Preheat the oven to 340F. Prepare the pans. I use bakers spray (oil and flour) to oil the pans. Add a round of parchment over the sprayed pan bottom then spray the parchment.

• Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This is the key to making a less dense cake.
• Beat each egg into the mix one at a time until combined.
• Sift flour, cocoa, salt and soda twice with a strainer.

• heat buttermilk, coffee powder and vanilla in microwave till warm. Stir to combine and be sure all the coffee powder is dissolved
• add 1/3 flour mix to creamed sugar/butter. Mix till just combined. Add 1/3 buttermilk mix to batter. Mix till just combined. Continue adding flour mix, then milk mix till done. Don’t over mix, stop when smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared 9-inch pans.

Bake:
To bake, I use convection for the first 10 mins, then turn it off and use normal heat for 20 mins, then turn down to 330F for the last 10 mins. Cake is done when springs back to a light touch and toothpick comes out with just a few crumbs.

Take cake out, cool on rack in pans for 15 mins. Remove from pans and cool to room temp.

Before frosting, wrap in plastic wrap and put in freezer for 30 mins or refrigerator for 1-2 hours or overnight. I cut each layer in half, so I had 4 layers. I used cooked flour cream cheese icing found here: http://joepastry.com/2011/heritage-a-k-a-boiled-a-k-a-flour-a-k-a-cooked-flour-a-k-a-gravy-a-k-a-cloudburst-frosting/ (the cream cheese variant uses 1/2 stick butter, 2 oz vegetable shortening and 8 oz cream cheese.