Coffee Cake

One of my favourite cakes are coffee cakes, I love the icing and they are so versatile, you can add walnuts or pecans, use the mixture for cup-cakes adding a pecan to each one, put colourful icing around it and make it into a birthday cake or put white icing on the top with coco sprinkles and make a cappuccino cake.

Jamie Oliver uses espresso and almonds, Merry Berry uses muscovado sugar and has 4 layers, I initially used a recipe from "the great british book of baking" which accompanies a old series of the great british bake off but I choose to add just a little bit veggie oil as it makes it moister. Firstly for the coffee icing which I also use for the filling... 125g unsalted butter 300g icing sugar 3-4 (depending how strong you want it) tablespoons of coffee granules dissolved in a little boiling water 5 tablespoons of double cream Heat the butter in a pan until it starts to bubble and turns light brown, pour the hot butter on the (sifted) icing sugar then quickly add the dissolved coffee and cream, beat well until very smooth then stick in the fridge to set. The sponge is much a normal sponge mix but with some dissolved coffee again. 175g unsalted butter 175g caster sugar 3 eggs at room temperature 175g self-raising flour ½ teaspoon baking powder 1-3 (depending how strong you want it) tablespoons of coffee granules dissolved in a little boiling water 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (add some pecan or walnut pieces if you like but chop small so does not sink to the bottom of the mix) Put sugar and softened butter into a bowl, use an electric whisk or wooden spoon light and creamy. slowly mix in the eggs then the flour, baking powder and dissolved coffee. Ensure all is combined well scraping any flour down from the sides of the bowl.

Divide mixture evenly into 2 21cm baking tins. Place in pre-heated oven (180/350/gas mark4) for 20 to 25 mins until golden brown and springy to touch. Remove from tins and allow to completely cool on a wire rack before spreading with the filling and icing then customising as you wish.

below is an example of one I made for a friend's birthday with pink filling and icing around it....