Mocha Buttercream Cake

If you want a delicious cake, this is it. We made a massive one of these for my sister’s graduation this past week, did 4x the recipe. Enough cake for you? If you’re not a coffee lover, you can leave out the espresso in the cake and the frosting, though you’ll be missing out on one of the best parts of this cake. :)

Mocha Buttercream Cake

Makes 1 9-inch layer cake.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
dash salt
1/2 cup margarine
2 eggs
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 1/3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons coffee
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 oz semisweet chocolate
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350ËšF.

Cream together sugar and margarine. Add eggs, cocoa, milk, and flour. Mix baking soda and hot water; add to mixture. Add salt, then vanilla. Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans. Pour mixture in pans. Bake for 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool on rack for ten minutes then remove from pans.

For filling, sift together powdered sugar, cocoa. Cream butter and add to sugar mixture slowly. Add salt, and coffee. Beat 2 minutes. When cool, add vanilla and mix.

To assemble, split cake layers and spread buttercream filling between layers. Save extra for optional decoration on top of chocolate frosting.

For frosting, melt chocolate in double boiler with whipping cream and vanilla. Whisk until melted and smotth. Remove from heat. Spread over cake.