Homemade Chocolate Cake With Espresso Chocolate Buttercream

When a girl loves chocolate and a girl loves espresso what is a girl to do? Make a chocolate espresso cake of course!

I found a basic recipe in my Betty Crocker cookbook and added some ingredients and took away some ingredients. This is what I was left with.

For The Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1 Tbs baking soda

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups of chocolate soy milk

1/2 cups cocoa powder

1/4 cup of Trader Joe's Organic Midnight Moo Chocolate Syrup

For The Icing:

3-4 cups of powered sugar

2 sticks of softened butter, not quite room temp

1/4 cup chocolate soy milk

1 packet instant coffee

Trader Joe's sugar, espresso bean and chocolate grinder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

oil and flour 2- 9" round cake pans

1. Mix all dry ingredients
2. Add all wet ingredients excluding eggs and beat for 1 minute on medium
3. Add eggs and beat an additional 2 minutes
4. Divide batter into both pans (batter will be thick)
5. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean
6. Let cool completely

In the meantime for the icing:

1. Heat 1/8 cup of soy milk and disolve instant coffee packet. Let it cool completely
2. Cream the butter
3. Slowly add powdered sugar one cup at a time
4. Add all soymilk as needed for buttercream consistency

Preparing the cake:

1. Place first cake layer on dish of choice and frost with about 1 cup of frosting
2. Poke holes in cake with a fork about 20 times all over
3. Give a very generous squeeze of the Trader Joe's chocolate syrup
4. Add top layer of cake and frost the entire cake
5. Use the Trader Joe's grinder on whole top of cake

Enjoy!