Hannah, one of our community group members, brought this cake to a recent get-together. It was a-mazing! She graciously provided the recipe.

To Make Cake:

4-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups strong brewed coffee
¼ cup cider vinegar

To Prepare Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 (9-inch) round cake pans, dust with flour, and line bottom with parchment or wax paper.

Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add oil and vanilla extract. With electric mixer on low speed, blend until fully combined. With mixer on medium speed, gradually blend in coffee. When mixture is smooth, add vinegar and blend on low speed just until combined.

Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or just until a knife or toothpick inserted in the center of layers comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool 15 to 20 minutes on a wire rack. Remove from pans and allow layers to cool completely before icing.

To Make Icing:

2 (8-oz) packages of cream cheese, slightly softened and cut into small pieces
½ cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
4 cups powdered confectioner’s sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese in a large bowl until smooth. Add butter and beat until smooth, creamy, and fully combined. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract and beat slowly until sugar is incorporated. Continue to beat until consistency is extremely smooth and fluffy.

(yields icing for 3 (9-inch) cake layers)

To Prepare icing:

Frost layers with icing. Crumbs from this dark cake can sometimes come loose and show through the white icing. It may be useful to apply a crumb coating – a very thin initial coating of icing to trap crumbs. After applying, place cake in the freezer for a few minutes to solidify crumb coat and proceed with a clean, crumb-free spatula to decorate cake with remaining icing. Garnish with any dark chocolate candy or cookie inserted into or placed on top of cake.