Mocha Cake

Today is my daughter Destine’s fifth birthday. She is the only girl that I know (so far) who doesn’t like pure chocolate flavored cake and ice cream. Whenever she gets the chance to choose her birthday cake, Mocha is always her first choice. Though she’s far from me, I still wanted to prepare some foods today and I opted to prepare a Mocha cake.

Mocha is a combination of coffee, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder. It is a flavor made from coffee mixed with chocolates. This version that I made, its ingredients, taste, and texture are almost similar to chocolate brownies. What makes them different is the presence of black coffee which is not in the latter. 

Mocha Cake prepared for my daughter Destine's 5th Birthday

I was actually imagining a fluffy light brown mocha cake with creamy butter icing but it seems it turned out to be a sweet chocolate brownies. Still, I enjoyed it.

Ingredients: 

Cake

- 2 cups all purpose flour

- 2 cups white sugar

- 2/3 cup unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder

- 2 tsp baking soda

- 1 tsp baking powder

- ½ tsp salt

- 1 tbsp instant coffee powder

- ½ cup cooking oil

- 2 raw eggs

- 1 cup fresh milk

- 1 cup hot water

Frosting

- 1 cup unsalted butter

- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

- 1 cup white sugar

- ¾ cup unsweetened Hershey’s cocoa powder

- 1 tbsp instant coffee

- 4 tbsp fresh milk

- 1 ½ tsp vanilla

- 1 cup hot water

What you need:

- mixer (I don't have stand mixer so I used hand mixer)

- mixing bowl

- 1 9 inch round cake pans

Procedure:

- preheat oven to 350^o F for at least 5 minutes

- place a round shape wax paper enough to fill in the round cake pan, cut the edges

- grease the wax paper and the side of the cake pan with oil or butter

Preparing the Cake

- in a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt

- make a hole in the center and add eggs, oil, and fresh milk

- dissolve instant coffee powder in hot water and pour into the mixing bowl

- beat at medium speed until texture becomes smooth

- pour the batter into the round pan

- let stand for few minutes until bubbles disappear, you may tap to help the bubbles fade

- bake for 30 – 35 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean (photo)

- let stand to cool for at least 10 minutes

Preparing the Frosting

- in a clean mixing bowl, cream the cubed butter and add the vanilla extract

- use a hand mixer and mix for 2 minutes on medium speed

- gradually add half of confectioner’s sugar, and 2 tbsp of milk, mix well

- add the remaining confectioner’s sugar, and 2 tbsp of milk, mix well

- gradually add half of cocoa powder, mix well

- dissolve coffee powder to hot water, and gradually add to the mixture while mixing

- add in the remaining cocoa powder, mix well until mixture becomes thick (photo)

- cool in the freezer for 5 minutes

Combining

- divide the cake into three parts: base, center, and top (thinner part should be the top) 

- remove the top portion and break it into small pieces making crumbs

- use as the cake stand a round tray (real cake tray is not available), cover with aluminum foil

- place first the center part of the cake on the round tray, evenly pour frosting on top

- using the center part of the cake, evenly pour frosting on top too

- place it on top of the base part by flipping, making its bottom as its top this time

- evenly pour frosting on top again, this time make sure frosting reaches side of the cake  

- distribute the crumbs at the edge of the cake, and at the edge of the tray

- top with M&M chocolate to design