Layered Chocolate Cream Cake

This is a recipe for my favorite chocolate cake. It comes, mostly unaltered, from the treasure trove of culinary art that is Ann Brooks. If you dislike this cake, you are objectively a bad person.

Ingredients

This recipe has 3 distinct components: the cakes, the frosting, and the whipped cream.

Cake

5 Tblsp Cocoa Powder
1 egg, separated into yolk & white
2 eggs, whole
1 and half cups milk (reserve 1/2 cup)
1/2 Cup butter
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 Cups Sifted flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda

Frosting

¼ Cup butter
⅔ Pack of cream cheese
7½ Tblsp Cocoa Powder
Tiny pinch of salt
3 Cups 10X sugar
½ Cup light cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Whipped Cream

1½ Cups heavy cream
¼ Cup 10X sugar

Make The Cakes

Mix cocoa, egg yolk and 1 cup milk. Heat over low burner. Stir until smooth and thickened. Cream butter until light. Add sugar vanilla, eggs and egg white. Blend in cocoa mixture.Be sure cocoa mixture isn't too hot as it can make the eggs cook. Add dry ingredients with remaining milk. Line two 9" pans with greased wax paper. Pour batter into pans. Bake at 350°F for about 25 minutes.

Cool cake a few minutes. Invert and remove wax paper.

When ready to assemble, cut each cake in half horizontally so you have 4 cakes.

Frosting

Mix in the butter and cream cheese, then add the cocoa, salt and vanilla. While mixing, alternate adding the sugar and the light cream.

Whipped Cream

Beat the heavy cream, adding in ¼ cup 10X sugar and 1 tsp vanilla.

Assembly

From the bottom, up: cake, thin layer frosting, whipped cream. Repeat until the top. The top layer gets only frosting, no whipped cream. The frosting is usually thin and may try to run. Get it thick enough to stick on, but let it drizzle a bit down the sides.
Serving

The cake must be refrigerated and gets better if left there a few hours. You may have to put a couple long toothpicks or bamboo skewers in it if the cakes come out lopsided so that the layers don't slide around on each other.