Devil's Food Cake Cockaigne

This is the cake Aaron made for my birthday on Sunday. It is from the Joy of Cooking.
The directions are a bit confusing so hopefully I can write this so you can follow. I'll do the ingredients first (even though that's not how it is in the book). And yes, sugar and buttermilk are listed twice, on purpose.
As for the buttermilk -we just used milk with lemon juice to sour it (1 cup milk to 1 tsp lemon juice). And cake flour can be made by adding 1/4 c. cornstarch to 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour (to make 2 cups)

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsweetened nonalkalized (whatever that means) cocoa
1/2 c. buttermilk or yogurt
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. buttermilk or yogurt
1 tsp vanilla
8 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2 large eggs


Have all ingredients at room temperature. Grease and flour 0ne 9-inch tube pan or 2 9x2 inch round cake pans. Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together 1 c. sugar, cocoa, 1/2 buttermilk. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking soda and salt. In a small bowl combine 1/2 buttermilk and vanilla.

In a large bowl, beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually add 1 c sugar, on high speed, until lightened in color and texture. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in cocoa mixture. Add flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the buttermilk mixture in 2 parts ( i.e add 1/3 of the flour, 1/2 of the buttermilk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 buttermilk and then remaining 1/3 flour). Beat on low speed or stir with a rubber spatula until smooth and scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary. Scrape the batter into the pan(s) and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30-35 minutes in round pans, 45-55 minutes for the tube pan.
***important. Know your oven. Go the full 55 minutes in a tube pan unless you think it's done. We checked ours at 45 minutes and it fell :( But it still tasted good!***
Let cool in the pan(s) on a rack for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife around the cake to detach it from the pan(s). Invert the cake. Let cool right side up on the rack.

Aaron glazed it with a Chocolate Ganache, also from the Joy of Cooking. It would have been really rich if we'd had heavy whipping cream. But even using skim milk, it was great! And I don't think he used this much chocolate, probably 1/2 of the recipe.

3/4 c heavy cream
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

Bring cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from heat and add chocolate, Stir until most of the chocolate is melted. Cover and let rest of 10 minutes. Stir or whisk very gently until completely smooth. Stir in 1 Tbsp liqueur (optional) - we used vanilla. For a pourable glaze, let stand at room temperature stirring occasionally, until mixture cools to 85 to 95 degrees. F. For frosting, let stand until spreadable. It can be soften again slowly if necessary.