Four layer chocolate cake with French buttercream frosting was one of my Auntie Margie's signature cakes - she made it for every family gathering and I can still picture her old fashioned metal cake carrier in my mind. Making this frosting at my aunt's house is one of my vivid childhood baking memories - you had to cut the silver wrapped sticks of Imperial margarine into little pieces and add them two at a time to the bowl with the big stand mixer running. I was allowed to drop the pieces in while I stood over the bowl watching the mesmerizing whirring magically turn it all into my favorite fluffy frosting.
I recently made these cakes for dessert. I don't have my aunt's cake recipe so I just used the standard Hershey's recipe, found on the cocoa box. Admittedly this might not have been the best choice to serve our guest from Holland, who commented on the 'light' chocolate cake (next time I'll have to use some of this stuff), but I think the combination of a lighter cake with such rich frosting was just fine. We also had strawberries to add on top.
French Buttercream Frosting
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. salt (skip if your butter is salted)
3/4 cup milk
2 sticks butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix sugar, flour and salt in saucepan. Stir in milk until smooth. Place over medium heat and cook until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and transfer to bowl; let cool. Cut butter into pieces and beat into mixture, two pieces at a time. Mix should be cool enough so the butter doesn't melt. Beat with electric mixer after each addition until smooth. Continue beating until all butter is used up, and then beat in vanilla. Frosting should be nice and fluffy with no lumps. The original recipe says to chill before spreading but I didn't have time for that - it may be necessary in hot weather. This recipe makes enough for one cake. Bake the cakes in nine inch round or square pans, and then cut each layer in half. There will be enough to frost between the layers and on top but not the sides. Garnish with chocolate shavings. I served it cut in slices rather than wedges as it is rather rich, but mostly because that's how Auntie Margie always served it.