We do everything online these days don’t we? Like buying coffee online… (no, really?!) Thanks to the internet you can now find out about pretty much anything within seconds. Do you remember back in the day when you had to go to the library to look up information? And had a big dictionary and an encyclopedia on your desk? How did we survive without Wikipedia and Google?
For us the internet is obviously our bread and butter – we are responsible for you buying coffee online. Correction: for you buying very good coffee online. Once you’ve bought the coffee from us you might want to put it to good use – buying coffee online is only half the fun. The other half is going online to find out what you want to use it for. Today we have a suggestion for you: use it for the below cake.
Cappuccino Coffee Cake
Serves 8
225g (8oz) very soft butter, plus more for the tins
225g (8oz) light muscovado sugar or caster sugar
225g (8oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
4 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
For the coffee icing
175g (6oz) soft butter
350g (12oz) icing sugar
4 level tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/350F/315F fan/Gas 4. Butter and line the base of two deep 20cm (8in) sandwich cake tins.
Measure all the cake ingredients, except the coffee, into a large mixing bowl and beat together until smooth. Stir in the dissolved coffee until thoroughly blended. Divide the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins and level the tops.
Bake in the preheated oven for about 25–30 minutes until golden brown, shrinking away from the sides of the tin and the sponge springs back when lightly pressed.
To make the icing, mix the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth. Beat in the dissolved coffee and divide into four. When they are cold, slice each cake horizontally in half, giving four layers of cake. Sit one base on a cake stand and spread with a quarter of the mixture. Continue layering up with cake and icing so you finish with icing on top and swirl to give an attractive finish.
The cake can be made and iced up to two days ahead, kept covered in the fridge. Iced or un-iced, it freezes well.
AGA COOKING
Two-oven Aga: bake on the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven, with the cold sheet on the second set of runners, for about 25 minutes, until golden brown. Three and four-oven Aga: bake on the grid shelf on the floor of the baking oven for about 25 minutes. If getting too brown, slide the cold sheet on to the second set of runners.
From ‘One Step Ahead’ by Mary Berry (Quadrille, £9.99)
