Weekend Cooking: Coffee Cream Cake

When I posted What I Baked in July post a couple of weeks ago There were lots of comments about the coffee cream cake that I made.

As I mentioned in that post, we were watching one of the Bake Offs and the bakers were asked to make something that was coffee flavoured, and Robert started reminiscing about a coffee cream cake that his grandmother used to always have and so I went and found a recipe that sounded similar and made it for him. He was very happy with it and said it came very close to what he remembered. I even heard him talking to his parents about it and how it bought back memories of his grandmother. 

It's a pretty retro cake, but it did taste delicious, even for me who is more of an occasional coffee drinker rather than a coffee addict. I did reduce the coffee a fraction in the cake recipe.

That has made me think about the things I remember about my grandparents, and the foods I associate with my memories of them. I have posted a few times about things I remember about my cheeky grandfather. He always had licorice allsorts in a bowl next to his chair, and a packet of Kool Mints in the car. He was definitely a meat and three veg kind of guy, to the point that he didn't particularly like chicken, so would only ever eat the chicken wings. I do, however, have a memory of having a lot of family in their dining room having a big feast of KFC which at the time was the height of luxury for me.

I do also remember a story that I heard about him and my grandmother. The story goes that she used to regularly make steak and kidney pie. After 20 years apparently he finally gathered the courage to tell her that he didn't really like it. 

I also think of them on the odd occasion when I have a cappuccino. When my grandfather was in his 70s or 80s he developed a taste for cappuccino that I don't remember before that, and so they used to head off to the Kmart cafe and he would eat the froth off the top and we would all pretend to be horrified!  And that would happen every time! It makes me feel emotional thinking about this today.

As for my grandmother, she was apparently a very good cook (which is impressive given that most of her life she had to cook on a wood stove), but unfortunately my strongest memory of her cooking related to cooking dog food.  She also used to breed Australian Silky Terriers quite successfully, and we used to have to help her clean out the dog kennels at the end of each day. It was a horrible job but we all used to do it. She used to cook up big batches of dog meat so it was either cooking away on the stove or was sitting there waiting to be used. It had a certain kind of smell and occasionally my mother cooks savoury mince that smells just like it, and I struggle to eat it!

Anyway, before I got distracted by those memories, I thought I would share the recipe for the Coffee Cream Cake, seeing as so many people were interested in it. The recipe said to make it in a tube tin but I didn't have one of those at the time (I do now!)  so I just made a round cake.

I found this recipe at RecipeLand. I made it pretty much as stated although we don't have any coffee flavoured liqueur or whole coffee beans so I didn't use either of those. I was also quite surprised to see chocolate at the end of the recipe. I didn't use that either!

The other thing that I just realised when I am posting this is that this recipe is a variation on the chiffon/angel food cake that I made last weekend, given that it does call for the tube tin and for the cake to be cooled in the tin but inverted. This is me connecting the dots! 

Coffee Cream Cake

Cake

5 large eggs room temperature
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon instant coffee powder 
3 tablespoons water, boiling
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder

Frosting

2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup coffee very strong
2 tablespoons liqueur coffee flavor, such as kahlua 
walnuts chopped, toasted 
coffee beans, whole
chocolate


Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Separate eggs.

Combine egg yolks and 1 cup sugar in large bowl and beat until thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes.

Dissolve coffee powder in boiling water. Blend in vanilla and dissolved coffee powder.

Combine flour and baking powder and blend into batter. 

Beat egg whites until stiff. 

Fold into batter. Turn into ungreased 10-inch tube pan.

Bake 30 minutes. Invert onto rack and let stand until completely cool.

For the frosting, whip cream with 2 tablespoons sugar until soft peaks form. Add cold coffee and liqueur and beat until stiff.

Slice cake crosswise into thirds. (I only did halves!)

Use about ⅓ of cream frosting to fill layers and remainder to frost entire cake (save some frosting and pipe rosettes over top for garnish, if desired).

Chill until whipped cream is slightly firm. Press nuts onto sides of cake and arrange coffee beans atop rosettes, if desired.

Chill 4 hours before serving.

Weekly Meals

Saturday - 

Sunday - Pork and cabbages steaks

Monday - steak baked potatoes

Tuesday - Sausages mash gravy

Wednesday - Spag bol

Thursday - Honey Chicken

Friday - takeaway

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