Frou-Frou Friday

Three Course Romantic Meal - Dessert!

Emily’s Mocha Cake

When my friend Emily was graduating High School, I found myself on the poor end of fortune. I had enough money to buy her something beautiful, local, but small-ish. I wanted to do something for her that said, “I love you, but I’m poor!” Well, not exactly. Mostly, I just wanted to say, “I care about you so much that I did this for you!” And for me, when I care about you, I cook, create, write, or paint for you. For Emily, I decided to come up with a new recipe combining flavors that she loves, chocolate and coffee. Here’s my recipe for Emily’s Mocha Cake. It’s the perfect way to tell someone, anyone, I love you!


Serves: 1-10 People
Prep time: 2 hours

1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour + 2 TBSPs for the Pan Prep
2 Cups Sugar (or sucanat)
3/4 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
2 Eggs – Room Temp
1 Cup Milk – At least 2%
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Espresso – VERY Hot

*You’ll also need wax paper, foil or parchment.

Preheat your oven to 350° and prepare two 9” cake pans by greasing with butter and dusting with flour.

Combine FLOUR, SUGAR, COCOA, BAKING SODA, BAKING POWDER, AND SALT in a large bowl, whisking to mix.

In a small bowl, mix EGGS, MILK, OIL, AND VANILLA. Beat well with a mixer for a full minute and slowly add hot ESPRESSO to egg mixture, being sure to stir constantly so that the espresso doesn’t cook the eggs.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, folding and stirring until smooth. Don’t over stir, or your cake will lose its light texture.

Pour batter into the pans and bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing and cooling completely on racks. While your cakes are cooling, make the frosting.

Frosting

1 pound bag of Powdered Sugar
1/2 Cup of Cocoa Powder
1 Stick (1/2 Cup) Butter – softened to room temp
1/3 Cup Espresso

Combine SUGAR and COCOA. Cream BUTTER on medium speed in a mixer and slowly add the sugar and cocoa. Add small amounts of the ESPRESSO until smooth. It may take the entire 1/3 of a cup, it may take a little less. If you need more than a 1/3 of a cup, use milk to make up the difference. Too much coffee will overpower the frosting.

Once the cakes are cool and the frosting is frosty, trim both cake rounds so that they have two VERY flat sides. This should mean only trimming the top of the cake that has rounded during baking. On a serving dish, take small 1/2 strips of wax paper, foil, or parchment and line them around the edges with a flap hanging over the side of the dish. Place your first layer down on top of the wax paper. Layer about 1/2 cup of the frosting on the first cake round and place the second layer on top. Be sure to pick the flattest surface for the tip-top of the cake so that it looks the nicest.

Here’s a little trick for frosting the rest of the cake. I usually take a cup or so of frosting OUT of the bigger bowl to do a crumb coating. You may have heard of it. A crumb coating is a thin layer of frosting that you spread over the entire cake before actually frosting it. I separate this small amount out so that the crumbs from the cake don’t get into my big bowl of frosting. Once you finish the crumb coating, let the cake sit for 10-20 minutes, letting the thin layer firm up. When it’s no longer sticky to the touch, go ahead and frost the heck out of that thin. I like to decorate this cake with some red sugar crystals, as you can see above.

Let me know what your sweetheart thinks of my Mocha Cake!

Thanks for reading,

~Sara