Very Coffee Coffee Cake
I love coffee. Coffee to drink and coffee to eat- coffee ice cream, coffee cake. My friend Wati shared this basic cake recipe with me. I thought a good strong coffee icing would make it just perfect for dessert, with a generous sprinkling of what else but more coffee of course! Or add a layer of grated chocolate. Chocolate and coffee are my seriously guilty pleasures!
200g self- raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
5 eggs, whites and yolks separated
200g white sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp coffee emulco*
2 tbsp strong instant coffee powder (Indian Bru coffee powder works best!)
200g butter
2 tbsp condensed milk
80g butter
250g icing sugar
2-3 tbsp instant coffee mixed with 4 tbsp hot water, cooled
20-cm diameter round cake tin, greased and lined
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Sift the self-raising flour and baking powder together. Set aside.
In a bowl, whisk the egg whites and the sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla essence, coffee emulco, instant coffee powder and the lightly beaten egg yolks.
In a separate bowl, whisk the butter and condensed milk. Add this to the egg mixture. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder from step 2. Pour into the greased tin and bake for 40 minutes. Use a wooden skewer to check if the cake is done. Allow the cake to cool completely.
For the icing, beat the butter and sugar with a hand or stand mixer till light and fluffy. Pour in the cooled instant coffee mixture.
Cut the cake horizontally into two even pieces and separate them to begin icing. Ice the bottom half before placing the top back very carefully to reassemble the cake. Ice the top of the cake before garnishing with coffee powder or grated chocolate for added flair.
