Mocha Buttercream on White Cake, Raspberry Sauce on Chocolate Espresso Cake

I loved making the cakes for Josh's mom's brithday/visit. 

I intended to only make one cake. The brownie-like one was going to be a middle layer but I decided that their consistencies were too different and so I made 2. Nothing wrong with 2 cakes- except that Josh, his mom, and I ate almost all of them. I made bacon date scones for breakfast during her visit but we mostly ate cake for breakfast, and any other time we were home and tried to rationalize eating it.

The white cake with the espresso-almond frosting was heavenly. Josh and his mom decided it was their favorite cake. The white cake layers were so pure and moist and light and it mixed perfectly with the almond upfront taste of the frosting that faded to the espresso flavor as you ate it. Almond extract is my favorite to put in frosting. I always still use some vanilla but a ½ tsp. of almond extract and I promise people will love your butter cream frosting- it is just something a little different- but they notice!

Ok so for the white cake layers- it makes 2 8x8 layers to stack or 1 9x13:

2 3/4 cups sifted flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1   Sift flour, baking soda, and salt until it is all fine powder, no clumps.

2   In yet another bowl beat the butter until creamed and then add 1 cup sugar and beat until mixed and well

     mashed

3   Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture along with some milk a little at a time, beat together each time

     you add more

4   Mix in extracts and then beat until smooth
5   In another bowl beat egg whites until foamy and add 1/2 cup sugar gradually until it forms soft peaks

6   With a spatula mix in the egg white mixture throughly   

7   Pour mixture into a floured cake pan of your choosing. I did 2 8x8 cakes and they took about 25 minutes

     each. Make sure to let them cool before frosting them.

And of course it couldn't have been done without Agatha!

For the espresso almond frosting, the amount I made created enough frosting to fill and frost the cake:

adapted from this recipe

11/2 cups of butter, at room temp. ( I always forget to take my butter out of the fridge so you can zap it in the microwave for a few seconds or I sit it on top of my preheating oven and rotate it to all sides until it is an okay consistency to use)

3 3/4 cups of powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 tsp. almond extract

2 1/2 tsp. expresso powder

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1   Mix espresso powder in with vanilla and almond extract until dissolved- this stops the powder

     from being gritty in the icing

2   Whip butter in mixer on mid-high until very creamy

3   Turn mixer to low- or you'll get sugar everywhere, and mix in powder sugar no more than 1/2 cup at a

     time. Mix in throughly before adding more. Then do the same with the cocoa powder.

4   Once it is all added increase speed and whip until fluffy and add the extract mixture. Mix until it is

     throughly mixed it.

I garnished the cake with cocoa nibs and some cocoa powder on top. You don't have to add the cocoa

powder but I didn't want the frosting to be white. So that's were the cocoa came in, it also brought on the espresso flavor sooner. The espresso flavor was a light aftertaste though, not overwhelming and would still probably go over well with non-coffee drinkers!

This is a brownie-like cake. We decided it was fit for tea or lunch date. I made a homeade raspberry glaze to go on top of the cake. The recipe for the cake is:

adapted from this recipe (their recipe would have made chocolate soup- not enough flour and too much melted chocolate) So this is my version- turned out very successful!

preheat oven to 350 degrees F

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/2 semisweet chocolate chips

8 tbs. butter, cut into pieces

3 eggs

1 cup + 2 tbs. sugar

2 1/4 tsp. espresso powder

1 3/4 cup flour

1/3 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup walnuts

1   Melt 3/4 cup chocolate chips and butter(cut into pieces) in a double broiler- or I just put water in a sauce pan and my chocolate chips in a metal bowl and set it in the water- keep it on low heat. When chips start to melt add the cocoa.

2   When it is all silky and melted remove it from the heat

3   Beat eggs, sugar, and espresso on high until incorporated and then for about 3 minutes more.

4   Beat in the chololate mixture

5   Sift in flour, baking powder, and salt ( in this recipe the sifting isn't crucial)

6   Stir with spatula until combined, don't over mix

7   Then mix in remaining chocolate chips and the walnuts, keep some for garnishing.

8   Bake in floured cake pan, fit in 9x9 pan, mine cooked for about 20 minutes- but be sure it is done by

     inserting a toothpick- done when it comes out clean.

9   Remove from pan to cool. Can refrigerate cooled and covered for 1-2 days before use and before

     adding raspberry sauce

For the rapsberry sauce:

For a topping use this recipe's amounts- for a filling and topping double it

This is really great because it can be put inbetween 2 cake layers and since it thickens up it doesn't all soak into cake making it soggy. Yet if you want to to be more of a topping- like I did I just added more of the raspberry sauce I sieved off back in and it was more saucy then- Let me explain :)

adapted from this recipe- comment said they had trouble with it thickening- so I adapted it and this worked great- just make sure to refrigerate it if you want it to thicken.

12 oz. frozen raspberries

3/4 cup water

3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbs. of cornstarch- dissolve in 1/4 cup water
1   Combine raspberries, water and sugar in a large saucepan and bring to boil- simmer until raspberries break down-for 15ish minutes
2   Remove from heat and strain mixture- as you see below almost anything will work
     (If you don't want it to be a filling and you want mor of a sauce there is no need to strain.)
3   Return mixture to heat and add dissolved cornstarch mixture. Whisk into the mixture
4   Simmer 5 more minutes stirring frequently so it doesn't stick to the pan.
5   Remove from heat- put in fridge overnight if you want it to set up to more of a jelly.
     For more of a sauce let cool and then spoon over cake.

I still had some left over after I put it on the cake so I kept it in the fridge and I'm going to use it as filling for raspberry scones this week!!

I don't have a strainer or sieve so I used my cheese grater- It was a success and acually really pretty & messy

Even my dishes were pretty (or at least I think so)

I'm really pleased with both of them, hope you enjoyed!