Cinnamon Mocha Cake with Chocolate Cinnamon Buttercream

My boys and husband wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting "just for fun" last month but I find those flavors to be a bit boring.  I decided to add a bit of a cinnamon to both and see if anyone noticed or minded.

Well, they definitely noticed but everyone thought it gave the cake a great little flavor boost!  

For the cake:

2 cups sugar

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

2 eggs

3/4 cup almond milk (regular milk is fine too!)

3/4 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup brewed espresso (we use a single serve instant packet and 1 cup boiling water for this) 

For chocolate cinnamon buttercream:

2 1/2 stick butter, softened

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup cocoa powder

4-8 tablespoons milk (I used almond milk since it's what I had on hand)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

Optional bottle of chocolate sprinkles for the topping

To make the cake I heated my oven to 350 and greased and floured my pans. Then began mixing the batter together in my stand mixer.  I combined the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, eggs, vegetable oil, milk, baking soda, baking powder, salt, extract, and cinnamon all together they slowly added in the espresso.  It is a very runny cake mix; but it will cook up beautifully. 

I divided my batter evenly between my two cake pans (I used a 9" size) and gave them a few taps on the counter to release any air bubbles. Then I baked them for 25 minutes (ovens may vary though and can take up to 30 minutes).  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Let them cool in the pans for at least an hour before turning them out to cool on a wire rack. 

Level the cakes and start making your frosting!  I always prepare my piping bag ahead of time by inserting my piping tip, cutting a hole in the bottom and then pulling the large end over the sides of my Pyrex measuring cup like this:

It just makes it so much easier to fill.

Using my (cleaned!) stand mixer bowl and the paddle, I combined the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, extract, and cinnamon.  I made sure to stop the mixer periodically and scrape down the sides.  You can always add a bit more milk or a bit more powdered sugar until you have a consistency you like. 

 

While the color is off in this shot, I did like the consistency so I stopped mixing and added a couple of generous scoops to my waiting piping bag. 

I started with a generous amount of frosting between my layers and smoothed it out with an offset spatula.

Then I frosted the top layer and all of the sides using my star tip.  Since I had a hard time getting my top layer to be nice and flat I topped the cake with a bottle of chocolate sprinkles. 

It was pretty quick, easy, and delicious! 

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