Would You Like Chocolate With That? ~ Dark Mocha-Chocolate Cake

Happy Day! It's Chocolate Friday! We made it through another week and should be rewarded with some chocolate, don't you think?!

I tried another recipe (and there are SO many that I want to try) from my Chocolate Fantasies cookbook. For the record, it does not contain my chocolate fantasy which is where I can eat all the chocolate I want without gaining a single ounce. But it does have a lot of great recipes! I made this for our church potluck and ran out of time in the morning to frost it as I still had to get ready. Hubby frosted it and did a pretty good job considering the instructions I gave him were about as specific as "make it foofy." Thanks honey! He was kind enough to take a pic before we left too.

Dark Mocha-Chocolate Cake

1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons fine, dry breadcrumbs
4 (1-oz) squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup instant coffee granules
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cinnamon-Cream Frosting

Grease 2 8-in. round cakepans with 1 tablespoon butter; sprinkle breadcrumbs on bottom and sides of pans. Set aside.

Combine chocolate, water, and coffee granules in top of a double boiler; bring water to a boil. Reduce heat to low; cook until chocolate melts.

Cream 1/2 cup butter; gradually add sugar, beating well at medium speed of an electric mixer. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add chocolate mixture, and beat well.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients. Add to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating at low speed of an electric mixer, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Do not overbeat.

Pour batter into cakepans. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove layers from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread Cinnamon-Cream Frosting between layers and on top of cake only. Yield: one 2-layer cake.

CINNAMON-CREAM FROSTING
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon coffee granules
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Beat whipping cream until foamy; gradually add sugar, coffee granules, and cinnamon, beating until stiff peaks form. Yield: enough for two 8-in. layers.

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This is not a real sweet cake - has a very bittersweet chocolate flavor and would be fabulous with a nice cup of coffee! Mine turned out a little dense and slightly dry, but I think I overmelted the chocolate, overbeat the batter, and baked it a little too long for my hot oven. It was yummy though and I got compliments!

Note - when you empty that bowl of melted chocolate into the batter, don't take a swipe from the bowl with your finger and lick it. Just don't. 'Cause even though it looks chocolatey and delicious, you are forgetting that it is unsweetened chocolate and coffee. But I really wouldn't know...

Now it's your turn to share some chocolate! Go find or write a chocolate post and bring it back here to link it up with MckLinky (Mr. Linky's Scottish cousin?) below. I know you can find a post with chocolate in it - even pics! C'mon! And if you see a great chocolate post out there in the blogosphere, tell 'em to link up - it's best to share the chocolate! Check back later to catch up on some of the yumminess that gets linked up. I have a good feeling about today! In fact, I'm going to tweet out (I'm @stop4chocolate on twitter) all the chocolate posts you link up!

Have a fabulous chocolate-filled day my friends! :)

I'm linking this up to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam! Be sure to stop over there for lots of yummy recipes!