Sunday, March 30, 2014

Coffee Cake

The other day I was itching to have a coffee dessert. I am not a coffee person, but I love coffee in my desserts. So I went ahead with the blogosphere search, and ended up in Deeba's blog. She is a self-proclaimed coffee-lover, so obviously had way too many coffee cakes in the index. I zeroed on the "Espresso Coffee Cream Cake", but did not stick to the recipe completely. This is the first time I am tweaking a cake recipe, and boy, it turned out to be perfect for me!! So here goes my adapted version.



Ingredients

For the sponge
Large eggs - 4, at room temperature
Raw sugar - 1 cup (white sugar is also fine)
Instant coffee powder - 1 tbsp (I used Nescafe)
Butter - 50g, melted and cooled
All purpose flour - 1 cup, sifted



The sugar syrup
Water - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3 tbsp

For covering and sandwiching
Whipping cream - 500ml
Instant coffee - 1 tbsp, dissolved in 2 tbsp water
Icing sugar - about 4 tbsp



Method

The sponge (The tip for getting the sponge right is to be really fast in getting the batter to the oven. You build up the air in the batter by beating and slowly (very slowly) mix in the flour ensuring that the air does not escape. If the air escapes, you'll end up with a dead (read "hard") cake. Also you need to be quick in moving the batter to oven. This way you do not give enough time for the batter to release its air pockets.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 deg
2. Line an 8" cake pan, grease and dust with flour (I used a 6" pan and hence baked in 2 batches)
3. Beat the eggs and sugar in a deep bowl (I used my 3L cooker) over simmering water for about 5 min, till it reaches a mousse like consistency.
4.  Take it away from heat and continue beating for another 5 min.
5. Add the instant coffee powder and beat for about a minute.
6. Gently fold in the sifted flour ensuring that the air built up in batter is least disturbed.
7. Add in the cooled butter and mix in gently
8. Pour the batter to prepared tin and bake for about 15 min (mine got done in 12 min, so you need to watchful while the batter is in the oven.
9. Once the inserted skewer comes out clean, remove the pan from oven. Let the cake rest in the pan for about 5 minute. Then slightly tap the sides and bottom of the pan to remove the cake from the pan. Let the cake cool down completely on the wire rack.



Sugar syrup
1. Heat the water and sugar together. Keep it aside

Coffee Cream
1. Beat the whipping cream, instant coffee solution and icing sugar together till the cream starts to form stiff peaks. Keep it aside.

Assembling the cake
1. Once the cake has cooled completely, cut the cake horizontally into 3 (I had 2 cakes, so together I got 5 layers).
2. Place layer 1 on a cake stand. Sprinkle from sugar syrup. Top it up with some coffee cream.
3. Place the next layer on top of it. Repeat the process till all layers are complete.
4. Cover the cake completely (sides and top) with the coffee cream. Decorate with some chocolate shavings.

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