A very special someone turned the big 33 in early December. It seemed only natural to have a belated birthday celebration featuring his favorite dessert: chocolate + raspberries. I spent the majority of my Christmas morning making sure this cake was perfect (and, it almost was 🙂 )
For the chocolate and coffee lovers out there, this cake is for you. I used the highest quality chocolate and cocoa powder I could find in our local grocery store (I recommend Godiva) and mixed it with freshly brewed coffee.
Coming out of the oven, the cake was incredibly moist (← very rare for a baked good! usually, it takes a few hours for the moisture to develop) and relatively easy to handle. The only thing I would change about this recipe is to cut the amount of coffee in the frosting by 50%. It was a little too strong for my tastes.
Mocha Buttercream Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- Butter for greasing the pans
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour plus more for pans
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk shaken
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
- 1 box raspberries
Mocha Buttercream Frosting
- 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate
- 1/2 pound 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 extra-large egg yolk at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon instant coffee powder cut by 50% from original recipe
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter two 8-inch x 2-inch round cake pans. Line with parchment paper.
- Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined.
- In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- Pour the batter into the cake pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Mocha Buttercream Frosting
- Chop the chocolate and place in a double boiler to melt. Stir until just melted and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes.
- Turn the mixer to low, gradually adding the confectioners’ sugar, then beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy.
- Dissolve the coffee powder in 1 teaspoon of the hottest tap water.
- On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don’t whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.
- Top with raspberries to decorate
