My Favorite Chocolate Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, then dust well with cocoa powder. (I end up using about ¼ cup of cocoa total to dust both pans.)
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
3. Add the milk, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla to the well in the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed with an electric mixer until well incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and continue to mix the batter for 2 minutes.
4. Stir the instant coffee into the boiling water until dissolved. Pour the mixture into the cake batter, and mix until just incorporated. Batter will be very thin.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans.
6. Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. (A 13 x 9 x 2 inch cake should bake about 35-40 minutes, cupcakes should bake about 16-18 minutes.)
7. Allow the cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes before turning them out onto wire cooling racks to cool completely.
8. Frost as desired. Cake is best served at room temperature.

To frost a layer cake:
Place a dab of frosting in the middle of a cake plate. Place one layer of cake on the center of the cake plate. Frost the top of the layer with about ½ inch of frosting. Place the second layer on top of the frosted first layer. Frost the top of the second layer with about ½ inch of frosting. Use the remaining frosting to frost the sides of the cake.