Dark Chocolate Coffee Bean Cake

This cake experiment turned out great! It had a nice, rich coffee flavor.

Dark Chocolate Coffee Bean Cake with Expresso Bean frosting:

Follow recipe on box for Dark Chocolate cake mix, except for water use strong coffee. (i.e. cup of Starbucks with two shots of expresso.) After mixing split batter between 3-9" round pans. Next, follow recipe on box for White cake mix, except for water use strong coffee and mix in a sleeve of instant coffee (2g -same amount that would make 8oz), (i.e. Starbucks Via Italian roast) Split batter between the three pans. Sprinkle about 3/4 cup of Dark Chocolate-Covered Coffee beans (Trader Joes Dark) over batter and marble the two batters together. Bake at 350degrees for about 30 minutes or until cake test done. (clean toothpick)

Make brush-on Expresso glaze, Heat 3 Tablespoons of water and dissolve 1 sleeve of instant coffee, add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar. Mixture should be watery.

Assemble layers: Trim cake to make each layer level. Brush top of each layer with Expresso glaze and fill between the layers with Dark Chocolate Buttercream http://beccasbugsnbrownies.blogspot.com/search/label/Dark%20Chocolate%20Buttercream

Frost top and sides of cake with Expresso Bean Buttercream.

Expresso Bean Buttercream: Heat 1/2 cup of whole milk and dissolve 4Tablespoons of Instant Coffee (or two Starbucks Via Italian Roast sleeves) Cream 1 Cup of Butter (room temperature). Alternately add 8 cups of powdered sugar, sifted with Coffee Flavored Milk mixture. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of finely ground coffee. (Costco's Jose Vanilla bean is a good choice) Decorate with more Dark Covered Coffee beans and a few coffee beans if desired.

I wanted to make this Red Velvet Cheesecake after I saw a picture of Cheesecake Factory's version. (here's the link: http://www.pe.com/imagesdaily/2009/07-27/stefanie_s_ultimate_red_velvet_cake_cheesecake_400.jpg

Here is cake that I made. I was very happy with how it turned out. Next time I make it I'll post a picture of the cake after it is cut.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

Bake Red Velvet Cake (posted earlier) http://pinchmysalt.com/2008/11/10/red-velvet-cake-recipe/

Bake the cake in 2-8"pans

*Double the Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from the link above.

Make the Cheesecake filling from Ina Garten's Cheesecake recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/raspberry-cheesecake-recipe/index.html Line 2-8" cake pans with foil and spray with non-stick spray. Cook as directed except reduce the 1hour and 15min, 225 degree baking cycle to between 45min to an hour. Cool as directed in recipe. After cooled put cheesecakes in ziplocks and freeze.

Make Vanilla cake glaze: 1/4 of powdered sugar with 3-4 Tablespoons of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla. Mixture should be watery.

Assemble cake: Trim cake to make layers level. Place Red Velvet Layer on plate, brush with Vanilla cake glaze. Fill between layers with Cream Cheese Frosting. Stack Cheesecake layer on top of Red Velvet Layer and repeat with last two layers. Frost top and sides with Cream Cheesecake Frosting. Pipe bead border if desired. When serving I would recommend small pieces. This cake is gorgeous but really, really rich.