Mexican Chocolate Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

This is not the cake I intended to make this weekend.

I wanted to just make any old cake, so I could practice decorating. I wanted to try an icing comb (never done that before) and work on making beaded borders.

a). I am not a huge fan of this icing comb. I think it's too angular and maybe I'd like a rounded one better. Still, I liked that it was an easy way to quickly dress up plain buttercream.

b). I bought a Wilton #12 tip on Saturday, but it mysteriously disappeared by the time I went to use it on Sunday. No beads for me. So I had fun making the top all spikey with my star tip.

I also intended to make the icing a fun color, but since my decorating plans were already kinda hosed, I left it as-is. And I kind of like it.

So while none of my decorating plans panned out, I did discover that this is my new favorite cake. Seriously. I love it. So. Much. It has some weird, weird ingredients in it (Olive oil? Balsamic Vinegar?) but it's incredibly moist, has a great crumb, and has just enough spice to make it interesting.

Oh, and adding cinnamon to a so-so buttercream made it out of this world. Further proof that cinnamon makes almost everything better.

Mexican chocolate cake (Recipe from BakedBree)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 3/4 cups flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla

Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together to fully mixed.

In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients. Add all together to dry ingredients. Beat on medium-high, 1-2 minutes or until well combined.

Pour into buttered and floured pans. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes (or that's what worked for my three 6-inch pans). Remove and allow to cool thoroughly.

Cinnamon butter cream
2 sticks unsalted butter; room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
~4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cream the butter and shortening. Add vanilla and cinnamon and combine well. Add the powdered sugar slowly, beating thoroughly between each addition.