Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with baking spray (or if you prefer, butter the bottom of each pan and line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter the parchment paper).

If you don’t have buttermilk on hand (I usually never do), simply add one tablespoon of white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup. Add the milk to the vinegar until it reaches one cup and let mixture stand at room temperature for about 5 minutes. It should be curdled. Give it a whirl with your spoon…look, you just made your own buttermilk!

If you use the butter/parchment paper method, dust the pans after adding the butter to the parchment paper with cocoa powder. Shake out the excess and set the pans aside while you prep the batter.

In a medium sized bowl, add the cocoa powder and chocolate chips.

Pour in the hot espresso and stir together until you have a smooth chocolate mixture.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (if you don’t have a stand mixer, in a medium sized bowl), mix together on low speed the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined.

In a small bowl, mix together the eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla, stopping the mixer to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to combine all the flour mixture.

Add the buttermilk mixture a little at time into the flour mixture and mix together until combined.

Slowly add the melted chocolate mixture and mix until combined; stop the mixture and scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula to incorporate all of the chocolate mixture.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans and bake for 30-35 minutes (mine were ready at about 28 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes in their pans for about 20 minutes. While the cakes are cooling, you can prep whichever frosting you are using, or use my frosting recipe.

In a metal bowl, add all the egg whites, and beat the egg whites until starts to get a little thick and forms soft peaks. Set your timer for 7 minutes. Now slowly (take care and do not let this boiling hot sugar syrup burn you) add the sugar syrup only a little at a time and beat on high speed for 7 minutes.

On the last minute, beat in the vanilla extract. The frosting will be fluffy and light. My mom recommends adding a drop of food coloring if you want to be daring.

Place the first layer of cake on a revolving cake stand. I like to have a layer of foil paper under the cake or even a cardboard round. The foil paper is just pieces of foil that can be pulled out easily without messing up the bottom of the cake when you’re done frosting.

Spread about one cup of the frosting on the cake using an offset spatula. Spread it around evenly. Add a little more if needed until you like how thick the middle layer will be.