Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Take 3 8-inch round pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray. Set them aside for later.
In a small pot over medium-low heat, add your water and butter. Once the two are melted and mixed together, remove from heat and whisk in your cocoa powder and chopped chocolate. Then add in your brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together your eggs and yolks. Slowly add it into your chocolate mixture a little at a time, mixing in between.
Sift your baking soda and flour (make sure you have measured your flour properly--too much flour will ruin the recipe) and slowly add it in to your batter. Mix only until the flour is combined. Do not over mix.
Divide the batter evenly between your 3 lined and greased pans (if you don’t have 3 pans, see notes). Bake for 25-30 minutes until you can gently push on the cake and it is soft but bounces back or when you insert a toothpick in the center is it is clean but has a few moist crumbs.
Let the cakes cool in their pans for about an hour, use a knife to loosen edge of cakes before removing from pans. Let cakes cool completely before frosting.
Frosting, Topping, and Assembly
Reduce temperature from 350 to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread your shredded coconut across a baking tray into a thin layer and bake 5-10 minutes until lightly golden. Cool coconut before assembling cake.
n a large bowl or stand mixer, add your room temperature butter. Beat butter until it is light and fluffy and has paled in color (about 4 minutes). Then add in about ⅓ of your Eagle Brand® Sweetened Condensed Milk. Cream the two together until they are completely homogenous.
Add in your vanilla, salt, another ⅓ of your sweetened condensed milk. Mix together until smooth. Add in the remaining ⅓ of your can of sweetened condensed milk and ½ cup of powdered sugar, mix until smooth.
If your frosting is too soft or not sweet enough you can add another ½ cup of powdered sugar. If your frosting is still too soft, place it in the fridge to chill until you are ready to frost your cakes.
Once your cakes are cool you are ready to start assembling! If your cakes are domed in the center, take a serrated knife and level them off so they are completely flat.
Spoon you frosting into a piping bag with a round tip and pipe about ⅓ of the frosting on top of your cake. Then generously sprinkle your toasted coconut on top of the frosting. Stack your second layer of cake on top and repeat the frosting and sprinkling of coconut with the next two layers. After you sprinkle coconut on the top layer, top with blackberries if desired.
Notes
This cake recipe adapted from (Stella Parks) Brave Tart’s Devil’s Food Cake Recipe The original recipe calls for 1 ½ cups black coffee or black tea. However, since I do not drink tea or coffee I used water plus a little vinegar to help activate the baking soda. Feel free to use coffee or black tea in this recipe. The flavor of the coffee or tea should also help enhance the dark chocolate flavor.If you do not have 3 cake pans you can do this with two. Divide your batter into 3 and fill your two cake pans. Bake the two cakes, and when the cake is cool enough, remove it from the pan. Then reline the bottom of your cake pan and grease it, and add the remaining one-third of batter and bake according to instructions.