening (I use butter!)
1 1/4 C sugar
1 tsp Vanilla (the real stuff)
3 oz Bittersweet chocolate chips melted and cooled (we use milk choco)
1 8oz carton Sour Cream
2 eggs
1 C milk
1. Mix dry ingredients and set aside
2. Beat sugar and butter until combined and fluffy, beat in eggs, vanilla, chocolate, and sour cream.
3. Alternately add flour mixture and milk.
4. Bake 25 min at 350 in two round cake pans.
The batter is super fluffy and delicious, try not to eat too much before you bake it!
The Frosting
12oz package Semisweet chocolate chips (again I used milk)
1/2 C Butter
8oz Sour cream
4.5 C powdered Sugar
1. Melt Chocolate and Butter in pan on stove, use low heat!
2. Let it cool for 10 minutes
3. Stir in sour cream
4,. Stir in sugar. You really have to whisk super hard for quite a while or use electric mixers to get out all the lumps, but they do eventually stir in (my electric mixer is busted!).
This frosting is good enough to be eaten by the spoonful, and this recipe makes WAY too much unless you really load it on. I made a cake shaped like a graduation cap so I had to frost a piece of cardboard and I still had at least 1/2 cup of frosting leftover. Click on the picture and you'll be able to see the little cake in the middle.
I had to cut off some of the cake because the base of my grad cap was too big, so what do you think I made with the leftovers??? CAKE BALLS! I found a new way of doing them so that they are easier to eat and easier to dip!1. Break up the cake, mix in enough frosting that they'll roll into balls, but not too much that they stick everywhere.
2. Roll them into balls (I have Zac spray Pam on my hands cause it gets pretty sticky).
3. Melt a small amount of the chocolate for dipping. Dip a toothpick into the chocolate and then into the cake balls.
4. Put them into the fridge or freezer to harden up.
When they are solidified take them out and dip them into the chocolate. Here is a little video demo. When the chocolate started getting to thick and not deep enough in my bowl I started tapping the toothpic on the side of the bowl to get off the excess chocolate. I made some of them into fancy shmancy graduates. 
I used skewers instead of toothpics, then I took a square of Dove chocolate and glued it onto the cake ball with some melted chocolate. I took some sour straws and cut them in fourths first. If you leave them whole they are too thick to droop over the side. After they were skinnier sour straws I cut them the right length for the hats and glued them on with chocolate again. I think they are awesome!
TA DAH: Graduates:
