This month’s reader recipe is an absolute cracker! Louise has kindly shared her Granny Barbara’s Coffee Cake and what a cake it is! Light coffee sponge, sandwiched together and topped with the most delectable coffee buttercream.
In fact, the only problem with this cake is that it just tastes too good. Since I’ve come back from the mother country I’ve been trying to eat better and when I say eat better, I mean eat less cake. I had to have a small taste of the batter and the buttercream when I was baking this because what kind of cook doesn’t taste as they go?! I planned to take the cake to work the next day so in the interests of research, I thought I should just taste a slither just to check it was colleague-worthy and oh my stars, it was good. So the slither turned into a slice and I knew that I couldn’t get this cake out of the house quick enough. It was irresistible!
Louise topped her cake with walnuts but because all my teeth are sweet, I topped mine with Malteser but if you wanted to be really flash, chocolate covered nuts or chocolate covered coffee beans would work well too. Louise is a Thermomixer so cleverly converted the recipe to the thermie but I’ve included Granny Barbara’s original recipe here too. i tell you one thing, Granny Barbara knows what’s what!
Have you got a favourite family recipe to share? What’s the one cake you can’t resist?
Ingredients
170g self-raising flour
170g caster sugar
170g softened butter
3 large eggs
1.5 tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoons of hot water
FOR THE ICING
120g softened butter
240g icing sugar
1 tablespoon strong coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water and cooled
How to – Traditional
- Preheat oven to 160C and grease and line the bases of two sandwich tins.
- Using an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar together then add all the other ingredients until the batter is smooth.
- Pour mixture into tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool.
- To make the icing, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and the icing sugar then add the coffee. Spread half the coffee icing on the lower half of the cake then sandwich back together with the top half. Spread the rest of the icing on top and decorate with walnuts, hazelnuts or chocolate of your choice.
How to – Thermomix
- Preheat oven to 160C and grease and line the bases of two sandwich tins.
- Cream butter and sugar together for 10 seconds on speed 4. Scrape down sides and repeat, mixing for another 10 seconds on speed 4.
- Add flour and eggs and mix for 30 seconds on speed 5, scrape sides down and mix again for 20 seconds on speed 5.
- Add coffee and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4.
- Pour mixture into tin and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the tin and leave on a wire rack to cool.
- Place all icing ingredients in TM bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5 – scrape sides down and repeat. Spread half the coffee icing on the lower half of cake then sandwich back together with the top half. Spread the rest of the icing on top and decorate with walnuts, hazelnuts or chocolate of your choice!
