Hello Lover

Barefoot Contessa has an amazing cake recipe, Beatty’s Chocolate Cake, or as I like to call it ‘you won’t be single for long chocolate on chocolate cake’. I will admit right off the bat that I am a bit of a cake snob, but this cake is finger licking good (sorry KFC). It's probably one of the easiest cakes I’ve made from scratch, the secret ingredient: coffee. This is added to bring out the chocolate flavor, but the cake does not have a coffee taste. Just remember, if you fatten up everyone around you then you look thinner.

Beatty’s Chocolate Cake

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup good cocoa powder

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk, shaken

1/2 cup oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup hot coffee

Grease 3 round cake pans and preheat oven to 350. Sift the first 6 ingredients into a bowl and mix. In a different bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Use a mixer on low speed to slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. Add the hot coffee to the mixture and stir just to combine. Pour the batter into the pans and bake for about 30 minutes, until tooth pick comes out clean. Let the pans for 30 minutes, then put the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting:

6 ounces semisweet chocolate

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 extra-large egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1 tablespoon instant coffee powder

Cut chocolate into small pieces and put it in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir often until melted and set aside to cooled. Use an electric mixer on medium-high to fluff the butter for 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 more minutes. Put mixer on low and slowly add the confectioners' sugar, mix well on medium speed until it is smooth and creamy. In a small bowl mix coffee powder in 2 teaspoons of the hot tap water. Add chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until blended. Spread on cake.

I know you next question: How many calories in one piece of this chocolate cake?

Who Cares?