A Retirement Cake...Better Late Than Never!

I am a bad, bad Blogger. There is absolutely no excuse for me not posting! Especially when I have a few things to post!! Let's start where I left off.
Right before the work-stoppage in early August I had one of the reps in my Home Store retire. He packed up, sold his home in NH, and moved out West to Colorado, nearer to his daughter and grand kids. Super nice man....always made coming to work fun! I will definitely miss our "Political" banter. THIS man also loved my baking. (Hmmm....note to self...find man who loves your baking) Anyway...EVERY time I was in my store I'd hear..."Did you bring us something good?" or "When do we get Cinnamon Rolls again?" Always feels good to be wanted, even if its just for my baking. Haha. We knew he was retiring in the beginning of August so I started a conversation about food one day and HAPPENED to weasel in a question about everyone's favorite cake flavor. I couldn't think of a better retirement present. I decided to use an "Ina" recipe for Chocolate Cake with Mocha Frosting, as my Rep had expressed his LOVE for chocolate/chocolate cake. "I like the cake part BETTER", he said to me. I'm sorry. WHAT? Doesn't EVERYONE love the FROSTING part of the cake??? I just had this discussion with someone last night about frosting being the best part. I knew I needed a good, solid, moist cake recipe with a lighter fluffier frosting...not too sweet. Ina's frosting with instant coffee seemed about right.
I brought it in for my Rep's last day. PERFECTION! It was MOIST and fluffy. Perfectly done (If I do say so myself) The frosting was SUPER rich but not heavy. Definitely a keeper.

Here is a slightly cooled, unfrosted, layer. Now I have been making cakes for most of my life. That was always MY task when it came to family birthdays, growing up. Always from a box though. With this recipe, a whole cup of HOT coffee is added to the batter before baking. The coffee really enhances the chocolate flavor of the cake itself. Adding this at the end made me a bit nervous. I thought that for the first time, while baking, I'd really done something wrong...not added enough flour....etc. The hot coffee made it SO thin. I thought there was NO way these would come out looking like normal cakes...but as you can see...they did.

The Finished Product!

As a little change up of my own, I let the melted chocolate for the frosting get just a LITTLE cool, so it was dispersed throughout the rest of the ingredients BUT left a bunch of little chocolate chunks throughout. A good texture addition to the very creamy, buttery frosting.

Now...when it comes to decorating cakes...fine handiwork has NEVER been my forte. My goal as a baker is to at least practice better decorating skills. My hand/eye coordination has never been the best. Handwriting may have been the only thing I've ever failed in school. Ask me to draw something? I'll have to write a blurb to DESCRIBE the picture, so the common man can discern what he's looking at...clearly this has carried over to my neatness when frosting something. HAHA

We were so sad to see my Rep go...however the celebration cake made the day that much better!

YUM!