Cake Time...!

So one of Anna's best friends, Noel, from childhood happens to be coming though town with his organization, Redeem the Shadows, for a few days.  So, since his birthday was just last week, and Anna promised him a birthday cake, we're surprising him with this new concoction!

While brainstorming during our unsuccessful journey today, we decided on this combination: chocolate... and Kahlua!  How could we go wrong?  The first idea, Amaretto, we didn't have "at the tip of our hands," and instead of taking an extra trip to the store to grab a bottle, we decided to use our resources.  :)  Generally most people don't argue with chocolate, and most don't argue with cake.  And honestly speaking, how many people are going to pass-up a belated birthday celebration?

Must we say... invention is key!  We had to take the "high road."  Why not create our OWN recipe?  For about 45 minutes, intense internet searching took place.  We looked at numerous, numerous recipes, debated which ingredients were the most important for us to incorporate, and then... the brainstorming began.  And so, after comparing three sour cream chocolate cakes recipes, doing some "tricky" mathematics and scientific comparisons, debating, running to my apartment to pick up a few "missing" ingredients, we have rested upon this beauty!

Chocolate Kahlua Cake
1 cup salted butter (softened)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup Kahlua
1 cup hot coffee
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup cocoa
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream (full fat)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy!  (Make sure to keep the wrappers from the sticks of butter for when you butter and flour the cake pans).  Add eggs and mix.  Add Kahlua, coffee, and vanilla and mix well, making sure there are no chunks of the butter mixture present.  In a separate bowl, mix together cocoa, cake flour, baking soda, baking power, and salt.  Slowly mix into wet mixture until incorporated.  Lastly, add sour cream and mix.

Butter and flour two 8" or 9" round cake pans.  (In case you aren't sure how to butter and flour cake pans, here's a little quick tutorial!  Take the reserved wrappers from the cake and grease the bottom and sides of the cake pans.  You could also use Pam or equivalent spray.  Add about 2 tbs of flour to each cake pan.  Thoroughly coat the bottom and sides with flour.  Turn cake pans upside-down and lightly bang the bottom of the cake pan to remove any excess flour.)

Pour batter evenly between the two pans.  Make sure to "slam" down both cake pans to release any bubbles.  This will help to ensure that your cake doesn't dome in the center while baking and allows for an even bake.

Place on rack in center of oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (with a few crumbles on it).

Remove cake from cake pans after about 15-20 minutes and allow to finish cooling on cooling racks.  Once the cake is at room temperature, frost the cake.  We went with a more "traditional" buttercream frosting, but if you're a real chocolate lover, you may want to go with that instead.  :)  The buttercream gave a good balance with the chocolate.  If you want to, you may decide to substitute the layer of frosting from between the two layers and use something like jam.  Or how about Nutella!?  :)  You could omit the center frosting altogether if you desire one "thick" piece of cake.


Buttercream Frosting
1 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs half-n-half (or heavy cream... or milk...)
3+ cups powdered sugar

Cream butter with vanilla.  Begin by adding some of the powdered sugar in, alternating with the half-n-half, until reaching your desired consistency.  You may decide that you want it a little less "stiff."  If you're going for more of the "commercial" looking in your frosting, then substitute crisco for the frosting.  That's right... crisco...

Decorate the cake sprinkles or garnish it with some chocolate chips or chocolate curls!