Before frosting the cake, line the bottom edges with strips of wax paper.
Slide them out gently once you have finished for a clean edge.

Grandpa's Chocolate Cake "Ol' 95"
(adapted from Martha Stewart)

1 1/2 cups good unsweetened cocoa powder (like Penzey's),
plus more for dusting
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup strong coffee, still hot

Butter the bottoms and sides of three 8-inch cake pans. Line the bottoms with parchment paper and butter them again. Dust the pans with a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, shaking out the excess. Coat the bottoms and sides completely. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (180 C).

Sift together the cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Place in the bowl for your mixer. Add the sugars to this and mix these dry ingredients together lightly. One at a time, with the mixer going on very low, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil, eggs, extract and finally the water and coffee. Mix together on low for 2 minutes.

Pour the batter between your 3 pans. Bake for about 30 minutes, but check at 25. An inserted toothpick should come out clean when they cakes are done. Let the cakes cool in their pans for 30 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Frost cake and serve. Mine made 2 very high layers, or 3 layers if you use 3 pans.Chocolate Ganache Buttercream Frosting
(recipe from baking911.com)

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 12-oz bags semi-sweet chocolate chips, or chopped bars of chocolate.
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, stir together the cream, corn syrup and 1 stick of butter over medium low heat until the butter melts and the mixture barely comes to a simmer. Place the chocolate chips in a large bowl and pour in the hot cream. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let this cool.

Using an electric mixer, cream together the remaining stick of butter and powdered sugar. Once this is smooth, beat in the vanilla extract. Once the chocolate ganache is cooled (enough so that it is mildly warm but not hot) pour it into the mixer and whisk on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Do not over mix this as the frosting can become grainy. This frosting is thin, but let it sit for a few minutes and it will thicken up, or place it in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. The frosting will harden if refrigerated too long, but it can be stirred together again before using to loosen the consistency. Makes more than enough for my 2 layer cake, so there will be plenty for the 3 layers in the above recipe.