• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round pans. Place a waxed paper or parchment paper circle in the bottom of each pan. Spoon the combined graham cracker crumb/sugar/butter mixture into the 3 cake pans. Press down with the back of a spoon. Now you are ready to put the cake batter into the pans.

For the Chocolate Cake

• In a mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients: sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk for 1 minute to blend.
• Add softened butter a few pieces at a time while the mixer is on low speed. Mix until the dry ingredients look like coarse sand and the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
• In a separate bowl whisk the eggs, milk , oil and vanilla until blended.
• Method is important when using the Reverse Creaming Method. With the mixer on low speed, SLOWLY add approximately ½ of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients. Increase the speed to medium and mix for 1 ½ minutes at medium speed. Don't mix above medium speed. Scrape the bottom and sides of bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating for 20 seconds after each pour. Scrape the sides and bottom of bowl.
• Slowly add the cup of hot coffee and mix another 30 seconds until blended. The batter will be very runny. Don't worry!
• Pour into 3 prepared 8" pans and bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.
• Cool the cakes 10 minutes on a rack and then turn out of the pans.
• *Yields approx 9 cups of batter.

For the Seven Minute Frosting

• Make sure the mixing bowl and beaters are clean without a trace of grease. Any grease will keep the egg whites from increasing to full volume.
• Use a separate bowl to separate the eggs. You will be using only the whites and if a yolk happens to break and gets mixed in, the recipe will not work. Place the egg whites into the bowl of your mixer and add the vanilla. Set aside until time to beat the whites.
• In a saucepan, add the water, sugar, cream of tartar (or white corn syrup). Cook on medium/high heat. Do not stir, or stir just enough to distribute the sugar. You don't want sugar crystals sticking to the side of the pan. The mixture will begin to boil and become clear. After it boils for a minute or so, remove from the heat. You will be able to see that the sugar has dissolved.
• Beat the egg whites and vanilla to the soft peak stage. This happens rather quickly. At soft peak stage, the egg whites will not form peaks but will just fall over, cloud like. At this time, with the mixer beating on low speed slowly pour in a small stream of the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Avoid hitting the beaters as you pour.
• Increase the mixer to high speed and beat approximately 7 minutes (it could vary if using a hand mixer) until stiff peaks form (stiff peaks stand straight up). Makes 10 cups frosting. This recipe can be halved. Frosting sets up rather quickly and so it should be used very soon after making.

For the Ganache

• Place your chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.
• Pour heavy cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave for 1 minute. (Times may vary, see our note below).
• Remove and allow to sit for one minute.
• Gently stir and press chips to aid in melting. If there are still unmelted chips, microwave for 5-10 seconds. Stir and repeat as necessary. Be very careful not to overheat.
• *Microwave times may vary. If you are making a smaller amount of ganache, you should reduce the microwave time. If your chocolate hasn't melted after the recommended amount of time, simply microwave in small 5-10 second increments until it has nearly completely melted. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth. The ganache will thicken a bit as it cools. Do not drizzle or glaze the cake when the ganache is hot.

Cake Assembly

• We assembled the cake layers graham cracker side down, (glazing with cooled ganache is optional), glazed the top of our cake with a layer of cooled ganache, and frosted the sides with white fluffy frosting.
• Next, we sawed the graham crackers lengthwise in half with a serrated knife, using long strokes back and forth to prevent breakage. We applied around the sides of the cake.
• We then loaded our ganache into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away and applied our drip over the top edge/graham cracker border. (Ganache should flow easily from the piping bag but should not be hot.)
• Using a french tip, we piped our frosting over the top of the cake, allowing it to mound up a bit.
• Finally, using a small culinary torch, we toasted some of the areas of our frosting (as an optional step).