Espresso Coffee Cake (Day 5 – BM#4)

When I started taking baking seriously, there was one blog that I regularly visited for ideas and inspiration.Deeba’s Passionate About Baking still remains one of my favourite sites whenever I want to refer something for baking. The lovely pictures and well written recipes have helped me a lot and some of the recipes have stuck with me as regulars.

This Coffee cake was one of the earliest ‘decorated’ cakes that I started to make. A simple yet beautiful cake, it was a treat for some one like me who liked coffee so much. Although initially I was concerned about the bitter coffee taste in the sweet cake, it turned out to be a very good combination, the best part being that the cake just has the flavour of coffee without being overpowered by it. It could easily be converted into chocolate cake by substituting the coffee granules with either cocoa or even melted chocolate, but really there is no need. Even though I am a chocolate lover, I would prefer this cake with the coffee flavour in it.

 

Espresso Coffee Cake

 

Makes one 7” round cake (Adapted from Passionate About Baking)

Ingredients

For the cake

• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/4 Cup Caster Sugar
• 1 1/4 Cup Plain Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 Tblsp Instant Coffee (I used Nescafe, any other would also do)

For the Filling and Topping

• 500 ml Double Cream (Whipping cream)
• 2-3 Tblsp Sugar
• 1.5 tsp Instant Coffee (Less if you want the coffee to be very subtle)
• Chocolate (1-2 tblsp grated and some melted), to decorate (optional)

 

Method: Pre heat the oven to 180 deg C. Grease and line a 7” Round Cake tin.

Sift together the flour, baking soda and the salt and keep aside.

In a bowl combine the eggs and the sugar and whisk until the mixture turns pale and fluffy, leaving trails when lift the whisk.

Add the vanilla extract and mix. Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 Tblsp of warm water and then add it to the mixture and mix well.

Now add the flour mixture and fold gently until there are no lumps.

Pour this batter into the prepared tin and bake for about 30-35 minutes. Once the cake is done, take it out of the oven, leave in the pan to cool for about 5 minutes and then remove it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is completely cooled, prepare the filling and the topping. To do that, combine the cream, sugar and the instant coffee (dissolved in 1 tsp of water) together and whisk until soft peaks are formed. The coffee will give it a nice beige colour.

Now cut the cooled cake horizontally into two. Place the bottom portion on to a cake board or serving plate. spread 1/3 of the cream onto this. Place the other half of the cake and cover the top and the sides with the remaining cream. decorate with the grated chocolate. The melted chocolate can be used to make patterns on the cake for decoration.

My Notes: Again a very simple to make but delicious looking cake. You can cut the cake into 3  or 4 parts to have more layers sandwiched with the cream filling. You might need to use a smaller deeper pan to make the cake so as to make these layers.

I have used the grated chocolate to decorate the cake. Chocolate curls or caraque can also be used. I have also melted some milk chocolate to create a random pattern on the cake.

Blogging Marathoners (BM#4 hosted by Srivalli)

Diabetes Diet/Management: PJ

Kid Friendly Recipes: Suma, Priya Suresh, Divya

Seven Days of Soup:Ila, Smita P

Seven Days of Indian Bread: Monika,

30 Minutes Meals: Archana

Seven days of Condiment: Kamalika, Srivalli