chocolate cake + coffee buttercream.

It's April 28. The year of the Dragon. As classes wind down, the apathy rises.

Sounds so dramatic, right? Reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe. He was quite the depressed individual .. his work was so macabre. Have you seen the commercials for the movie based on his short stories? I can't watch the trailers. Too creepy.

But anyway. The amount of work I need to do and the time I'm actually spending working ... theoretically should be a direct relationship (with a correlation coefficient of 1, if you want to get precise) but that's not working out so well. The number of times I bake does go up, though!

My friend did the design work. Isn't it awesome?!?!
Hiring him full time.

Well okay, this cake was for someone's birthday. So there was kind of an excuse.

I had really short notice for this, so I decided to doctor a cake mix and make my own frosting, because while I can live with myself for using cake mix, I will never, on any day, serve something to people using canned frosting. No. Not unless it's a bake sale and it's for people I don't know.

That sounds terrible. Moving on. I added pudding mix to a chocolate cake mix, and adjusted what the back of the box called for. This changes up the texture so people can't recognize it's made from a box mix. Or is it only me that recognizes that kind of stuff? I frosted the two layers with coffee buttercream, made from a concentrated coffee solution, butter, and powdered sugar. I kind of winged that. Doesn't "solution" sound so scientific?

I'm a science major, can't be too surprised. Actually spending my summer doing biotechnology things, I'm so excited! Hopefully also working somewhere food-related. Neurobio + food all summer? Um, who needs friends?

Kidding! (please believe me) I've actually been very appreciative of my friends lately. I dunno, just glad to have people who are awesome, surrounding and supporting me. Kinda cool, I guess.

It's nice to be able to recognize things like that, especially when you're stressed and worried and wondering where your life is headed. Remember that you have people that care about you. So make a cake if you feel like it! And enjoy it. As well as life. LG, man, life is good. Word. Peace out yo.

Chocolate Cake (from cake mix) + Coffee Buttercream
I made up both components, using prior knowledge of how to doctor cake mixes. Just eyeball how much sugar to add to the buttercream. You can totally adjust the butter up to 2 sticks and increase the sugar, if you want. 

Cake:

• 1/2 cup oil 
• 4 large eggs 
• 1 cup (8 oz.) sour cream 
• chocolate cake mix 
• (3.9 oz) chocolate pudding mix - the typical packet with four 1/2-cup servings 

Buttercream:

• 1 1/2 sticks (12 oz) unsalted butter, softened  
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 Tb hot water + 2 tspns instant coffee granules, mixed till dissolved
• at least 2 cups powdered sugar 
• 1 tspn vanilla 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Whisk the oil, eggs, and sour cream. 
3. Add cake mix and pudding mix. Beat till well mixed, and then pour into two greased 8" round cake pans. You can also bake these in a 13x9" pan or cupcake tins. Just grease each pan well (or use cupcake liners.)
4. Bake for about 20 - 30 minutes. Press center of the cake gently. Cake should spring back. 
5. While the cakes are baking/cooling, prepare the frosting. Beat cream cheese till smooth. Beat in butter. 
6. Mix in coffee solution and vanilla.  
7. Beat in 2 cups powdered sugar. Continue adding sugar till desired sweetness / consistency is reached. 
8. Frost the cooled cakes. Decorate top with coffee beans (chocolate covered would be amazing!), if possible. Serve.