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An Easy Birthday Chocolate Cake With Cocoa Frosting

Another birthday has just gone by and our daughter is one more year older. Sometimes, when we see the self assured girl she has grown into, it seems it wasn’t so long ago that she was a toddler on shaky legs with an endearing two-toothed grin and a single-minded determination for tearing up paper!
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Servings 10 serving

Ingredients
  

  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt (if using uned butter)
  • 1 cup warm milk
  • 1 cup coffee decocotion
  • 150 gm salted butter soft at room temperature
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (optional)

The Cocoa Frosting:

  • 1/2 cup butter soft at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup dark cocoa powder
  • 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (you may need more)
  • 8 tbsps milk approximately

Instructions
 

For the Cake:

  • In a bowl, stir the butter and warm milk together until the butter melts. Add the coffee decoction and vanilla and stir well.
  • Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Add the sugar and whisk together to blend.
  • Mix the dry ingredients into the liquid in the bowl with a wooden spoon, till well blended. Do not over mix.
  • Divide the batter equally between two 9-inch greased and floured cake tins. Evenly sprinkle 3/4 cup chocolate chips on each cake tin of batter and bake at 180C (350F) for about 25 to 30 minutes till the cakes are done.
  • Cool the cakes in their pans for about ten minutes. Remove from the tins and cool both cakes on a rack.
  • For frosting the cake, use the cocoa frosting recipe below, or one of your choice. Place one cake with the chocolate chip side facing up. Cover the top with frosting and place the other cake with chocolate chip side facing down. Cover the sandwiched cakes with frosting and decorate as desired.

For the Cocoa Frosting:

  • Whisk together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder till well mixed.
  • Put the butter and vanilla in a bowl and, using a hand held mixer, beat till it is light and fluffy. Add the cocoa-sugar mixture and beat well. Add about 5 tbsps milk, and beat until the frosting is creamy and fluffy.
  • If you feel you need more milk or sugar, add the required quantity and beat well. Refrigerate the frosting till the cakes have cooled completely. If the frosting has set, keep it out till it softens and then beat it till smooth, before frosting the cake.