Clapboard Cake

My friend's daughter recently turned 12, and she wanted to have a movie-themed birthday party. My friend, Kelly, did cute invitations and party favors, but she doesn't like to bake. So she asked if I could make a cake. After asking the birthday girl what she wanted, I came up with a clapboard cake design.

It is a chocolate buttermilk cake that is so very soft and moist! The frosting would, I guess, be considered a buttercream. I just make my own frosting. I doubled the cake recipe and made it in four 9x13 pans (I only used three). I also made two batches of the frosting (one white, one black).

When I bake, I don't measure very accurately, if at all. So these are all approximations.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake

• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 cup Hershey's baking cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• Kosher Salt (pinch or so)
• 1 1/2- 1 3/4 c buttermilk
• Splash of Vanilla
• Splash of Orange extract
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 c) softened butter
• 3 eggs

Chocolate Frosting

• 2 sticks of butter
• 2 squares semi-sweet chocolate, melted
• 4 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 1 box of confectioner's sugar (sifted)
• splash of vanilla
• splash of buttermilk (to get to the right consistency)
• Black food coloring

White Frosting

• 1 stick of butter
• 1/2 a box of confectioner's sugar
• splash of vanilla (use clear vanilla if you want it to be really white)
• splash of buttermilk