Chocolate and coffee bean cake |
I hate coffee. I hate everything about
it. The taste, of course, is vile. It smells awful and is
overpowering. Then there are the caffeine addicts needing to get
their hits to get through the day and don't even get me started on
the coffee snobs with their flat whites and expressos. My Nan used to
say that I would grow to like the taste of coffee but I never did. My
Nan also used to say at times, “You can't do anything with
Vanessa...” - note the full naming.
I like tea. You can't go wrong with a
cup of tea. There may be many varieties of tea from black to green to
fruit and herbal but if someone offers you a cup of tea you know
exactly what you are getting. So with all of that off my chest what
on earth am I doing making a cake with coffee in? Well, for our
Christmas Clandestine Cake Club meeting we had a secret Santa and part of my gift was a
pot of chocolate coffee beans.
The rest of my secret Santa present was
lovely and very generous to boot but what the heck was I going to do
with these? I did think at first they were coffee beans covered in
chocolate but they are in fact chocolate pieces shaped like coffee
beans with coffee flavouring. Anyway, as someone who loathes throwing
any food away I had to come up with a way to shift the Voldemort
of ingredients out of my kitchen cupboard. As with most cooking
dilemmas I decided the best option was the most obvious – bake it
in a cake! Mr JibberJabber has been waiting for over 16 years for me
to make him a coffee and walnut cake but he is going to have to wait
a bit longer as I decided to mix it with some chocolate to try and
mask the taste. The chocolate does indeed hide the coffee taste in
the actual cake but in the buttercream it is definitely there! For
the coffee beans I arranged them around the top on an individual nest
of buttercream. I can't tell you what the beans taste like as I
declined to sample one! The coffee I used was a sachet of instant
coffee liberated from hotel room drinks tray. I took it in case
anybody comes round and wants me to make them a cup of coffee. So far
nobody has but then security at JibberJabber Towers is very tight!
You will notice that this cake is baked
in two 6in (15cm) sandwich tins. Mr JibberJabber bought me these for
Christmas and I thought this was an excellent opportunity to use
them. They are also smaller than usual sandwich tins but this was a
deliberate choice in case the cake was so heavily coffee flavoured
that Mr JibberJabber would have been left to devour a whole cake!
As this is a new ingredient to me I am
putting it forward for this month's We Should Cocoa hosted by
Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and this month's guest host Linzi at Lancashire Food. Linzi has chosen New Year, New Ingredient for this
month's theme.
I am also sending this to Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Jane at The Hedgecombers for this month's Tea Time Treats. Jane's choice of ingredient for this month is eggs, which this recipe contains two, and we did have this for our Sunday tea.
Equipment: 2 x 6in (15cm)
sandwich tins, electric whisk/beaters
Ingredients
3oz (85g) Self raising flour
1oz (25g) Cocoa
1½
(7.5ml) Baking power
4oz
(110g) Unsalted butter, softened or baking spread
4oz
(110g) Caster sugar
2
Large eggs
2
tsp (10ml) Boiling water mixed with ¾
tsp (3.75ml) instant coffee
Buttercream
2oz
(55g) Unsalted butter, softened
1
tsp (5ml) Boiling water mixed with 1tsp (5ml) instant coffee
1
tbsp (15ml) Cocoa
3oz
(85g) Icing sugar
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas
mark 4.
2.
Grease and line the sandwich tins.
3.
Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder and then put to one
side.
4.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and
fluffy.
5.
Add the eggs one at a time and then the coffee. Beat again.
6.
Fold in the flour, cocoa and baking powder.
7.
Spoon equal amounts into the sandwich tins and then bake for 20
minutes until the top is cooked but still slightly springy.
8.
Leave in the tins for a few minutes and then turn out and let them
cool completely on a wire rack.
9.
While the cakes are cooling make the buttercream.
10.
Cream the butter and then add the cocoa, coffee and icing sugar.
11.
Leave to chill in the fridge while the cakes are cooling.
12.
When the cakes have cooled pipe around the top and put a coffee bean
on top of each one.
13.
Smooth the rest of the buttercream on the bottom cake and then put
the top layer on.
Haha Ness, I'm with you on the coffee haters bench, although I am now coming around to it in cake form - slowly! It does look very nice and I'm sure Mr JJ thoroughly enjoyed it. How organised to have a secret santa and how nice too. Thanks for submitting this to WSC.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not alone! We've done a secret Santa for the last two years and it's worked really well. On the original details it's mentioned and we have a £5 limit. There's no pressure to join in but I think everybody enjoys it.
DeleteI want I want, one of my favourite combinations, I find them very moreish. Thanks for taking part in We should cocoa
ReplyDeleteI've got plenty more of the chocolate coffee beans left so I may have to lob them over the Pennines to you!
DeleteHehe, 'the Voldemort of ingredients' had me chuckling :)
ReplyDeleteI have to say I think your cake looks, and sound lovely. But that's coming from a worshipper of the humble bean, although these days I only have a coffee if I'm out as I can't be trusted if I have good coffee in the house :)
Janie x
PS thanks for linking up to my first ever Tea Time Treats!
I do enjoy my coffee but being an ardent Harry Potter fan, You had me at " Voldemort of Ingredients". Chocolate and Coffee are my two favorites and the cake looks absolutely yummylicious.
ReplyDelete