Baking for Nightshift- Chocolate Mocha Cake

More chocolate I know and there is still more to come. I loved this cake. It was light, full of flavour, not too coffee flavoured (I'm not too keen on too strong a coffee favour in my food) and the praline on top just completed the whole thing. This recipe came from the Foodtown magazine and is well worth making. Delicious!

Chocolate Mocha Cake
2 tsp coffee granules 
1 c warm water
1 3/4 c caster sugar
2 eggs
1 c buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour, sifted
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 c cocoa, sifted

Icing
150 g butter, softened
1 1/2 c icing sugar
1/2 c cocoa sifted
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 Tbsp milk
1 tsp coffee, dissolved in 1 Tbsp water

Preheat the oven to 160C and line the base of a 20cm springform tin.

Dissolve coffee into the water and set aside. Place sugar, eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat until combined.

Fold in flour, baking soda, baking paper and cocoa. This is a runny batter. Pour into the tin. 

Bake about 50 mins (it may need a bit longer) until cooked. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing put the butter, icing sugar and cocoa into  mixer and beat until combined. Add the coffee, vanilla and enough milk to get the right consistency. 

Cut the cake in half and spread 1/3 icing onto the bottom layer. Ice all over the rest of the cake with the remaining icing. Sprinkle over the pistachio praline (this is optional).

Pistachio Praline
Place 70g pistachio nuts onto a baking paper lined baking tray. Place 1/2 c water and 1/4 c water into a small pot over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved and bring to the boil.Boil until it goes a golden colour then pour over the nuts and set aside to harden. When it cools break it up, put it into a food processor and whizz up. Make sure you do NOT touch the hot toffee....unless you want 3rd degree burns....

Baking for Nightshift- Annmarie's Chocolate Brownie

I know I know I know! I say I'm not going to fall behind in my posts and then life happens and my blog suffers. It's not that I haven't been cooking or baking because I have done plenty of that carry on..... probably more than I should even say. I do have a fair few photos in my albums but now I have the added problem of trying to remember where the heck I got the recipe from! Luckily this recipe is an easy one. In fact this gives a whole lot of bang for your buck! I tried these brownies when we were doing the Easter raffles for our ballet scholarship fundraising when Annmarie brought it over to have with our.....wine.....And a mighty fine mix it was too! They might not look like much and the original recipe doesn't even have chocolate in it however they taste so so so amazing. Like you have used a ton of chocolate...and they have the right amount of gooeyness like a good brownie should (use a decent cocoa though...avoid Cadburys at all costs). I did add some milk chocolate drops and this is the added beauty of this recipe....you can add or leave out extra chocolate and it would still be good. So without further, and much deserved, fanfare here is Annmarie's recipe....

Annmarie's Chocolate Brownie

200 g butter, softened
1 1/2 c caster sugar
3/4 c cocoa (I use Homebrand which is rich and dark and similar to the expensive brands)
1/2 c plain flour
3 eggs
Chocolate drops if you want an even bigger chocolate hit

Preheat the oven to 150C and grease and line a smallish slice tin.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Add in the cocoa and flour and chocolate drops if using.

Bake about 30 mins....don't overdo it though.