So as it is my birthday today, it would be fitting for me to post a cake that I truly love! And there is nothing more that I live to eat than something chocolate! So here is my coffee chocolate cake which is decaf any full of white and dark chocolate and lots of layers with yummy goodness!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! P.s I’ve decorated mine in true Ammna style but feel free to decorate as you wish! 🙂

Happy Birthday to meeeeee!

INGREDIENTS : 

Coffee Chocolate Cake Base – 

• Unsalted butter, for the pans (ive used 2 pans at 6″ size for my cake)
• 1 1/4 cups unsweetend cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 large eggs plus 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups warm water
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk, just add 2 tbsp of lemon juice into your milk and let it set for five min before using as buttermilk) 
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 
• 1/2 cup of ground instant coffee

Coffee Dark Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream –

• 4 Egg Whites
• 120 g Granulated Sugar
• 250 g Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature And Cut Into Tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 200 g Dark chocolate, chopped and melted
• 1/4 cup of ground instant coffee
• 1 pinch Fine Sea Salt

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream –

• 4 Egg Whites
• 120 g Granulated Sugar
• 250 g Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature And Cut Into Tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 200 g white chocolate, chopped
• 1 pinch Fine Sea Salt

METHOD:

Coffee Chocolate Cake Layers – 

1. Preheat oven to 175 C (350F), with racks in upper and lower thirds. Line your pans with baking paper and butter them lightly.
2. Sift together coffee, cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Return bowl to mixer. Fit mixer with the paddle attachment. Add eggs, yolk, water, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Mix on low speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.
3. Divide batter evenly between prepared cake pans lined with parchment paper or baking sheet. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 35-40 minutes. Let cool in the cake pan before assembling.

Coffee Dark Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream –

1. Place egg whites, sugar and instant coffee in a metal bowl of a stand mixer. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water, not touching the water. Whisk or stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture comes to approximately 70ºC. If you don’t have a thermometer, then just keep checking that the sugar should be completely dissolved when rubbed between two fingers. Just be cautious that it will be hot to the touch.
2. Immediately place the bowl on the stand mixer (make sure to dry the bottom, so no more heat gets onto the bowl, and whip on high using the whisk attachment until frosting has become thick and glossy, forming a stiff peak. Continue to whip frosting until the bowl feels room temperature to the touch, a total of about 20 minutes.
3. Switch the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low, drop in butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. If frosting appears curdled or clumpy at any time, increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth.
4. Once all of the butter has been incorporated, mix in vanilla extract and the melted chocolate as well as pinch of salt. If needed, continue beating until smooth.

White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream –

1. Follow the same instruction above , just remove the instant coffee and replace the dark chocolate with white.

Assembly –

Once the cakes are completely cooled, cut them in half so you end up with four cake layers. Then fill each layer with the coffee Dark Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream (that’s a mouthful to say!) and then coat the outside of the cake as well as this is your crumb coat. Then place in the fridge for about 1 hour. Once hardened a little, take your white Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream and coat the entire cake with it. I mixed some of my white chocolate buttercream with a few extra gel colours and painted some Flowers as a design on the cake, but you are free to decorate as you wish!

And voila! My birthday cake is ready for you to eat! 🙂

Enjoy!