Butter Cake with Chocolate Mocha Buttercream Icing

Cake. Butter cake. Rich, light, amazing texture buttery goodness. Smothered in buttercream icing, but not just regular buttercream icing. Chocolate buttercream icing... chocolate mocha buttercream icing. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is remembering this awesome cake. It is absolutely amazing. Like I said, the texture of the cake is amazing, and the icing is sweet and full of chocolate goodness with just a hint of mocha. Get a bottle of chocolate and white chocolate shavings to decorate, and whoever you make this cake for will feel wonderfully special. You'll want to make this. I promise. And it's really not very hard to make. Simple actually. You make the cake with simple straightforward ingredients, and the recipe is very straightforward to follow. You can make this, and you should make this. Seriously. Of course I found the recipe for this cake on Pinterest as Old Fashioned Butter Cake.

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 inch x 2 inch baking pans and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

Add butter and mix until mixture looks like fine crumbs.

Add milk and vanilla and beat for two minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. 

Add eggs and beat for 2 minutes more.

Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally between the pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

 

Remove from oven. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then turn cakes out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Mocha Frosting

1 cup butter

4 cups powdered sugar (a 1 lb box)

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp ground espresso powder

enough milk or heavy cream to reach spreading consistency

Using whisk attachment, cream butter. Add vanilla and almond extracts and mix. Add about half the powdered sugar, cocoa and espresso, on low speed mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until incorporated. Scrape down sides of the bowl, then whisk icing on med-high speed until it begins to lighten in color. Add milk or cream sparingly until a spreadable consistency is reached.