Baking a Traditional Coffee Cake

Coffee cake is naturally the perfect accompaniment to a cup of beautiful morning coffee. But equally, it is a great cake for afternoon tea or a picnic. This is a simple recipe that you can bake with your children, that is easily adapted with frosting. For a more grown-up taste, add in finely chopped walnuts or pecans. It can also be given a cream cheese frosting or coated with a shiny dark chocolate ganache.

Making the sponge cake

The sponge cake ingredients can be mixed by hand or in a machine. Adding the butter and sugar together first can help to make your cake batter nice and smooth. However, Mary Berry of The Great American Baking Show recommends adding all the ingredients at once into the bowl and just giving them a really good mix.

Ingredients

• ¾ cup of superfine sugar
• ¾ cup of butter
• 3 chia seed/flax seed eggs {you can sub in eggs if you’re not vegan}
• ¾ cup of self-raising flour
• 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of freshly brewed coffee

Brewing your coffee

The type of coffee that you use in your cake can really make a difference to the way that it tastes. For a more chocolatey taste, you can use an instant mocha. However, if you would rather have a richer, aromatic coffee flavour, use a drip coffee machine to brew a dark roast. Make sure that you leave the coffee to cool slightly before you use it in the cake, or it will melt the butter as you are mixing.

Baking your cake

Put your cake batter into a greased 9-inch sandwich tin to bake. Bake your cake in the oven set at 325 F for approximately 45 minutes. Before you take the cake out of the oven, insert a thin skewer into the cake. If the skewer comes out clean, then your cake is baked. If the skewer still has raw cake batter on it, or if the cake is a little wobbly, then the cake will need a little more cooking. All ovens are different, so you will need to test your cake.

This cake is delicious on its own, or you can add a topping of chocolate or vanilla buttercream. The flavour is of coffee, but there is not enough in there to make your children hyperactive, so they might want to have a little slice too. It’s perfect for all the family!