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Velvet Devils Food Layer Cake with Coffee Buttercream Frosting

Servings: Serves 12 Source:

Ingredients

Velvet Devil’s Food Cake:

½ cup Natural Cocoa Powder

2 teaspoons instant espresso powder, or instant coffee

1 cup boiling water

2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

12 tablespoons Unsalted Butter (1 ½ sticks), softened

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ¼ cups Unbleached All-purpose Flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon table salt


Coffee Buttercream Frosting:

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder, or instant coffee

1 tablespoon coffee liqueur

1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract

½ pound Unsalted Butter (2 sticks), softened

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 Egg Yolk (beaten) , or 2 tablespoons beaten egg

Directions

1. For the Cake: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350℉. Grease two 8-by-1 1/2-inch round baking pans with shortening. Line pan bottoms with waxed or parchment paper; grease paper as well. Dust pans with flour; tap out excess.

2. Mix cocoa and instant coffee in small bowl; add boiling water and mix until smooth. Cool to room temperature, then stir in vanilla.

3. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in sugar; beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.

4. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. With mixer on lowest speed, add about 1/3 of dry ingredients to batter, followed immediately by about 1/3 of cocoa mixture; mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into batter. Repeat process twice more. When batter appears blended, stop mixer and scrape bowl sides with rubber spatula. Return mixer to low speed; beat until batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.

5. Divide batter evenly between pans. With rubber spatula, run batter to pan sides and smooth top. Bake cakes until they feel firm in center when lightly presesd anad skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 23 to 30 minutes. Tranfer pans to wire racks; cool for 20 minutes. Run knife around perimeter of each pan, invert cakes onto racks, and peel off paper liners. Reinvert cakes onto additional racks; cool completely before frosting.

6. For the Buttercream Frosting: Mix instant coffee, coffee liqueur, and vanilla in small cup until coffee dissolves; set aside. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer at medium-high speed until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat 3 minutes longer. Add coffee mixture and egg to frosting; beat until frosting mounds around beaters in a fluffy mass, 3 to 5 minutes longer. Apply frosting onto first cake layer and spread with a long metal spatula, top with second cake layer, top second layer with frosting, spread and then frost sides.

Notes

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
While developing our devil’s food layer cake recipe we found very little difference between cakes baked with standard American cocoa and “Dutched” cocoa. We chose water over milk or buttermilk to moisten our cake batter, discovering that cakes made with dairy had a more muted chocolate flavor.