Coffee Coffee Cake
Ever since I was little my favourite ice-cream flavour was split between Laura Secord’s “Superkid” a trio of banana, blueberry and strawberry ice-cream (which is still a baffling delight) and HaagenDaas coffee ice cream.
I loved when there was about a scoop of coffee ice-cream left, because I would take out a spoon and finish it straight out of the container.
Fast forward to now, and coffee as a hot beverage has never really agreed with me, but I still love the aroma and the flavour. So, when I came across the recipe for “Coffee Coffee cake”, I was definitely intrigued.
Another bit of information pushed me to try this recipe now, instead of later. My mom told me that my Dada used to make coffee flavoured coffee cake. My Dada (paternal grandfather) definitely introduced me to baking early on. He had a few things on the roster: palm-shaped crunchy peanut butter cookies, kulfi (ice-cream scented with cardamom), barfi (South Asian milk-based dessert) and now to my knowledge, coffee flavoured coffee cake baked in a Bundt pan.
It’s a pretty straightforward recipe, but you do need to prep a cup of coffee before starting so that it reaches room temperature by the time it’s time to bake. The cake is put together by creaming butter and sugar until light and fluffy, adding eggs and vanilla and then completing it by adding dry and wet ingredients (room temp cofffee included) in turn to create a super luscious batter.
Instant coffee flavours the sweet ribbon in the center of the cake as well as the top crumble layer. Once baked, the coffee flavour is definitely a feature but it’s not overpowering at all.
My only blunder was miscalculating the size of my pan - it was a bit too big. So, instead of a clean cake layer, a fine layer of coffee, sugar and cinnamon and more cake before adding the crumble layer, I ended up adding all the batter, swirling in the ribbon and then topping it directly with crumble.
Despite my alteration, the cake turned out great and I got to share it with my family to enjoy with a cup of tea (or coffee). We enjoyed it as a midday snack, but it would be a great post-meal dessert.
Thought of my Dada while finishing a piece. The ones who leave us are never truly gone.