Taste is good… agree that it improved with age (a few hours)!

BTW, what altitude was the original cake baked at? The photo shows a very nicely mounded form.

Any help is appreciated.
John in Denver

If you don’t have an icing spatula, you can use a butter knife if you have one. But if you plan on icing more cakes in the future, at least get a cheap one :)
Make sure the bottom layer is level to avoid leaning of the cake. You can even cool it dome side-down if you’re feeling lazy and just leave it like that; just put the top layer on dome side-up. If the flat top is not the problem but the icing is too sticky and drags the cake, leave it for a short while at room temperature and work it with a rubber spatula to loosen the icing up, making it easier to work with. It also helps with the crumbs sticking to the cake.
The preferred way of preventing crumbs going all over your frosting is to make a crumb coat. Take a bit of the frosting and frost the cake all over thinly. Don’t mind if some crumbs are dragged around. Place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up the frosting, then dump the rest of the frosting on the cake and frost it all over thickly, taking care not to touch the crumb coat with the spatula as the crumb coat protects the cake inside. You can then use a spoon to create swirls all over the cake.

Good luck!

That’s My Cake! — That’s how I felt when I went to your site — I want to make and eat what you’re cooking! Go have yourself some instant-gratification cake from a bake shop. :-)

That’s all I can say.. and man.. I wish I had some chocolate cake right now.. I am honestly thinking of zipping in the kitchen and whipping some up! But I better just hop back into reality!! :)

Yumm…

Easy and sinfully delicious chocolate frosting? From the Cake Mix Doctor–and I’ve made it too many times to count. Always consistent results:

Very easy, extremely chocolatey and not sweet. Perfect, like the name says.

6 oz semisweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup butter, cut into tablespoon sizes
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1 place a large bowl, filled halfway with ice, in the sink (a bowl that is large enough to hold the pot that you will cook the frosting in).
2 in a medium size pot over med low heat; melt chocolate, cream, and butter.
3 stirring constantly, cook the mixture until all of the butter and chocolate melts and thickens.
4 cook for 5-6 minutes.
5 DO NOT LET BOIL.
6 remove pot from heat.
7 whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar until mixture becomes smooth (approximately 1 minute).
8 then put the pot on top of the bowl of ice.
9 (be careful to not allow any ice from the larger bowl to get into pot with the chocolate mixture.) beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 4-5 minutes until frosting becomes smooth, thick, and fudgy.
10 remove from ice.
11 spread onto cooled cake layers.
12 the frosting will thicken as it sets up.
13 if the frosting gets too hard to spread, put back on LOW heat and stir constantly until you get the spreading consistency desired.
14 ***i have been adding 1 Tbs. of light corn syrup to the initial heavy cream and chocolate mixture to add more glossiness to the frosting.***

Yield: enough for a 2 layer cake
Ready in: 15 minutes

amanda — Thanks! You know, I was actually expecting it to sink in as well, just like when I make brownies. Not sure what makes it different.