Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour three 9 inch pans. This recipe uses the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.

Add dry ingredients to the bowl of your mixer and mix for one minute to blend (sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt)

Add butter a few slices at a time and mix until it reaches a crumbly, sandy texture. Be careful not to over-mix beyond "sandy" consistency.

In another bowl, combine sour cream, eggs, milk, and vanilla. Using a fork, mix together. This is all of your wet ingredients except for the coffee, it will be added to the batter later.

Set a timer for 1 ½ minutes and SLOWLY add half of your egg mixture to your butter/flour mixture while mixing. Start mixer on low speed then increase to medium for the remainder of the 1 ½ minutes. Do Not Mix Above Medium Speed.

Stop mixer, scrape the sides and bottom of bowl, and add half of the remaining egg mixture. Mix on medium speed for 20 seconds.

Stop mixer, scrape down the sides if necessary, and add the last of the egg mixture. Mix for 20 more seconds on medium speed.

Slowly add HOT coffee and mixing for 30 seconds to blend. Batter will be runny but that is okay!

This recipe makes about 9 ½ cups of batter. Pour into 3 prepared 9" pans and bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until the center of the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick comes out clean.

Using a medium size sauce pan (deep enough to prevent boil over)  melt the butter over medium heat.  

Add the brown sugar and the remaining ingredients.

Stir to  blend, try to keep mixture off the sides of the pan. Once the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to low.

Cover the pot and simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, check the pot making sure it will not boil over.

Keep in mind that the caramel thickens as it cools.

Makes 1 cup caramel.  It can be kept in the refrigerator in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

Place your chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.

Pour heavy cream over the chocolate and place in the microwave for 30 seconds. (Times may vary, see our note below).

Remove and stir. Microwave for 15 seconds more. Repeat in short 15 second increments as needed. When the chocolate has melted almost completely, allow it to sit for 1 minute more before stirring. Stir until you've reached a silky smooth consistency.

*Microwave times may vary. If you are making a smaller amount of ganache, you will reduce the microwave time. If your chocolate hasn't melted after the 1 ½ minutes recommended in the instructions, simply microwave in small 10-15 second increments until it has nearly completely melted. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth.

Allow finished ganache to cool until it is a good consistency for dripping. (You can test this on the inside of your bowl. If it moves too quickly down, let it thicken a little more.

Add butter to a mixing bowl and beat for approximately 1 min. on medium speed. Add vanilla and blend into the butter. Add powdered sugar, salt, and cocoa powder.

Add most of the milk. Begin beating at low speed so you won't have a cloud of powdered sugar in your kitchen. Beat at medium speed 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat an additional two to three minutes, adding remaining milk as needed.

This is my favorite chocolate frosting! Recipe can easily be doubled or halved.

This recipe makes approximately 6 cups of frosting.

After placing the first chocolate cake layer on the cake base or pedestal, spread with a layer of chocolate buttercream.

Spread/drizzle with caramel, ganache, and sprinkle with toasted chopped pecans. Top with the next cake layer and repeat. Top with the final cake layer and frost the cake with Chocolate Buttercream.

Drizzle with caramel, ganache, and sprinkle with toasted pecans. Decorate as desired. I piped french tip stars around the top using a Wilton 6B tip and topped those with additional pecans. I also finished with a shell border at the base of the cake.