Chocolate Cream Cheese Baby Cakes

For the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour six 3” x 2″ mini baking pans (can be purchased on the internet) and set aside. If you only have 2, you may work in 3 batches. They only take 15 minutes to bake per pair so it will take under an hour for 3 batches.

In a large bowl or in the bowl of your standing mixer, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Add egg, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla. Beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Add sour cream and continue to mix for another 30 seconds until combined. Stir in hot water (or hot coffee). Don’t worry, the batter should be runny!

Pour batter evenly between pans (they should only be half full, otherwise they will bubble over in the oven). Bake on the middle rack of your oven for 13-14 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs on toothpick.

Cool for 5-10 minutes in the pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake so that you can remove them. Invert the cakes onto a platter or plate. Using a serrated bread knife, level off the tops of the cakes so they are even and flat. Allow cakes to cool before frosting.

For the frosting:

In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, vanilla and salt. Beat with mixer until well blended. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until combined.

Frost the cakes as you would a regular large cake. Note: frosting a dark cake with light frosting can prove to be challenging because the dark crumbs end of “dirtying” the light frosting. Simply use this trick. Frost with a light coating first, and don’t worry if the darker crumbs invade your frosting. Refrigerate for 10-15 minutes after frosting the thin layer. When the cake comes out of the refrigerator, it will be much easier to frost with the remaining frosting, and your outer layer with be nice and “clean” looking. Refrigerate cakes (I find this cuts the sweetness a little, and also helps so the heavy cream cheese frosting stays put).