What’s cooking today: Tea-time coffee cake

 

Tea-time coffee cake

By Tony Jackman• 19 May 2021

No bells and whistles here, just an old-fashioned cake with a coffee-infused buttercream topping. The recipe is intended for a springform cake tin.

Ingredients

2 cups (500 ml) cake flour

2 tsp/ 10 ml baking powder

¼ tsp/ 1 ml salt

¾ cup/ 180 ml butter at room temperature

1 ¼ cups/ 310 ml sugar

3 large eggs

60 ml/ ¼ cup strong coffee made with 1 ½ Tbsp quality instant coffee (no, not Ricoffy) and 1 Tbsp boiling water

½ cup/ 120 ml milk 

1 tsp/ 5 ml vanilla extract

Buttercream icing:

1 ½ Tbsp quality instant coffee

1 Tbsp boiling water

225 g icing sugar

100 g soft butter

Method

Prepare the coffee and leave it to cool. 

Preheat the oven to 180℃ with the rack in the middle.

Grease a 20 cm springform cake tin and cut a round of parchment paper to fit in the bottom. I sprayed the paper as a precaution against sticking, though it’s probably not necessary.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a baking bowl with a wooden spoon. I’m an old-fashioned boy and I still do it mom’s way, but of course you can choose your own preference. I just love the motion of it, and watching the yellow turn pale; for me it’s truly one of the joys of baking.

Add the eggs to the batter one at a time, beating each one in.

Mix the 120 ml milk with the 60 ml/ ¼ cup cold coffee.

Sift the flour into another bowl. Stir the baking powder and salt into it.

Add the dry mixture and the milk/coffee mixture to the batter a little at a time, alternating, and beating well each time.

Pour the batter into the prepared springform cake tin and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the top has browned and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

For the icing:

Stir the boiling water and coffee and cool to room temperature. Beat the icing sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Stir in the cooled coffee.

Cool the cake on a rack, then release the springform catch and peel away the paper from beneath the cake. Slice it in half in the middle and spread half the buttercream in the middle and the rest on top. 

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-05-19-whats-cooking-today-tea-time-coffee-cake/