Dark Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting
Coffee and expresso powder bring out an extra rich chocolate flavor in this Dark Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting!
Friday was my 30th birthday, wahhhh!!! WHERE DID MY 20s GO!?!
I blame my younger self for the way I feel about turning 30. I actually don’t feel THAT old at all (minus a few grey hairs…). But when I was young and thought about being 30 it felt SO OLD. I guess that is just the way it is, and I should be happy that I don’t feel as old now as I thought I would then, haha.
Lots of people have been telling me 30 is the best decade, so I guess I have a lot to look forward to!
We kicked off 30 with a fun birthday weekend!
Friday night we had a delicious dinner at Iron Gate in DC. Iron Gate serves a Mediterranean and Italian inspired menu of sharable plates made by Chef Anthony Chittum and his team. Everything was delicious, our favorites were the Crispy Blue Catfish Agrodolce, the Caramelized Ricotta Gnocchi and the Carrot Cake Sundae 🙂
Saturday we attended a friend’s wedding out in beautiful Bluemont Virginia and Sunday we headed out to Stribling Orchard for my favorite fall activity – Apple Picking!
Back to this cake, my birthday cake! It’s a Dark Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting! The cake is extra, super dark chocolate because I LOVE CHOCOLATE, especially dark chocolate 🙂
The frosting is a very creamy buttercream flavored with almond extract for a little something special!
I was going for a semi-naked cake look here so the middle and top have a thick layer of frosting with a light coating on the sides. If you prefer to skip the naked cake look you will need to make 1.5 times the frosting recipe.
This was my first time decorating a cake with real, fresh flowers and I loved it! If you are interested in learning more about how to decorate with flowers I followed the guidance of Sam from Frosting and Fettucine on how to decorate a cake with fresh flowers.
Dark Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting
Description
This Extra Dark Chocolate Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting…
Ingredients
Cake
2 cups white all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp espresso powder
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups white sugar
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup cold milk
1 cup brewed coffee
Frosting
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
4 cups confectioners sugar
2 tsp heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp pure almond extract
1/2 tsp salt
Decoration
fresh flowers, washed well
plastic wrap
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with blade attachment, beat butter until smooth, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula
Add sugar, beat until sugar and butter are fully combined and look fluffy
Add eggs one at a time, beat
Add vanilla, beat
Slowly alternate between the dry ingredients and the milk and coffee until all the ingredients are just combined
Heavily grease two 9-inch cake pans
Split the batter between the 2 pans
Bake on the middle oven shelf for 35-40 minutes
Cool
Frosting
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a blade attachment, beat butter on high, about 2 minutes
Scrape down the sides of the mixer with a rubber spatula
Add the 1 cup confectioners sugar, beat
Add the heavy cream, beat
Add 1 cup confectioners sugar, beat
Add vanilla extract, beat
Add 1 cup confectioners sugar, beat
Add almond extract, beat
Add last cup confectioners sugar, beat
Add salt, beat on high until frosting looks whipped and is completely smooth
Decorate
Slice a thin layer of cake off the top of the cake you will use as the bottom layer so the top layer will sit flat
Put a generous layer of frosting on top of the bottom layer
Place top layer on top of bottom layer, frost the top
*Thinly frost the sides of the cake using the remaining frosting so it has a “naked look”
Cut the stems of the flowers so they are about 1-inch long, wrap the stems in plastic wrap**
Decorate to your liking by sticking the flower stems into the cake
Notes
*If you do not want a “naked” look you will need to make 1.5 times the frosting recipe so you can coat the sides completely
**Learn more about the best practices of decorating a cake with fresh flowers here
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