Foodie fans today is Chocolate Cake Day!  I'll take chocolate cake over white cake every time I have the choice.  Chocolate cake with chocolate icing, chocolate filling between the layers, and shaved chocolate on top (and anywhere else you can stick chocolate - just do it)...  My issue is, I'm not much of a baker.  The key when baking is to be true to your measurements.  If you're just cooking a pinch here and there are ok, when baking accurate measures are needed.  When I lived in Ohio there was a restaurant named Dalts - they had a Chocolate Malt Cake that would knock your socks off.  For years every time anyone in my family had a birthday that was the cake of choice (the only reason we stopped is because we moved and they wouldn't ship them).  I couldn't find a recipe for Dalts' Chocolate Malt Cake but I found one for Friday's version.

T.G.I. Friday's Chocolate Malt Cake

1 cup plus 3 tablespoons oil
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain yogurt
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups sugar
3 cups flour
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 tablespoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/4 cups boiling water
Malt Frosting (recipe below)

Make Malt Frosting before the cake so that it can chill for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Prepare 3 round 9-inch cake pans with butter and flour and line with parchment or wax paper. Set aside.

Beat oil, milk, yogurt, eggs and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended, about 2 minutes. Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in separate bowl. Slowly add 1/3 of dry ingredients to milk mixture and beat until well blended. Beat in 1/3 of boiling water. Add another 1/3 of dry ingredients and beat until well mixed; then beat in another 1/3 of water. Add remaining dry ingredients, beating well, then add remaining water and beat until well mixed. Scrape mixing bowl often.

Pour equal amounts of batter into prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Do not open oven while cake is baking. Cool pans on rack for 15 minutes, the remove from pan, take off paper, and continue to cool completely. Frost top of one layer with Malt Frosting, then place second layer on top and frost; top with third layer and frost tops and sides. Refrigerate 2 hours before cutting.

Makes 16 servings.

Malt Frosting: Melt one 12-ounce package of semi-sweet chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly. Set aside to cool. Beat 1 pint whipping cream and 1-1/4 cups malted milk powder in electric mixer on high until stiff but not dry, about 2 minutes; refrigerate about 30 minutes. Whip 1/3 cup sugar, 4 ounces softened cream cheese and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in a separate bowl until creamy, about 2 minutes, scraping bowl often. Add melted chocolate chips and beat 1 more minute. Add half of malt-cream mixture and beat until uniform in color. Fold in remaining malt-cream mixture by hand until frosting is uniform in color. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before icing cake.