Mocha Layered Leaf Cake

I made this cake for my best friend Caitlin's birthday. She loves coffee and chocolate so i thought a big mocha cake would be perfect.



Mocha cake
I cheated a bit by using two boxes of chocolate cake mix from Coles. After stirring eggs, and milk and the dry cake mixture together I dissolved about three table spoons of Nescafe' Gold instant coffee in four tablespoon of steaming boiled water then added it to mixture and stirred. I only have one round cake tin so I put half the mixture into a tin bake it, took it out to cool, cleaned the tin and put in the last half of the mixture and baked it. After thoroughly cooling them i cut them in half using a serrated long knife.

Mocha frosting
I made a thick chocolate frosting and added three table spoons of the same instant coffee again and dissolved in three teaspoons of boiling water. I stirred the coffee into the icing then spreading equal amounts of the frosting between each layer.
Mocha Frosting: (recipe doubled)
Ingredients:
250g Butter - chopped
3 cups (480g) icing sugar
1 Tbs of milk
3 tsps nescafe gold instant coffee - dissolved in 2 tsp of boiling water
Method:

Beat butter using an electric beater on medium speed. Beat butter until white as possible. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar then add all the milk (in which you have added dissolved coffee), then remaining icing sugar.


Chocolate Fudge Frosting
Next i made a very very thick chocolate fudge frosting then covered the entire cake with it. This frosting was so thick it broke my electric mixer and my plastic scrapper. So in future I will follow the recipe properly and use my blender instead.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting: (recipe doubled)
Warning: Do not use electric beaters ( they may explode - learnt from experience)
400g butter softened - to achieve this, place in microwave for 10-15 seconds
400g icing sugar
400g dark chocolate - melted (I used Cadbury dark cooking chocolate)
Sift icing sugar. Place softened butter and sifted icing sugar in a food processor / blender and process/blend on medium speed until combined. Add melted chocolate and process/blend on medium to high speed until thick and smooth. Done!


White and Dark Chocolate Leaves
I made the chocolate leaves by melting dark and white chocolate in separate metal bowls over a saucepan of simmering water on the stove. Don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowls over wise the chocolate will go clumpy, also the same thing will happen if any water gets into the chocolate. Use a metal spoon to stir the chocolate. After melting the chocolate I painted about fifty leaves i had collected earlier. I washed and tried the leaves thoroughly before hand. I used a soft thin brush to paint with. The chocolate hardens after a while so I had to keep putting it back on the simmering water. When the chocolate dried, I carefully peeled it off, peeling from the part which was closest to the stem. They can be kept in the fridge if its a warm day. If you are going to attempt this, be patient, it's fussy work but the end result is worth it.
When i had all the chocolate leaves ready i began to place the leaves side by side starting from the outside of the cake working my way in. I used large leaves around the sides and smaller ones in the middle. I then added a few more leaves to any areas that had spaces between them.

Close up photo of the chocolate leaves.