My love for caffeine is not limited to that every day morning cup of coffee. I also love all coffee based food. Coffee Éclairs, Coffee Ice Cream, Coffee Pudding all have my name on it. But Coffee Cake in particular has a very special place in my heart.  There is something very comforting and homely about it. Therefore if you are a caffeine and cake person, this is definitely the recipe for you.

Borrowed and tweaked from infolanka.com, this homemade cake is an absolute delicacy. Its innate caffeine flavour is obviously the superstar factor about it. However if one was to break it down, the winning part of this delicious treat is definitely the coffee icing.  It’s rich, smooth, and creamy… guaranteeing every bite to melt in your mouth.

Really there is nothing quite like it. Have a slice of this cake with a cup of coffee and you will discover exactly what I mean.

Ingredients

1 cup of flour (all purpose)
½ cup of sugar
9 tbs of butter
2 eggs
2 tsp of (instant) coffee (granules)
1 tbs of milk
1 tsp of vanilla essence
1 tsp of baking powder

Icing

8 tbs of butter
1 cup of icing sugar
3 tsp of coffee (granules)
1tbs of hot water
½ tsp of vanilla essence

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius. Prepare a cake tin and set it aside.

Dissolve the coffee in the milk and set it aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the together the butter and sugar until it becomes light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla and the two eggs to the butter mixture, and whisk until the ingredients have merged well.

Mix the flour and the baking powder together, and gently fold it in to the mixture.

Pour the coffee in to the batter and whisk for a few seconds.

Carefully pour the batter in to the prepared tin and smoothen the top.

Turn the oven down to 160 Celsius and bake for 40 -50 minutes.

Once the cake has baked take it out of the oven, run a butter knife around its edges and let the cake cool down in the tin.

While the cake is cooling down, in a separate mixing bowl cream together the butter and icing sugar.

In a cup mix together the coffee and hot water. Then add it to the mixture.

Add the vanilla to the mixture and whisk until the icing forms.

Take the cake out of the tin and place it on a flat surface.

Give the butter icing a stir and then spoon it on top of the cake.

Using a spatula, smoothly coat the entire cake with icing.

Disasters, Warnings and Tips 

I had over three kitchen disasters trying to get the cake part right. It kept splitting!

Garnish the cake with some chopped almonds or cashews.

Add a teaspoon of rum or vodka or coffee liqueur to the coffee icing. YUM!

Game of Thrones Season 5 is on. YAY!

I used a loaf tin for this recipe. Feel free to use a circular cake tin or a square one for yours.

The cake can split on top. But don’t worry icing can cover it up.

For an awesome coffee liqueur recipe check http://life.dailymirror.lk/article/7304/the-startup-cook-coffee-liqueur.

If you prefer your cake to taste extra coffee like, increase on the coffee.

Coffee POWDER and GRANULES have different caffeine strengths. Powder is stronger.

Over whisking can also lead to split cakes.

Icing a cake takes a lot of work and patience. More practise is obviously needed.

Feel to substitute butter with margarine. I know I did.

By Shazzana Hamid