There are two great loves in my life (food wise anyway): chocolate and coffee. Given the choice between chocolate and any other food I would probably always choose chocolate. I love it. I can’t get enough of the stuff.

Coffee is my favourite drink. I think tea is awful – how un-British of me! When I’ve drunk Nick’s tea by accident I probably overreact just a little by how disgusted I am that I’ve drank tea. I had a day working at home on Junk and Glitter last week and I definitely drank way too much coffee. At home it’s far too easy for me to pop a pod in the machine or fill up the cafetiere. Lately I’ve been drinking lots of the gorgeous ground coffee sent to me by the guys at Lavazza. These were limited edition blends for Lavazza’s 120th anniversary and come in very fancy tins as well that I’m happy to have on display in the kitchen.

When I was thinking of a recipe to use the coffee with I could only think about chocolate cake and I’ve been meaning to work on a cappuccino cake for absolutely ages. Well this is it. It’s the best chocolate cake I’ve made so far and I mean it. It’s rich, fudgy, just bitter enough, moist (I’m sorry!) and just plain old incredible. I made two frostings and attempted to marble them together on the cake but I got a little over zealous trying to smooth out the sides so the effect didn’t come out quite right. I made this cake twice to iron out a couple of things so I’ve eaten ALOT of chocolate cake in the last few weeks. Trust me, you’re going to want to make this one.

Unless you’re one of those tea drinking coffee haters, in which case I’ll have to work on something else for you guys 🙂

NOTES //

This frosting by Kamran Siddiqi from The Sophisticated Gourmet is the best chocolate frosting I’ve ever had. I didn’t need to make any amendments and I knew this was the best frosting to use for this cake so I just used Kamran’s recipe. It’s so easy to make, I don’t even bother to use the stand mixer. It will also nicely frost about 12 cupcakes as well.

I smoothed out the frosting a little too much and in hindsight I should probably have left it a but more rustic so the marble effect was clearer. Either way it tastes amazing so don’t worry.

(chocolate fudge frosting by by Kamran Siddiqi of The Sophisticated Gourmet)

For the chocolate cake:
260g (2 cups) plain flour, sifted
400g (1 3/4 cups) caster sugar
90g (3/4 cups) cocoa powder, sifted
2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
200g (scant 1 cup) buttermilk
120g (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
240ml (1 cup) freshly brewed strong coffee

For the coffee frosting:
60g (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
90g (1/3 cup) cream cheese, room temperature
280g (2 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
50ml strong coffee

For the chocolate fudge frosting:
90g (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
60g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder, sifted
60ml (1/4 cup) whole milk
280g (2 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon golden syrup

For the whipped cream filling and topping:
300ml heavy whipping cream

cocoa powder, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas mark 4. Grease and line two 8inch/20cm cake tins and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.
In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter, eggs, vanilla and hot coffee. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until fully incorporated.
Divide between the two cake tins. Drop the tins onto the worktop from 1-2 inches to knock out any air bubbles and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a wooden skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool completely before removing from the tins.
For the coffee frosting, beat the butter and cream cheese in a stand mixer until just combined. Sift in the icing sugar and slowly mix together. Add the coffee and mix a little more. Turn the speed up and beat for 3 minutes until fluffy.
For the chocolate fudge frosting, in a large bowl combine the melted butter and cocoa powder powder until smooth. Alternating, mix a little bit of milk and a heaped tablespoon of icing sugar, mixing inbetween until all is combined and you reach an easy spreadable consistency. Finally mix in the teaspoon of gold syrup.
For the middle and the top, whip heavy cream to medium soft peaks.
Level your cake layers off and place the bottom one on the stand. Cover the top with whalf the whipped cream and place the second layer on top. Crumb coat the top and sides with thin layer of chocolate frosting and leave to set for twenty minutes in the fridge.
Place heaped tablespoons of chocolate and coffee frosting in an alternating pattern around the cake. Using your palette knife smooth them together to create a slightly marbled effect.
Top the cake with the other half of the whipped cream and a generous sifting of cocoa powder ala cappuccino.