Mocha Cake

When I was a kid, my Most Faithful Reader's mocha cake was The Best Cake, in my opinion. I would constantly beg her to make it and occasionally she would. I never understood why she wouldn't make it more often. I made it twice right after I started cooking. I didn't feel like making it again until several years later. I finally understood. It's a pain.

It's really good, though.

• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup softened butter
• 5 eggs, separated, whites beaten
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 5 tablespoons strong coffee
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg yolks, buttermilk, coffee and vanilla. To make the coffee, dissolve as many spoonfuls of instant coffee into a cup of hot water water as you possibly can. or until you get bored. Mix together flour, cocoa and baking soda and then mix into the wet ingredients. Your electric mixer is your friend. Fold in beaten egg whites. Note that you should be using a big bowl, so you don't have to move everything to a larger bowl. Plan ahead.

Pour into two round cake pans and bake at 350F for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from pans. Let cool.

Icing

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 teaspoons cocoa
• 3 tablespoons of that obscenely strong coffee substance
• 1 box of powdered sugar

This icing recipe just barely (and I mean barely) covers the cake, including icing between the layers. You might want make more. You can always double the recipe and eat what you don't use for dinner.