Happy Birthday Auntie!

My sister has been gently reminding me that I'm long over due to blog.  Since today was her birthday and I'm out of practice, I thought I'd blog the cake I made her!

She has a long history of working in coffee shops, from the first roastery she worked at in Chicago to management at Starbucks, to the lofty heights of the Second Story Cafe at Gulliver's Books here in Fairbanks.  So I made her a Coffee Cup Cake.

I used my trusty Betty Crocker Bake 'n Fill, selecting the un-filled dome cake.  Since coffee was the theme I was thinking a yellow cake for the "cup" (the outer, larger dome) and a dark cake for the "coffee" (the smaller, middle dome).  Here's the easiest mocha cake you ever made:  Take a dark chocolate cake mix and substitute strong coffee for the water.  Really, you have to try that!  I found a vanilla mix for the "cup" and added about a half a tablespoon of cinnamon to the mix.  I'm sure I've mentioned before that, having made scratch cakes, I just can't make them as cheap as the box cakes, and the quality of box cakes these days is very, very good.

The layers put together, with the "cup" iced.  You can see a crack in the mocha cake, I filled it with chocolate icing.  I sliced off the top of the big dome to make it sit flat.

The "coffee" icing added, and the "cup" icing sides built up.

Gotta have a little foam on your mocha!

And a sprinkle of cinnamon!  The handle is a frosted sugar cookie.

I couldn't have the rest of the sugar cookies sitting around tempting me, so we served them with the coffee!

My concern was would the cake pull apart, since I was using the large end as the top, and yeah, it did a little.  We grabbed some toothpicks to hold it together until slicing.  If I try that again I'll bring back-up icing for repairs.

The flavor combination of cakes was great, it tasted just like a cinnamon mocha!