stealth baking

so i'm trying really hard to find a recipe that duplicates dots' chocolate cake recipe.  you'd think i could figure it out from being there every freaking day, but nooooo.  all i could tell was that there are some ingredients that i wouldn't have guessed on my own, like freshly brewed coffee and buttermilk.  and their cake is so super delicious - i'm totally addicted to their chocolate cake.

so i turned to my friend google to see if i could find a similar recipe.  i was stoked to find this one by ina garten, and bookmarked it for future use.  i actually meant to make it for the bean's birthday bash, but since my boss had been so generous and sent me home with red velvet cake batter that weekend, i didn't have to.  and for some reason, i was craving more cake (despite having worked that day and chowing down on a couple of mini cupcakes on the way home).  so i decided to bust it out and give it a shot.

i finally cut open my bag of dry buttermilk:

and then i broke out the valrhona cocoa.  nothing but the best for my baked goods.  heh.

i remembered that i had some cute cupcake liners in regular and mini sizes, purchased for the bean's party.  of course, i forgot that light colored liners + chocolate batter = no bueno.  oh, well.

i used my super special "gossip girl" ice cream scoop to divvy up the batter into the cups, like they do at dots.  well, they don't have a GG scoop, but i've watched them use a similar one while doing the daily baking.

they baked up nicely, and made the house smell pretty dang good in the process.  after they'd cooled, i snagged a mini to test it out.

while it was pretty delicious - chocolatey but not too sweet - the texture isn't right.  the cake at dots is super light and fluffy, and although this one wasn't exactly dense, it wasn't the same.  maybe i need more baking soda.  hmm.

in any case, i'll keep trying.  got any good recipes for light, fluffy chocolate cake that use buttermilk and freshly brewed coffee?  send 'em my way, por favor.