Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Icing

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease two 9-inch round cake pans or line them with parchment paper.

CAKE:
1. Combine sugar, butter and oil in a medium size bowl and mix until blended.
2. Mix in the eggs, then mix in the vanilla. Set aside.
3. In another bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cocoa powder and the sea salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and stir, then gradually pour in the brewed coffee as you continue to mix. As you go, the batter should thin out.
5. Pour batter into the prepared cake pans, then shake them a little to level them out.
6. Place in the oven and bake until an inserted toothpick comes out clean with a little bit of crumb stuck to it (about 30 minutes..make sure to not over bake).
7. Remove them from the oven and let the cakes cool for 15-20 minutes in the pans, and then remove cakes from pans.

ICING:

1. With a mixer cream the butter until smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar and salt, continue to beat until well blended, mixture may be fairly stiff/
3. Next slowly add cream, this should loosen the mixture and improve its consistency, making it ideal for icing.
4. Lastly add vanilla extract and scraped vanilla bean seeds and mix until evenly combined.
5. Now you are ready to frost to your hearts content!

Like mine, your cakes may have developed hill syndrome (not level but nicely rounded tops). Simply get at eye level and using a bread knife or other gentle knife saw the hill off… I then saved my leftover cake hill and plan to use it for cake pops! When life gives ya lemons why not make lemonade…