Mocha Cake

 

Mocha flavour is a combination of chocolate and coffee. This Mocha Cake combines a coffee flavoured cake sandwiched together with two layers of Chocolate Butter Cream, finished with a Chocolate Ganache icing.

 

This cake is very quick to make: just place all ingredients in a bowl and beat together….and done! The following recipe is adapted from Mum’s standard ‘go to’ recipe for cakes (the original cake recipe is titled ‘Easy Chocolate Cake’, and Mum is so familiar with the base of this recipe that she adapts it as necessary to any flavour, such as coffee cake, lemon cake, spice cake and so on.)

 

COFFEE CAKE

(if using self-raising flour, leave out the baking powder from this recipe)

 

3 eggs (at room temperature)

2 tbspns coffee essence (we made a small amount of strong coffee with coffee grinds and hot water)

1 ½ tbspns milk

4 oz (115g) plain flour (plus a few tbspns more to make up for the moisture of the coffee essence)

2 tspns baking powder

6 oz (170g) sugar

3 oz (85g) melted butter

 

Whisk eggs with an electric mixer, then slowly add sugar. Add milk, melted butter, then flour (and baking powder). Add coffee essence. Mix well.

(OR for a quicker version: just put all ingredients in a mixer and beat together for 5 minutes!)

Bake 30-45 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

 

 

CHOCOLATE BUTTER CREAM:

150g icing sugar

75g butter

¼ tspn vanilla essence

¾ tbspn cocoa (mixed in 1 tbspn hot water to make a paste)

 

Cream butter. Add vanilla and sugar. Add cocoa paste. Mix well.

 

 

CHOCOLATE GANACHE ICING:

This ganache icing is quick to make and tastes so beautifully smooth and creamy. It also has a very smooth spreading consistency.

 

130ml cream

130g dark chocolate (we used Whittakers 50% cocoa)

 

Roughly chop the chocolate.

Heat the cream in a saucepan until a few bubbles start appearing. Remove from the heat. Tip the chopped chocolate into the cream. Leave until the chocolate has melted, then stir melted chocolate and cream together. Leave to cool at room temperature, then place in fridge until ganache is a spreadable thickness (about 1 hour).