Dulce de Leche Decadence

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake pans with grease and flour.

Beat coffee, cocoa and cinnamon with a wire whisk until smooth. Set aside until mixture cools a little bit.

In another bowl mix flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large bowl (love my KitchenAid), beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

Stir buttermilk and vanilla into the coffee mixture. Starting and ending with the flour mixture, alternately add with the coffee mixture into butter mixture. Beat until all ingredients are combined and batter is smooth.

Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool cakes in the pan for 10 minutes before removing them and leaving to cool completely.

Dulce de Leche:

Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees. Pour one can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass baking pan and cover with foil. Place the filled baking pan in a larger pan and fill the larger pan with water just till about halfway up the pan that is filled with the milk. You’re creating a water bath for the milk so that it doesn’t burn. Place the two pans in the oven and bake for at least an hour. Check on it about halfway through to see if more water needs to be added to the outside pan; you don’t want your milk to burn. After about an hour, check to make sure your condensed milk has become a golden amber or browned a bit (if it hasn’t, give it a few more minutes) and remove from the oven. Once it’s cooled, mix with a whisk until smooth.

Chocolate Ganache:

In a saucepan, heat heavy cream until hot and mix in the chocolate and butter, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat.

Note: don’t start to make your ganache until you’re just about ready to pour it over your cake.

Assembly:
1. The amount of layers is up to you, depending on whether you halve your round cakes or not.
2. Place your first layer on a cooling rack and spread a good amount of dulce de leche over the top. Don’t worry if it starts to ooze out a little bit. Repeat the process with the other layers.
3. Once your last layer of cake is placed on top, get your warm ganache and pour it over the top of your cake, letting the ganache fall over the edges of the cake. When you feel like you’ve got a good layer, smooth out the sides with the flat end of a butter knife or spatula. If you’re not satisfied with the smoothness, wait for this layer of ganache to cool and then pour another layer on.

Let the ganache cool and harden over the cake before serving.