Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Ganache

This is one of my very favorite thigs to bake. It is my one of my dads favorites, so for his birthday my mom called and asked me to bake it for him. This takes a ton of time but it is well worth it and everyone will be so impressed. (this is a very dense cake, so if you like fluffy this might not be for you)

Cake:
3/4 C. butter, softened
3 C sugar
3 eggs, room temp.
4 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 t. vanilla
3 C. flour
1/2 t. salt
3/4 C buttermilk
1 1/3 C. boiling water

Chocolate Ganache:
3 C. (18oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 C half and half (you can use heavy cream)
2 T. butter cut up
2 t.  vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare cake pans

in a large bowl., beat together 3/4 cup butter and sugar on med. speed until light anf fluffy. Then add eggs and 2 t. vanilla and beat until well blended. Add melted chocolate and beat 1-2 min.

Mix together flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to chocolate mixture in two additions alternately with buttermilk. Beat until well blended. With mixer on low speed, add boiling water and beat until smooth (batter will be really runny). Pour batter into prepared pans and bake 35-40 min, let cool in pans about 10 min and then unmold onto roacks and let cool completely.

Ganache:
in a microwaveable bowl combine chocolate chips and half and half. heat about 3 min or until melted and smooth when stirred. Stir in 2 T. butter and 2 t vanilla. Cover and refigerate a couple hours (mine usually takes about 3 or more, just keep checking it).

Assemble cake and refrigerate at least 4 hours or until the ganache is firm. This cake is really good cold and even from the freezer.

I found this somewhere online a few years ago and have made a couple of changes to it that I think make it a little better, if I can find the original recipe I have then I will post a link to it.

Enjoy~
wish I had pics of mine to show you how awesome this is, but I guess you'll just have to try it for yourself ;)