Another birthday and mocha cake with white chocolate butter cream frosting

As mentioned once already, we love birthdays there are many reasons why we do that, but the main one for me, remains the birthday cake....not the eating part, it is all about the preparation. As soon as I get the chance to make a cake, all my recipe books are out of the shelf and I start to look for suitable cake to be made. I do not know exactly how many baking books I own, if you will ask my husband he would probably say "all that are existing in the entire world", if you would ask me my answer would be...not enough!!! Every time when I am dreaming about our future house, one day we will have one for sure, I am always wishing for a big kitchen and a library room, which will be filled with 1001 baking, cooking, cake decorating books and it is going to be my second favorite room in the house, after the kitchen of course...

Since we were celebrating a 40th birthday of a friend, I found that mocha cake (also known as espresso cake) would be the perfect choice. Sophisticated, delicious and quite unusual. I wanted to try this recipe for some time now, but seems never find the right occasion, till today....



Mocha cake

• 90 g butter softened 
• 250 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 120 g creme fraiche
• 75 ml vegetable oil
• pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 350 g flour
• 240 ml espresso lukewarm

Preheat your oven to 180C. In a bowl mix together butter and sugar, till light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at the time, then creme fraiche and oil, mix well. Sift flour, salt and baking powder together and combine with the butter-egg mixture. Finally add the espresso in small sips and mix, till all used (the dough will be rather liquid). Bake for 25-30 minutes 3 or 2 dough bases (depending on the size of your cake form). Let it cool completely.

White chocolate butter cream frosting

• 115 g butter softened 
• 90 g white chocolate melted
• 2 tablespoons creme fraiche
• 250 powdered sugar

In a bowl beat the butter, till fluffy and pale in color. Add the melted chocolate and mix together. Put creme fraiche and combine everything together. Add powdered sugar (in 2 goes), mix till everything is well incorporated and the frosting is light and creamy.

Frost the cake as desire....

The celebration took place in one small Spanish restaurant on the top of the hill (or on the top of the world, if you ask me..) The way up was not the most pleasant experience, as I don´t like driving small narrow roads steep up, not as a passenger and for sure not as a driver...However the view from up there made me forget everything and the only thing I was concern about were the pictures I took. 

We had Calcots for lunch, a typical Catalan dish - grilled onion kind with a special made salsa and meat. This time of the year you will find many restaurants offering Calcots, which is really worth to be tried. The whole eating experience is special too, as the onions are grilled as they are over the open fire and served like this too, you have to remove the first layers from the onion and eat only the soft onion core inside, which is dipped into salsa.... Your hands will be black from the coal and your clothes stained with the salsa, if you are not using the gloves and the extra napkin they are serving along with this dish...

It was a lovely Sunday with great food, lovely company, lots of fun and a sophisticated cake (I always wanted to call one of my cakes sophisticated :-)

Enjoy!

PS. Judith this was for you, thanks for the invitation and the great fiesta...