Espresso cake

Cake:
1 1/2 c plus 2 tbsp flour
1/2 cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 sticks butter (10 tbsp)
1 1/4 c sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 c sour cream
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another bowl, blend butter and sugar until the mixture is light and looks fluffy. Then beat eggs and vanilla into butter mixture. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, 1/3 at a time, alternating with 1/2 cup sour cream. Pour batter into pans, and bake 25-30 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks.
Frosting:
12 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 3/4 heavy cream
2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp espresso powder
Place chocolate in a heavy bowl. Combine cream, butter, and espresso powder in saucepan, bring to boil while stirring constantly. Pour hot cream over chocolate to melt. Cool, cover, and refrigerate to thicken. Then frost the cake, and decorate with chocolate-covered coffee beans.

This recipe is from the Godiva recipe file. I made it for my friend Anni's birthday in January. It was an excellent party, if heavy on the "Curious George". Of course I threw lots of extra espresso powder in there, on the reccommendation of Lizzie, Samara, and Nadav, who helped me cook this cake in the basement of Willets. It didn't come out as well as it might have, because we were timing the cake using the microwave, which some loser came in and used. So it was a little dry, but still gorgeous. All the Godiva recipes are drool-inducing, but usually require fancy ingredients or kitchen devices.
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