Chocolate Cake

Tomorrow is my daughter's first day in preschool, so I decided to celebrate it by making her a chocolate cake. Actually this was my second chocolate cake recipe I have tried, thus far, from Hershey's and I was pretty happy with the outcome.

At first, I thought the cake won't turn out good because the batter was really thin, but I was wrong. It actually turned out moist, very chocolate-y and really tasty and love the addition of coffee as it gives extra flavor.

My dear daughter did all the decorating. It was her cake afterall, so I let her do what she wanted. And I saw that she really enjoyed it as she almost put on all the candies she got her hands into.


Actually, I just wanted to have the M&M's but when my daughter has started putting all those small round candies on, just could not help but agree with her..it was indeed pretty.. :)

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk
1 cup strong black coffee OR 2 teaspoons powdered instant coffee plus 1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans or one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, buttermilk, coffee, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes (batter will be thin). Pour batter evenly into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes for round pans, 35 to 40 minutes for rectangular pan or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
2/3 cup Cocoa pwder or 6.oz good semi-sweet chocolate
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

I must admit, my li'l girl did a great job decorating the cake. The candies really gave nice colors! Uh-oh, I think she's ready to cut the cake, I'm sure it's going to be hard to resist a second slice after finishing one off. :)