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1
Make the cake in a 13x9-inch baking pan following instructions on the box of cake mix (Preheat oven to 350 degrees; mix cake mix, water, oil, and eggs together in a large bowl; pour batter into pan greased generously with shortening.).
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2
Allow the cake to cool completely.
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3
When cake is cool, make buttercream frosting by first whipping the soft butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer on high speed.
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4
Add two cups of the powdered sugar, mix well, then add remaining powdered sugar.
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5
Add 1/4 cup of whole milk and vanilla, then mix on high speed for 2 minutes or until frosting is smooth and creamy.
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6
Turn cake out of the pan onto wax paper.
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7
Using both hands, carefully flip the cake over, so that it's right-side-up, onto another strip of wax paper.
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8
Now you're going to cut through the cake twice, creating three layers.
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9
We'll start at the bottom slice.
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10
First slide the cake over to the edge of your kitchen counter.
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This way you can drop your hand with the knife down below the counter at the edge to get a nice, straight cut through the cake.
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12
Using a long bread knife or other long serrated knife, cut through the bottom third of the cake.
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Spin the cake and wax paper so that you can cut through all sides (your knife probably won't get all the way through to the other side).
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14
When the cake is sliced, carefully flip the top section over onto the other sheet of wax paper.
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15
Frost the bottom layer of cake with approximately 1/3 of the buttercream frosting.
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Break the chilled semi-sweet chocolate into little bits that are a tad smaller than chocolate chips.
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A good way to do this is to put the chilled chocolate into a large zip-top bag, then use the handle of a butter knife to smash the unsuspecting chocolate into pieces.
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Sprinkle about 1/3 of the chocolate bits over the frosting on the bottom layer.
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19
Turn the top section back over onto the bottom layer.
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20
Again, slice through the top section creating the final two layers.
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21
Carefully flip the top over onto the wax paper, and frost the new layer as you did with the first layer, adding chocolate bits as well.
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22
You may, at this point, wish to slice the top into thirds across the width of the cake.
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This makes flipping over the top layer much easier.
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It's also how you're going to slice the cake later, so you'll never see the cuts.
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Any cracks or breaks are no big deal since you'll just cover up the goofs with frosting.
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26
Carefully reassemble the top section on the rest of the cake.
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27
If you have a large bulge in the center of the cake, you may wish to slice that off so that the cake is flatter on top.
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28
Throw that slice away.
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29
Frost the top of the cake with the remaining frosting, then sprinkle on the remaining chocolate bits.
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30
The cake is served as triangular slices.
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31
So, slice it up by first cutting through the middle of the cake, lengthwise.
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32
Next cut across the cake through the middle (widthwise) twice.
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Now you have six slices that just need to be cut from corner to corner one time each, creating 12 triangular slices.
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34
Chill any cake you don't eat that day.
