This is truly a great cake for coffee lovers. The sponge is very light and full of coffee flavour, and the rich coffee buttercream is so creamy and fluffy.
A Great British Coffee Cake
Prepares: 8 large slices
- Preparation time: 35 minutes
- Cooking time: 25 minutes
- Ingredients
- For the sponge
- 170g (6 oz) butter, softened (¾ cup, or 1½ sticks)
- 150g (5¼ oz) caster/superfine sugar (⅔ cup)
- 3 eggs, large (U.K.)/extra large (N.A.), beaten
- 40g (1½ oz) golden syrup* (2 rounded tbsp)
- 2 tbsp coffee extract (or Camp coffee)
- 170g (6 oz) self-raising/self-rising flour, sifted (1⅓ cups)
- ½ –1 tsp baking powder
- *I buy my golden syrup from a British store here in Canada. If you are unable to find golden syrup then substitute it with liquid honey.
- For the filling and decoration
- 150g (5¼ oz) unsalted butter, softened (⅔ cup, or 1¼ sticks)
- 300g (11 oz) icing/powdered sugar (2¾ cups)
- 2 tbsp coffee extract (or Camp coffee)
- 1 tbsp warm water
- 2 tbsp icing/powdered sugar, for sifting
- 24 chocolate buttons OR
- 40 milk chocolate chips
- You will also need 2 × 18cm (7 in) sandwich cake tins/pans, greased and base lined. Also a piping bag fitted with a medium-sized star nozzle.
- Method
- For the sponge
- Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F) (gas 5).
- Cream the butter and sugar together with a hand held electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Now gradually add the beaten eggs, golden syrup, and coffee, together with 2 tablespoons of the flour.
- Fold in the remaining flour and ½ teaspoon baking power.
- OR put everything in a mixing bowl or food mixer, but adding 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and whisk until the mixture is smooth, light, and fluffy.
- Divide equally between the two cake tins/pans and level the tops.
- Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are firm and spring back when lightly pressed with a finger. The sponges will also have slightly shrunk away from the sides of the tins/pans.
- Leave for a couple of minutes and then turn out onto wire cooling racks and remove the lining paper. Leave to cool completely.
- For the filling and decoration
- Meanwhile beat the butter, icing/powdered sugar, coffee, and water together until the mixture is smooth, light, and fluffy.
- Put a quarter in the icing bag and put to one side.
- Place one of the sponges on a flat surface and spread evenly with the remaining coffee cream. Then place the second sponge on top and sift heavily with icing/powdered sugar.
- Now lightly mark the top of the cake with a knife through the icing/powdered sugar into 8 equal portions. (This will be used as a guide for the piping.)
- Now starting from the outside edge of the cake, pipe a line of buttercream on each marked portion but only take it up within an inch of the centre. Then pipe a ring of stars to join the lines in the centre.
- Arrange the chocolate buttons or chocolate chips in the lines of piped buttercream.
- To finish, lightly dust over the whole cake with a little icing/powdered sugar.
- Note:
- The cake can be frozen. Put in a rigid container with a cover and freeze. To thaw, allow 2–3 hours at room temperature.