This chocolate mocha cake is the perfect dessert for Valentine's Day. It is chocolate and heart shaped; simple as that.
Actually it is a cake filled with love, the most important ingredient in any recipe. The cake was baked for my husband but it also honors our darling daughter who was born on Valentine's Day! While she lived at home, I would bake her a cake of her choosing, now I have a bakery send her one long distance. She loves cake like her mama but is a runner, not like her mama, so there's that...
My dilemma was how to bake a gorgeous chocolate cake that Jim could eat with his beloved Breyers' ice cream but would not tempt me since I'm trying to stay sugar free. Coffee, that was the answer! I despise it, you could line up every chocolate dessert and if it had a hint of coffee flavor, I wouldn't touch it. Great diet strategy eh?
The ingredients in the chocolate mocha cake are:
- Flour
- Dark chocolate cocoa
- Baking soda, salt
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Egg whites
- Strong coffee
- Espresso powder
- Milk
- Pure vanilla extract
- Instant chocolate pudding
- Cool Whip topping
Isn't this a gorgeous yummy looking cake? If you'd like to make the cake extra pretty, you can add chocolate shavings and curls.
To make the shavings, just use a grater over any type of chocolate bar. You can use milk, dark or even white chocolate for decoration.
For the curls, melt some chocolate with a teaspoon or so of vegetable or coconut oil. Spread the melted chocolate over the back of a cookie sheet and smooth it out until the chocolate is thinned and loses its shiny appearance. You can speed up the process and put the cookie sheet in the freezer to help set the chocolate. When it looks matte, you can test it with a metal spatula and slowly slide across the chocolate making a curl.
Too bad my daughter lives miles and miles away and can't enjoy mom's delicious baking. I did send her a photo though, was that too mean? 😉
Chocolate Mocha Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 10 servings 1x
- Category: Cake
- Method: Bake
Description
This is a perfect combination of chocolate and coffee flavors blended together to make a rich mocha cake. The frosting is a fluffy mocha pudding and whipped topping.
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup dark chocolate powdered cocoa
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 large egg whites ( I used egg whites from a carton)
- ⅓ cup very strong cooled coffee
- 1 - 2 teaspoons espresso powder (optional)
- ⅔ cup milk
- Chocolate Mocha Frosting
- 2 packages chocolate instant pudding
- 1 teaspoon espresso powder
- 2 cups milk
- 1 8oz container Cool Whip topping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Butter and flour a bundt pan. I used a very decorative pan so I made sure to really butter all the grooves.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl until combined.
- In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs, egg whites and vanilla and beat well.
- In a measuring cup, stir together the coffee, espresso, if using, and the milk.
- Slowly add about ⅓ portion of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with ⅓ of the coffee and milk.
- Pour into the bundt pan and smooth the top.
- Bake the cake for 40 - 50 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done at 45 minutes.
- Cool on rack for about 20 minutes, then remove from pan to cool completely before frosting.
To make frosting:
- Whisk the instant pudding, espresso and milk in a bowl for about 2 minutes. Place in refrigerator for about 10 minutes to set.
- After the pudding has set, gently fold in the Cool Whip until combined.
- Frost the cake and sprinkle with some grated chocolate if desired.
- Store in refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
* Make sure you add the dry ingredients very slowly or the powder mixture WILL go all over your counter 😆
** If you have trouble removing the cake from your bundt pan, try using a spatula to go around the edges to help loosen. I actually turned mine upside down on the cooling rack for at least 30 minutes to get the cake to come out.
This recipe was adapted from Thyme for Cooking blog
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