Instructions:
Make the cake
Prepare oven and pans: Preheat oven to 175 °C. Grease and flour three 9-inch round cake pans thoroughly.
Mix dry ingredients: Whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
Add wet ingredients: Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla extract to dry ingredients. Mix until batter is smooth.
Add hot water: Gently stir in the hot water (or hot coffee for a richer chocolate flavor). The batter will be thin, which is normal for this cake.
Bake: Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared cake pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cake layer comes out clean.
Cool: Let the cake layers cool in their pans for 10 minutes before carefully inverting them onto a wire rack to cool completely. Make sure they are completely cool before frosting.
Make the frosting:
the recipe on the next page
