It’s Annual Cake Day so here’s my cake: the Magical Mocha Snowflake Cake! It’s January. It’s Cold. I have a cool (no pun intended) new Bundt Cake pan so voila! Cake!
Ingredients
for the Chocolate Cake
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate, chopped fine (I use a food processor to make almost a powder)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
for the Espresso Mocha Frosting
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons espresso powder
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coffee or espresso extract
For decoration
1/4 cup powdered sugar
snowflake deco, as you wish
You can make this cake any shape you like, but in this case, I used a Nordic Ware Snowflake Pan.
Directions
Heat oven to 350F. Spray your snowflake cake pan liberally with baking spray; set aside. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa, and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture, ending with the flour.
Fill the prepare cake pans three-quarters full, being careful not to overfill. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, slice each cake round in half horizontally.
While your cake is cooling, make your buttercream frosting. Combine the espresso powder into the vanilla and coffee extract until dissolved; set aside.
Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the powdered sugar a little at a time, waiting until it is mostly incorporated before adding more. Once all of the powdered sugar has been added, scrape the sides of the bowl and increase the speed to medium-high and whip until fluffy, about a minute or two. Add the espresso and vanilla mixture and continue to mix at medium-high until it is completely incorporated, scraping the sides as necessary.
To assemble, pipe a layer buttercream between the bottom and top cake pieces (there will be just two layers of cake). The remainder of the cake will be “naked”, so dust with powdered sugar and snowflake decorations as you like. Let rest/cool for an hour before serving (if you put the powdered sugar in the fridge, it will likely melt from the damp environment, but you can reapply before serving).
