12 Layer Cake with Old-Fashioned Boiled Chocolate Icing

I've lived in the South my entire life. My earliest years were spent in Hot Springs, Arkansas where I have so many memories of my Grandparents feeding everyone who graced their doorstep and there was always something being kept warm on the back of the stove. After a quick stop-over in Aiken, South Carolina, I landed here in Washington, North Carolina. Here is where I learned the true value of Southern cooking and a great appreciation for those heritage type recipes that only your great-grandma knew how to make or that momma only brought out for special occasions. At some point during my teenage years, I went to a homecoming at some southern baptist church which are so plentiful in this area. Couldn't tell you what church or even what friend, what I can tell you is there was the most amazing cake there that I had ever seen or tasted. It had these amazingly thin layers and this perfect grainy, fudgey icing that was honestly the best thing I had ever put in my mouth. I never saw it again. I tried to describe it to people and all I could ever glean from them was "Wow! Yeah, I love that cake.". No one knew what to call it or where to get a recipe. I was stumped and gave up. A couple of years ago, I saw an article in the New York Times about this cake! I was overjoyed!

I don't remember why I wasn't able to get this recipe.....it may have been that you had to pay for the online version of the NY Times to access it or it may have been that it was a limited time thing and the link expired before I could use it. Regardless, I struck out at making this amazing Southern heritage cake. Along came Pinterest. I found a great recipe that wasn't from a disgusting boxed cake mix and included directions for making each layer separately, because there's no possible way to slice cake layers thin enough to do for this cake. Hooray! I found an occasion to make it for and went to work. The first try was a learning experience and the later tries have come out better each time. Hope you guys love this as much as I do, and trust me, it's worth the time you invest! It takes 2-3 hours from start to finish, so set aside an evening and enjoy the process. Turn up the stereo or have somebody you love to chat with come keep you company.

12 Layer Cake with Chocolate Icing:

For the cake:

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

2 1/2 cups sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups milk (I used whole milk)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

5 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

For the icing:

1 stick butter

1 15 oz can of evaporated milk

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

5 cups sugar

1/3 cup good cocoa powder

Assemble and measure out all of your ingredients in advance for this one. Once you get going, you really won't have time to stop and measure the milk etc...

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

In the bowl of your mixer, cream together your 2 sticks of softened butter, shortening, and 2 1/2 cups of sugar.

While your mixer is working, place all of your dry ingredients (cake flour, powder, soda, salt) in a large bowl and whisk them together. Baking tip- most of the time, sifting flour is unnecessary. Whisking it with the other ingredients is usually enough to take care of any lumps.

Mix your sugar and butter mixture until it has become fluffy and lighter in color (3-5 minutes). 

Add your eggs one at a time, mixing between each egg added. Also, using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl a couple of times during this process to insure that everything is evenly combined.

When all the eggs are in, your mixture should look something like this.

Now its time to add the milk and flour mixture, alternating between each and beginning with the flour. Go ahead and pour the vanilla into the measured milk to make life a little easier.

Add a cup or two of your flour mixture to the butter and egg in your mixing bowl and mix just to combine.

When you can't see any flour, its time to add some milk. Start with about a quarter of your milk.

Mix to combine and continue alternating between flour and milk until its all included.

Your cake batter is ready! I used 4 pans, so I only had to go through the whole baking process 3 times. If you don't have 4 of the same size cake pans, don't worry! You can reuse them as many times as you need to, or if cost isn't important, you can get disposable aluminum cake pans and fill them all at one time. No matter what kind of pan you use, grease it well.

Place about 3/4 to 1 cup of batter in each pan and spread it lightly, so as not to disturb whatever pan spray you opted for. It probably won't reach the sides or be even at this step, don't worry! The pastry chef that taught me most of everything I know about baking is probably going to cringe at this one, but....bang the pans on the counter to even out the batter. Sorry, Laura! 

Time to bake! Set your timer for 6 minutes and then check your layers. They may take 8 or more minutes depending on your oven. They're so thin, no toothpick required to check. If they feel firmish on top, they're done.

While you're doing the mad dash of baking all these layers, start the icing on your stovetop. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, combine all of the icing ingredients and turn them on medium heat. Stir.

And about that time, your first batch of layers should be done.

Let the layers cool just enough that you can handle the pan and take them out. This way you can wipe the pans out, spray them back down, and add batter for the next round of layers.

While they're cooling enough for you to not burn yourself, whisk your icing ingredients a few times and add a candy thermometer.

I knew my oven sucked, but I no idea it was this bad until I tried this cake. Pardon the uneven color of my cake layers. Turn your first batch of layers out onto a piece of parchment or wax paper to await your icing.

While your next round of cake layers are in the oven, stir your icing. You're aiming for 230 degrees or soft-ball stage. It should take 6-10 minutes, but definitely don't try to time this one. Get a candy thermometer.

When you've hit temperature, your icing is ready to go. I used a cake carrier with a lid to kind of make a channel for excess icing. Whatever you use, be ready for this one to get a little messy. Also, note- nothing hurts like a sugar burn. Be careful with this icing while its hot.

Add the warm icing one ladle full at a time. Just enough to mostly cover the layer. It will spread and drip, so no need to worry about full coverage.

Note the puddles of icing already forming under the cake layer. I used a rubber spatula to save this extra frosting every couple of layers and add it back to the pot (mostly to insure that I had enough frosting to complete the process, but also to cut down on the size of the mess)

Add the next layer and lightly press it down to try to keep everything even.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this, it will be time to take the 2nd batch of layers out of the oven, un-pan them and put the last round in...so pay attention to the oven, too!

As far as the icing part goes, add a ladle full, grab another layer....wash, rinse, repeat....

When you've added the last layer and put icing on top of it, grab an icing spatula or any other utensil of choice and carefully spread the icing around the bottom back up the sides of the cake to cover any cake layers showing. If you have any icing left in the pot, you can use it too. If at any time the icing in the pot gets too thick to work with, you can warm it back up on the stovetop over low heat, stirring constantly.

That's it! Ta-da! 12 layers of amazingly delicious cake wonderfulness! Messy and time consuming, but there's noting on earth quite like it and as far as I'm concerned, its worth every minute. Make this cake! Go forth and impress your grandmother or the little old ladies in town! These are the kinds of recipes that will soon be lost to convenience food and people not taking the time to cook REAL FOOD anymore. Don't let these recipes die! Practice them, enjoy the process, and find more to pass on to future generations!