• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans with parchment rounds and grease.
• Sift together the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
• Add the eggs and mix until well combined. Add the sour cream and vanilla, then mix well. Add the dry mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk.
• Split the batter in half and add the melted chocolate and instant coffee powder to one half.
• Place some of the white batter in the bottoms of the two 8-inch cake pans. Add some of the chocolate batter, then more of the white and any chocolate that is left. It will all look like blobs of batter, not like marble. Use a spoon to swirl the batter gently together.
• Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Once baked cool on a rack.

White Chocolate Coffee Icing

• Add the instant coffee to the milk, set aside. Cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the confectioner’s sugar, alternating with the milk until the icing is thick and smooth. Add the melted white chocolate and beat until smooth.
• Unmold the cooled cakes onto a cardboard round. Cover the layer with about 1/4 of the icing. Place the second layer on top of the icing.
• Use another 1/4 of the icing to do a crumb coat. This is a very thin layer of the icing that essentially traps the crumbs in place so that they are glued to the cake and won’t make a mess of the exterior of the cake. Freeze the cake for about 10 minutes to set the icing. Because of all the butter, it will harden quite quickly.
• Now put about 1/3 of what is left of the icing on the top of the cake and spread it flat across the top. Put the rest of the icing on the sides of the cake. Don’t worry about what it looks like, just try to get it on as evenly as possible. You will smooth it out next.
• Once the icing is on the cake hold the spatula straight up and down, at a slight angle away from the cake. Turn the cake turn table and hold the spatula steady, don’t press, just hold steady, and it will slowly scrape a thin layer off the sides and make them smooth. Once the sides are smooth then slide the spatula gently over the top of the cake to smooth it out, again you don’t want to apply too much pressure.

Spider Web

• In a double boiler melt the chocolate and the butter together until smooth. Use a parchment bag to pipe a thin spiral around the cake.
• Use a tooth pick or skewer to draw lines from the center of the spiral out to the edge to create the web. Cover the rest of the chocolate ganache and allow it to cool to room temperature.