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Thursday 30 May 2013

Espresso Cake for Baby Shower


Little girls are soft, pink, pudgy, wet, and cause for great celebration. A colleague of mine is said baby's daddy-to-be, and he'd been asking for this cake for almost a year now (We both love Smitten Kitchen). I'm not a huge fan of coffee, and so I've just be putting off, but I wish I hadn't. This cake is so balanced, the smooth softness of the cake, the creaminess of the icing, the bitterness of the coffee, and even that slightly drunken rum taste.


I work as a programmer in finance, so for the past couple of years I've been working almost exclusively around men. I have to say.. I miss girls SO MUCH. I miss drinking tea, caring about each other's lives and having all this wonderful support that women provide for each other. However, every now and again, I'm allowed to have feelings around here and I go all out!


One great thing about working with men- if I make them a cake, they eat it! Even if they're supposed to be on a diet.

Espresso Chiffon Cake with Fudge Frosting
From Smitten Kitchen

Cake:
60 ml (1/4 cup) canola oil
6 eggs, separated
90 ml espresso (for those of us who don't own a machine- this is roughly a triple espresso)
10 ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup cake flour
250 ml (1 cup) sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar

Syrup:
80 ml (1/3 cup) espresso
125 ml (1/2 cup) sugar
80 ml (1/3 cup) dark rum

Icing:
180 g dark chocolate (I used Bournville)
4 1/2 cup icing sugar
360 g unsalted butter
45 ml milk
45 ml cream
1 tblsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 180 C. Get 3x 8 or 9 inch cake tins, and line the bottom with wax paper. Don't grease.
2) Combine canola oil, egg yolks, espresso, and vanilla in a medium bowl.
3) Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl.
4) Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy, add sugar gradually, and beat to soft peak stage.
5) Fold together egg yolk mixture and dry ingredients.
6) Add a large spoonful of the egg white mixture, and fold in gently.
7) Add the rest of the egg white mixture and fold in completely.
8) Split the mixture between the pans. Bake cakes for about 15-20 minutes depending on depth, until a toothpick comes out clean.
9) Take tins out, and let the cakes cool in them.
10) Mix together espresso, sugar and rum in a small bowl.
11) Melt the chocolate, cool, then place all the ingredients for the icing in a bowl and mix until smooth.
12) Now, take you final serving plate, and begin with the first cake. Place it in the centre, and use a brush to soak it with the syrup. Then add about a 2 cm layer of icing.
13) Add another cake on top, repeat the soak and icing.
14) Add the final layer of cake, soak, and now ice all around the cake, piping around the edges.
15) Decorate at will!

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