A good mocha cake and it's NOT Duncan Hines

Our third student cake also went with the chocolate theme.  This was a chocolate cake that included coffee in both the cake batter and the frosting. So we guess that makes it a mocha cake. It turns out it was a collaborative effort. Our competitor for the day took advantage of a friend's better experience with baking and came up with this creation. 

All by herself Skeptical!

Her partner in cake!

The proud bakers!

A little asymmetry for effect?

It was a good size chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The two people involved swear that the entire thing was made from scratch and not from a mix.  There was a little skepticism because the cake part was very dark as you tend to see after using Duncan Hines cake mixes.  However it was explained that was because both cocoa powder and coffee were used and also that the batter included heavy cream and vinegar as a replacement for buttermilk.  We were still a little skeptical.

There's coffee in that frosting

Dense and dark!

If we didn't know better....

.......could it be this? See the resmblance?

The frosting was a standard butter cream that also included some coffee.   As the cake got warmer the frosting softened up nicely and went better with the cake.  It was a two layer cake with the same frosting in between. The presentation was standard for a cake like this and it was essentially cylindrical that looked good and solid. On one part the top layer overhung the bottom layer supposedly for artistic reasons. We were skeptical.  One of the chefs indicated they were going to decorate it with M&Ms but then thought that would be too much.  It would NOT have been too much.

A few M&Ms would have been a nice finish!

Apparently the M&Ms didn't matter much!

The cake itself was rich and moist, to the relief of the bakers. The chocolate/mocha taste was great and as mentioned the cake paired very well with the frosting.  Assuming this was from scratch and not Duncan Hines, we give a four star rating for a great tasting recipe.

We are also guinea pigs for and experiment in bread making. Don't ask why because we don't know!  Today's sample was a cinnamon raisin bread made in a bread machine. We are supposed to help determine the best texture and dough ingredients.  This one was cinnamon raisin. It was good although a little too doughy so the recipe will be changed tomorrow!  Can't wait!

Give us our daily bread!

Cinnamon raising in case you were wondering!

On balance good but a little doughy!