Coffee Cake
I made this on Saturday for a friends birthday. It really is the most simple of cakes to make because I use a traditional all in one Victoria Sponge recipe flavoured with coffee. The frosting is a little different however. I love buttercream but I think it can be a bit cloying at times and I love cream cheese frosting but I think the amount of sugar needed to make it palatable is just too much so I decided to go for a combo and I don't think I'll ever use another frosting again. It was smooth and shiny and held the flavour beautifully. Recipe under cut.
Cake Ingredients:
4 eggs
Self Raising Flour (sifted)
Butter (softened)
Caster Sugar (fine sugar in the US I believe)
Two tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and allowed to cool.
Butter and flour or line two 7" cake tins and heat the oven to 180C/350F
Weigh the eggs in their shells and make a note of the weight. Now measure out the same weight of flour, sugar and butter. Put everything, including the coffee in one bowl and mix with an electric mixer till well combined. Share out the mix between the two cake tins and cook for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean or the cake springs back when gently pressed.
Frosting Ingredients:
1x200g pack of cream cheese
1/2 cup or 115g of butter softened
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in boiled water and allowed to cool
2 cups of Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar in the US I believe)
Quite simply put everything into one bowl and whisk, use an electric mixer whichever you prefer till everything is combined. Place in the fridge till the cake is cooled and ready to frost.
** notes**
The cake tastes great with 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts mixed in but my chum isn't a big nut fan so I left them out.
Here in the UK our instant coffee is excellent but I am led to believe that in the US this is not the case, so you could replace the instant coffee with espresso or some sort of coffee essence??
This frosting has a good strong flavour, it would be too much I believe to both sandwich the cake with it and then completely cover it with it so I put a nice thick layer in the middle and a decent layer on the top and I really think that was enough. I had enough frosting left over to frost a second coffee cake I made for myself and my husband to enjoy over the week (made a little smaller with only three eggs and the requisite amount of other ingredients.
I decided to decorate the top with some chocolate shavings just because. :)
PPS: I'm not a professional photographer nor do I have a professional kitchen so you have to just live with the crappy picture and sink background! LOL!
Cake Ingredients:
4 eggs
Self Raising Flour (sifted)
Butter (softened)
Caster Sugar (fine sugar in the US I believe)
Two tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and allowed to cool.
Butter and flour or line two 7" cake tins and heat the oven to 180C/350F
Weigh the eggs in their shells and make a note of the weight. Now measure out the same weight of flour, sugar and butter. Put everything, including the coffee in one bowl and mix with an electric mixer till well combined. Share out the mix between the two cake tins and cook for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean or the cake springs back when gently pressed.
Frosting Ingredients:
1x200g pack of cream cheese
1/2 cup or 115g of butter softened
1 1/2 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in boiled water and allowed to cool
2 cups of Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar in the US I believe)
Quite simply put everything into one bowl and whisk, use an electric mixer whichever you prefer till everything is combined. Place in the fridge till the cake is cooled and ready to frost.
** notes**
The cake tastes great with 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts mixed in but my chum isn't a big nut fan so I left them out.
Here in the UK our instant coffee is excellent but I am led to believe that in the US this is not the case, so you could replace the instant coffee with espresso or some sort of coffee essence??
This frosting has a good strong flavour, it would be too much I believe to both sandwich the cake with it and then completely cover it with it so I put a nice thick layer in the middle and a decent layer on the top and I really think that was enough. I had enough frosting left over to frost a second coffee cake I made for myself and my husband to enjoy over the week (made a little smaller with only three eggs and the requisite amount of other ingredients.
I decided to decorate the top with some chocolate shavings just because. :)
PPS: I'm not a professional photographer nor do I have a professional kitchen so you have to just live with the crappy picture and sink background! LOL!