2012 cake project #1: Chocolate Mocha Cake

my first cake project of the year! it's a 3-layer chocolate cake with mocha buttercream filling and frosting topped with dark chocolate-covered coffee beans and wrapped with chocolate lattice. For my friend Shelle who recently rediscovered her love for coffee.

thanks to some useful internet sites out there, i was able to come up with a really pretty cake. except for the chocolate-covered coffee beans, everything else are made from scratch. the chocolate cake recipe is the 'better than sex chocolate cupcakes" which i got from 52 kitchen adventures. While the recipe is for cupcakes which i've tried last year for my halloween treats and loved it, I had no problem using it for the cakes. I just doubled the recipe and filled four (instead of 2) 8-inch round pans. That way, i don't have to use a cake leveler to cut the cakes in half. The best thing about this recipe? the cakes come out flat so no need to use a serrated knife to flatten the top.  I only used 3 layers so the extra cake i kept in the freezer for my husband to enjoy later. 

The mocha buttercream is from sweetpaprika.com. I checked a number of recipes online but some of them used cocoa powder which i think is too much given the fact that i already have a chocolate layer cake. Sweet paprika did not use cocoa powder and the frosting amazingly tasted light and fluffy...just the way i imagined it! Since i am making a 3-layer cake and will be using mocha buttercream both as filling and frosting, i doubled the recipe.

For my favorite part: chocolate lattice. Our friends asked me how i managed to make a lattice around the cake without breaking it? Thanks to Irvin Lin over at eatthelove.com. I stumbled upon his blog while looking for a triple chocolate recipe when i saw that beautiful chocolate lattice and thought i had to make it! It's perfect for covering imperfections on the side of the cake and it's so pretty that people will think you actually slaved for it! Don't get intimidated, i guarantee it's one of the easiest way of decorating a cake.

For the final touch i piped some swirls on top of the cake and at the bottom using a 1M tip and topped each swirl with dark chocolate-covered espresso beans i got from Trader Joe's.   And since it's for a birthday, i wrapped a ribbon around the cake for some added drama :)

Happy 40th Birthday Shelle!!!