Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

We celebrated my daughter’s birthday yesterday and per usual, I decided to bake a cake from scratch.  Lately, my go to recipe has been this version and luckily there have been no complaints from the peanut gallery.  Nevertheless, I wanted to mix things up a bit and since my daughter is a chocoholic like myself, I felt compelled to whip up a traditional chocolate cake.  Having said that, neither of us are fans of chocolate on chocolate.  I find it to be a tad too rich.  So, instead I opted for a classic vanilla buttercream frosting.  This frosting is my favorite because it’s light and fluffy and so easy to make.  I hardly ever rely on store bought icing anymore.  I do reduce the amount of confectioners sugar from three cups to two because my kids have commented it’s overly sweet.  As for the cake, I’ve used this recipe in the past and have had great success.  It swaps out butter for applesauce so the reduced fat and calorie content is a bonus.  I have made it with the orange glaze sauce and it’s divine….especially when the cake is still warm.  But, this time, I knew the kids would appreciate a conventional frosting….one made with butter, sugar and vanilla extract.  No reduced calories on this end but oh so satisfying.