Coffee Mocha Chocolate Cake

This Coffee Mocha Chocolate Cake is sinful, even for chocolate lovers. Close your eyes and picture a rich dark chocolate cake with a hint of rich coffee flavor coated with a silky mocha swiss meringue with specs of Oreo Cookies floating in the buttercream, topped with a deep chocolate ganache with blueberries and coffee beans.

Method:

For The Chocolate Cake:

Preheat oven to 350F, grease three 6" round baking pans and dust with cocoa powder. Line bottoms with parchment.
Place all dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Stir to combine.
In a medium bowl whisk all wet ingredients. Pour the coffee in slowly so the heat doesn't cook the eggs.
Add wet ingredients to the dry and mix on medium for 2-3 mins. Batter will be very thin.
Pour evenly into prepared pans. Use a kitchen scale to ensure the batter is evenly distributed. Don't forget to weigh your mixing bowl before you start so that you can calculate the total weight of the batter.
Bake until a cake tester comes out mostly clean. A total of 30-35mins.

For The Mocha Buttercream meringue Frosting:

Place egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk until combined.
Place the mixing bowl over a hot water bath on the stove and whisk constantly by hand until the mixture is no longer grainy to the touch (approx. 3mins). You can feel with your fingers if it is still grainy or not.
Place bowl on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the meringue is stiff and cooled. The bowl will be no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins). Don't worry, you can't over whisk the meringue.
Switch to paddle attachment on the stand mixer.
Slowly add barely softened cubed butter one cube at a time and mix until smooth.
Add vanilla, melted chocolate, and espresso powder. Whip until smooth.
Scrape the filling off of 3 or 4 Oreo cookies. Put the cookies in a plastic bag and pound with a mallet or rolling pin until you have small crumbs. You can also pulse them in a food processor to get the same result, but don't grind them too fine.
Mix the cookie crumbs into the meringue until combined evenly.
Frost cake and refrigerate before adding ganache and topping.

Ganache:

Finely chop chocolate and place into a bowl. Bring cream just barely to a simmer and pour over chopped chocolate. Cover and let stand 2 minutes for the chocolate to melt from the heat of the cream. Stir with a spatula until combined and smooth. Allow to cool and thicken slightly, but still pourable, before using on cake.

Assembly:

Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Top with approximately 2/3 cup of frosting and spread evenly. Repeat with remaining layers and apply a thin coat of frosting all over the cake. You can also cut each layer in half but you will need more frosting. Chill for 20 mins.
Frost and smooth the sides. Chill for 20 mins.
Place blueberries around the edge of the top of the cake mixed with coffee beans. Pour a layer of ganache inside the ring of berries and beans. Fill in the top of the cake with more ganache and spread evenly with an offset spatula if necessary.

What You Will Need:

Equipment Needed:

Method:

For The Chocolate Cake:

For The Mocha Buttercream meringue Frosting:

Ganache:

Assembly:

Notes

Nutrition