2011 Cooking Club Week 41: Coffee Cake

This is my take on the classic coffee cake. It's a single layer cake (so no sandwich tins needed), covered with a coffee mascarpone icing and scattered with chopped walnuts to decorate. The buttermilk in the recipe produces a nice moist cake, which keeps well. I use my stand mixer with the paddle attachment, but a handheld mixer will work fine, as will a wooden spoon and a lot of elbow grease.

Ingredients:

For the cake:
175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
275g caster sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
100ml buttermilk
260g plain flour
pinch salt
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing:
120g mascarpone
120g full fat cream cheese
100g icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1/2 tbsp hot water
50g walnuts, chopped (to decorate)

Right, so firstly prepare the cake tin. I use a 20cm round springform tin. Grease the bottom and sides and line the bottom with parchment paper. When you are finished cutting out the circle to line the tin, don't throw away the scraps of parchment paper. You can use them later when you're icing the cake.



Also, preheat the oven. 160C fan, 180C conventional. Keep the cream cheese and mascarpone in the fridge until you are ready to make the icing.



Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together. Set aside. Beat the butter until soft and then gradually add the caster sugar, beating all the time. Beat until well combined. You want it to be light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mix in the vanilla extract and dissolved coffee. Make sure no undissolved bits get into the mixture (I usually pour the coffee into the bowl through a sieve).



Next, add 1/3 of the buttermilk while mixing at a low speed. When it has been combined, add 1/3 of the flour. Mix until just combined. Repeat with the rest of the buttermilk and flour, until the final 1/3 of the flour is added.



Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the top and pop in the oven. Bake for about 1 hr. The baking time will depend on your oven and the size of your tin. You'll know it's done when a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.



Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. If you are using a tin with a removable bottom, remove it now, but you can leave the parchment lining in place until cooled.