Preheat your oven to 350F and spray two 8" round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Make sure there are no clumps of cocoa powder remaining.
Whisk the eggs together in a separate bowl before adding the milk, vanilla extract, and apple sauce. Whisk everything until smooth.
Microwave (about 60 seconds) or melt the chocolate chips in a bowl before adding the light butter and mixing together until smooth. The melted chocolate chips should melt the light butter but you can microwave a few seconds longer if needed.
Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until very little liquid remains. Add the butter and melted chocolate and stir until the cake batter is smooth.
Transfer the cake batter to the cake pans. Each pan should have 525 grams in it unless you modified ingredients. Shake the cake pans and give them a good smack on the counter to remove any air bubbles and get an even bake.
Bake for 26-30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean in both cakes. After the baked cakes have cooled briefly, transfer them to a cooling rack to completely cool before frosting.