Irish Coffee Chocolate Cake

Important life events need to be celebrated with cake!  Cupcakes are a huge trend these days, but there is something about a cake that makes things more festive.  My friend Zinni finally completed grad school - and he happens to be one of the biggest chocoholics I know.  I decided to take some of Zinni's favorite things and combine them in a cake.  I started with a Devil's Food Chocolate Cake Mix, and added espresso.  Then I made two types of frosting, one with whiskey and one chocolate.  My friends loved the end result - the subtle whiskey flavor combined with the rich chocolate and touch of coffee has a hit!

As a side note - at first glance my friends were hoping that I had made the same cake that I made for Zinni's birthday last October, which some of my friends actually said was their favorite cake.  That cake was a chocolate cake with Bailey's frosting topped with chocolate ganache.  I haven't posted the recipe - but I will soon, and I might just make that cake for Zinni's birthday this year!

You will need:
For the Cake:
1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix (plus the eggs, water, and oil that requires)
2 shots of espresso
Butter to grease the pans

For the Whiskey Frosting:
1 stick of butter, room temperature
1/4 cup of Whiskey, I used Johnny Walker Black Label
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
3 cups Powdered Sugar

For the Chocolate Frosting:
I used this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chocolate-frosting-recipe/index.html

Step 1:
Preheat the oven to the temperature listed on the cake box.  Follow the directions on the cake box except for this: pour the espresso into a measuring cup and add water until it equals 1 cup (or whatever the amount of water is supposed to be).

Step 2:
I like to make cakes with thinner layers (which also means more frosting!), so I fill each cake pan half way - which means I can make a four layer cake.  Keep a close eye on the cake since the cook time will be quick - about 15-20 minutes.

Step 3:
Once all of the cake layers are fully cooked, let them cool.  While they cool mix the frostings.  For the whiskey frosting just use a mixer to combine all the ingredients.

Step 4:
Assemble the cake.  You can get creative - I chose to use the chocolate frosting between the layers and then put the whiskey frosting on the outside of the cake.  The chocolate frosting is a bit running - but it still did the job.