13°C
We often hear from visitors about how much they love catching up with friends over a cup of coffee in the Winterbourne Tearoom, and in our latest blog post we discovered how one student who lived at Winterbourne as a student in the early 1950s described Winterbourne as “a place of endless coffee and chatter”. So, with all this talk of coffee, this month we’re sharing a recipe for a delightful coffee cake, perfect for making and sharing with friends.
Ingredients
For the cake…
225g butter
225g self-raising flour
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
2tsp baking powder
Instant coffee (cooled) – 1tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract
For the icing…
100g butter
225g icing sugar
Instant coffee (cooled) – 1tsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tsp hot water
Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C (fan)/200°C (non-fan).
Make a strong shot of instant coffee my mixing 1 tablespoon of instant coffee with 2 tablespoons of hot water. You can adjust the strength of flavour my simply adjusting the amount of instant coffee graduals you add. Set this aside to cool as you get on with the next steps.
Lightly grease two circular 8-inch baking tins with butter and line the bottom with a layer of baking parchment.
The all-in-one method works great for this quick and easy coffee cake! Simply add the butter, self-raising flour, caster sugar, baking power and eggs into a bowl, and mix using a stand mix or a hand mixer on a medium speed until the ingredients are just combined. You can also do this by hand, but it may take slightly longer.
Making sure your instant coffee has cooled, add in your strong shot of coffee and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, gently mixing by hand or on a low speed to combine into the cake mixture.
Split the mixture evenly across the two cake tins and cook for 25-30 minutes. Test that your cakes are fully cooked by inserting a skewer or sharp knife into the top and checking to see whether it comes out clean. If there is wet mixture on your skewer, give the cake a few more minutes!
Leave the cakes to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, and once they have started to shrink away from the edges of the tin, turn out onto a wire cooling rack and leave to cool completely.
Make another strong shot of coffee, this time by adding mixing a teaspoon of instant coffee with two teaspoons of hot water. Leave to cool fully before you add this into the icing.
Whilst the cakes are cooling, make a start on the buttercream. Beat your butter for around 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Slowly add in your icing sugar, mixing on a low to medium speed until combined.
Add in your fully cooled instant coffee and mix until combined. If you want a sweeter icing, try adding a little less coffee mixture, and a splash of vanilla for that vanilla-latte like sweetness.
Once your cakes have fully cooled, add a thin spread of icing between the two layers, and finish with a thicker spread on the top of the cake. We think the rustic look is perfect for homemade coffee cake!
Now invite some friends over, slice the cake, and enjoy as you have a good old catch up.
