For the cake:
Ingredients
2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs (room temperature)
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water
Baking spray
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two round, 9-inch pans with baking spray (I use Baker's Joy, but any of them are fine). Start boiling water (make sure to boil more than 1 cup because some of it will evaporate).
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. This is my favorite part: you can now add the wet ingredients directly into the dry ingredients - no separate bowl necessary! So go ahead and add the eggs, milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and boiling water and mix with a hand mixer for a couple of minutes. Pour evenly into both pans.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. I always err on the side of caution and check my baked goods on the earlier side. At 30 minutes, do the toothpick test and see if it comes out clean. If it does, you're done. If it doesn't, put back into the oven for another 5 minutes and do the toothpick test again. Once done, let the cakes rest in their pans on a cooking rack. I'd let them rest as long as you can. While they're resting, make the icing...
For the icing:
Ingredients:
1 stick butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
5 Tbsp. whole milk
Directions:
Beat butter until creamy. Add 1 tsp. of vanilla. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time and beat with a hand mixer. Add milk until your desired consistency is achieved. Please note, all measurements above are approximate (except the butter) because only you know how sweet you want the buttercream.