- Hey guys, today we're making a delicious mocha cake. There's espresso, there's chocolate, there's butter, there's sugar. This is gonna be a dream come true for every coffee lover out there. Let's get started. First off, we're going to have three cups of all purpose flour into the bowl of our standing mixer. Then add two and two-thirds cups of sugar, one teaspoon of kosher salt, one tablespoon of baking soda, one and a half teaspoons of baking powder. And now for a good whisk. You really want to make
sure all those ingredients are evenly distributed. Whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk. After you give them a quick whisk, let's sift in three tablespoons of really nice cocoa powder. Sifting just prevents any lumps because the cocoa powder does have a lot of fat in it and it can lump up. Now for our final whisk. That smells great already. Set the bowl aside,
and now we're gonna mix our wet ingredients together. Into a large bowl, I'm going to add in three quarters of a
cup of vegetable oil, one cup of buttermilk and I never have buttermilk on hand 'cause it expires really quickly. That's why I always keep
powdered buttermilk on hand. You just mix it with regular milk or water and you're good to go
for all your recipes. I'm adding in one half cup of sour cream. I love sour cream in
basically all of my recipes 'cause it really gives
you a lot of creaminess. If you don't like sour cream though, you can use yogurt instead. One tablespoon of vanilla. Three large eggs, into the mixing bowl. I'm going to give this a quick whisk before I add my final and very important ingredient in. I love adding coffee to
anything with chocolate because it really brings
out the chocolate flavor. You're not gonna taste so much coffee, it's all about heightening
that chocolatey flavor. So one and a half cups
of hot, strong coffee. That's one and a half. It's really nice to use room temperature or even warm ingredients whenever you're baking something. You don't want to put something ice cold into your oven. It'll just take longer to bake and the center will bake much more slowly than the edges, which
is always a bad sign. Before you mix the wet
and dry ingredients, I have to prep my cake pans by buttering and flouring them. I'll also be using cake strips to ensure a nice even
bake for flat layers. We're going to mix our
wet and dry ingredients and the only note for
you is just to make sure to scrape the bowl down halfway through. Let's get started. I'm going to use the digital
scale to weigh each layer and make sure I'm pouring
in just enough batter. It really helps you get nice even layers, nothing too thick or thin. They're all gonna be uniform. Before I pop these into the oven at 350, I'm going to add my cake strips. These are just wet fabric strips that go on the edge of the pan and they basically cool the pan down so the cake bakes evenly. That gives you a nice flat layer and fluffy edges which are not burnt. So important. If you don't want to use
coffee in your recipe, you can go ahead and substitute just water or milk or almond milk, any liquid basically is fine. Into the oven. My cake layers are out of the oven and they're coming to room temperature and they also smell really, really good. Oh my gosh. Okay, so setting these aside, not going to nibble. And in the meantime, we're going to start whipping our butter for the buttercream. Use the paddle attachment and go slow. Lowest setting for, like, five minutes until the butter is light and fluffy. I'm sifting in a pound and a half of confectioner's sugar into a large bowl. So, this kitchen scale
really comes in handy. Now it's time to combine
our ingredients, on low. I'm adding in a teaspoon of vanilla. This looks great already but now I'm going to add in
a tablespoon of cocoa powder and then, that espresso powder comes next. Sprinkle, sprinkle. A teaspoon of espresso powder. I might add a second one in. Taste testing is mandatory. I like it, it definitely needs more
espresso powder though. I'm adding in two more teaspoons. And mix. All right, I'm going to go crazy so one more teaspoon of espresso powder and a half teaspoon of kosher salt. This will really make it nice and, like, salty, sweet
chocolate, coffee, amazing. All right, final test, let's see. Nice, nice, nice. One cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate into a medium bowl. And we're just going to
pour some hot heavy cream on top of that. Cover the bowl for, like, two minutes and then we're gonna whisk it up. Okay, now it's time for the fun part. I'm going to assemble the cake. I'm starting off by
piping on my buttercream. Drizzle on your ganache. Chopped chocolate covered espresso beans for a bit of crunch. Put the second layer on, repeat the process. And now, cover it completely in that delicious buttercream. I'm using an offset
spatula to smooth the top and a bench scraper for the sides. When you're ready, you're
gonna use the bench scraper to pull in the top while you turn to get a nice edge. Drizzle your ganache on top. Use an offset spatula to smooth the top because the drip situation
can be kind of tricky, I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes the ganache is too cold and it doesn't drip enough. Sometimes it's too hot and it runs all the way to the bottom. So you have to get it just right. Piping some beautiful dollops with a large closed star tip. I'm crowning my dollops with these chocolate
covered espresso beans, which I love. Very easy and simple,
beautiful decoration. Oh my gosh, this is so delicious. I hope you get to try the recipe. Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe.