A Birthday Cake for Neil (and me!)

I did it! I finally got around to baking an honest-to-goodness chocolate cake for Neil's birthday party two Sundays ago. For the super moist and fudgey(!) chocolate cake, i used the Black Magic cake recipe i found at the ever reliable All Recipes site. I was supposed to frost it with a basic chocolate icing but changed plans at the last minute and decided to go for a marshmallow icing instead. OMG! i'm so happy i did it considering the strong objections i got from the monsters upon hearing this. At any rate, i felt guilty, and so i made a separate batch of chocolate frosting which i used to frost the middle of the 2 10" layer cake. It was so good, from the cake itself to the icing, and i got nothing but rave complements the entire night. Of course, i made use of child labor to create that baby. The monsters + 1 cousin were all too eager esp. in the dressing-up-the-cake part that resulted to the all colorful finished product. I used the extra cake batter to make the cupcakes that were used to decorate the cake as well. To sum it all up, the black magic cake turned out oh-so-rich with the slightest hint of bitter chocolate goodness, oozing with chocolate frosting in-between layers. The lightness and gooeyness of the marshmallow icing reminds me of the moment i ate clouds in a dream...