Coffee-Chocolate Layered cake with a Mocha frosting

Hello Everyone!

No, life ain't always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life ain't always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride. (Gary Allen)

I told myself I would start this week blog with this lyric from Gary Allens song, it guess I was being nostalgic about my past and the words really hit home.

It was Faye birthday this week. Funny story… her husband Mike planed this great surprise party for her.  Faye's sister Freda contacted me to see if i could bake Fayes birthday cake.   Of course I said absolutely!  Anything for Faye.. you see, sometimes life is not so beautiful, but if you have great friend like Faye it does come out to be a beautiful ride( in our case, with lots of flour and sugar around us ). The funny part of the story is that the week before the party… Fayes mom accidently slipped and let it out about the party. She felt so bad that she slipped that she could not stop laughing.  Faye said she hadn’t seen  her mom laugh that hard in years J. It actually made Faye happy to see her mom that happy. Some moments in life can be so small yet, so beautiful. For example, the laugh of your mother.   Ok, done with the mushy stuff. Now to the good stuff, CAKE!!... Well since Faye knew about her birthday I told her to pick the cake she personally would like to eat, since it was her birthday.  So she picked a Coffee-Chocolate Layered cake from Bon Appetit with a Mocha frosting.  The cake turned out really good.. moist, not too sweet with a lovely taste of coffee.  The recipe is easy to follow and the frosting is basic but delicious.

For those coffee and chocolate lovers in your family,  I completely recommend this cake. Enjoy! Happy Cooking!

Coffee-Chocolate Cake.   (adaption from Recipe by Abigail Johnson Dodge)

Ingredients

• 2cupscake flour
• 3/4cupnatural unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2teaspoonsbaking soda
• 3/4teaspoonsalt
• 3/4cup(1 1/2 sticks)butter at room temperature ( i used sweet cream since I didn’t have unsalted)
• 2cups(packed) golden brown sugar
• 3large eggs
• 1 1/2teaspoonsvanilla extract
• 1cupbuttermilk
• 3/4 cup strong coffle (changed this from the original recipe which called for espresso )

Mocha Frosting

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup strong, hot, brewed coffee
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Buliding the Cake:

• ; preheat to 325°F. Generously butter two 9-inch cake pans , then dust with flour (I did it over the sink, must easier and cleaner
• Sift 2 cups cake flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl.

•  Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth.
• Add brown sugar and beat until well blended, about 2 minutes.
•  Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in vanilla.
• Add flour mixture in 3 additions alternately with buttermilk in 2 additions, beating just until blended after each addition. Gradually add hot espresso-water mixture, beating just until smooth.

• Divide batter between pans; smooth tops. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 15 minutes. Run small knife around sides of pans to loosen cakes, put on cooking rack until completely cool.

Making Frosting:

·          Combine coffee and cocoa in small bowl of electric mixer. Beat until blended. Add sugar, butter or margarine, salt,   and vanilla. Beat until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat icing until it has a spreading consistency.
·          Frost the cake

·          ( I recommend you double  frosting recipe, I felt that you needed more frosting on this cake.