Competition Coffee Cake

Today is the judging for the Virginia Show, so Mom, Siob and I are going down to drop our things in. I made the coffee cake earlier and realised I never put up the recipe for it!

It's really nice (well, the last time I made it it was, I can't cut this one and taste it!), and pretty simple, so you should give it a go!

They want it undecorated sadly, so that's why mine is lacking some nice coffee cream, but I'll add the recipe here:)

Mocha Cake

(serves 10-12)

175g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

225g soft light brown sugar

175g butter, melted

4 medium eggs, separated

60ml very strong coffee, cooled

3 tbsp water

Coffee Butter Icing

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

1 tbsp milk/water

3-4 tbsp cooled very strong coffee

- Preheat the oven to 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5. Oil and line a 13 x 23cm loaf tin with parchment paper so that it comes over the sides of the tin.

- Sift the flour and cocoa powder into a large bowl, add the sugar and stir to combine.

- Using a wooden spoon or whisk, beat in the melted butter, egg yolks, coffee and water until smooth.

- Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until fairly stiff peaks form, then gently fold into the cake mixture in 3 batches. Make sure there are no white lumps left!

- Turn the mixture into the loaf tin and smooth the surface. Make a small well in the center so that the cake bakes level and doesn't crack! (You'll see from my photo I forgot to do this!)

- Bake in the oven for 35 mins, then reduce the temperature to 160C/ 325F/ Gas mark 3 for the last 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

- Allow the cake to cool for 10mins then lift out by the parchment paper and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Make the icing. Beat the butter until very soft and paling. Add the sugar, then milk/water, and then add the coffee.

- When the cake is cold, remove the paper and cut the cake horizontally and spread about a third of the icing on the lower half with a palette knife. Place the other half of the cake on top and put the remainder of the icing on it. Sprinkle with chocolate shavings or chocolate sprinkles, which I like to use!

- Leave it to stand for about 30mins before cutting. If you can wait that long.

(This also makes 12 cupcakes at 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5 for 15mins.)

Yum! x

Another (but slightly different) coffee cake

Early last week I was going to a BBQ birthday party with Conor, hosted by the dears Natalie & Brid who are the darlings behind the Two Knit Wits blog (link over there-> ) and I thought I'd bake for them, of course. However, I tried a new coffee cake recipe and while it looks okay, I'm not sure about the coffee topping! I don't recommend trying a new cake the night before you give it to someone...the nerves if you aren't really happy with it!:S The topping is a chocolate/coffee thing? I think I added too much coffee and maybe that's why I'm not fond of the taste, but I hope the girls liked it! The cake is quite nice with raisins and chopped walnuts in it which the other coffee cake didn't have, though I think I'll add them in future and use the Rachel Allen coffee cream. They both told me they like coffee cake and Brid hugged me when she saw the walnuts on top, so I'm hoping it went down well!:)
BTW- the BBQ party was spectacular <3

Cawfee Cake

Oops, it's been a while! I'll blame it on the fun I've been having since wrapping up college! Ooooh! Scary times. But thrilling at the same time. Madame Zwerner was over here last Saturday for a little Cavan trip before she heads back to France. She wanted to bake which I of course agreed to, so being the little French gal that she is with her coffee and smokes, I thought a coffee cake would be fitting! I spell it 'cawfee' above because of my Mom's pronunciation...
Anyway, so we made a delicious coffee cake from Rachel Allen's Bake book which has been providing me with loads to do lately! The cake was just fabulous and really moist, which is what I think is due to the egg being separated and added at different times in the cake mixing... I didn't make it too strong with the coffee cos I don't really like it, but by golly did this cake taste wonderful. We topped it off with some coffee buttercream, chocolate sprinkles and a sprinkling of icing sugar. Mmm:)