blog #273 >> Coffee Coffee Cake

Yes, a coffee cake, made with coffee, with a coffee filling, and a coffee glaze. mmmmm... the smell of it baking... how I long to eat it now... but I can't. It's for Easter breakfast tomorrow. I even went to Stumptown and had them make me five shots of espresso for it. And the currants came from Limbo down the street. I'm so glad I found them! I was about to give up. I also need to thank Amy for the loan of her Bundt pan.

And since there is so much mixing involved with this cake, I decided to finally try out my mixer. This is the first and last time I will ever use that mixer. No matter how many times I've had 50+ year old appliances blow up on me, I still insist on using them. I never seem to learn my lesson. But I'm afraid the coffee coffee cake was too much for my 70 year old mixer. First, the handle got hot, (strange right?) and I should have stopped right there. But it seemed to be running fine, and I just had a little more mixing to do. Well, it sort of went crazy on me and it decided it only wanted to run on full speed. (or perhaps faster than full speed.) And the next thing I knew I had batter all over the kitchen. Well, I had to finish the job with the little 50's pink hand mixer. But it all turned out alright anyhow.

Recipe below:

Mrs. Johnson's Coffee Coffee Cake

Cake:
2 cups flour
1 tea. baking powder
1 tea. soda
1/8 tea. salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 T. strong coffee
1/2 tea. vanilla
1 1/4 cup sour cream

Filling:
1/4 cup currents
(soaked in hot water for 8-10 min.)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup finely chopped walnuts
2 tea. ground cinnamon
2 tea. instant coffee powder

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
3 T. strong coffee
1/2 tea. half and half
1/4 tea. vanilla

1. Grease Bundt pan.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add coffee and vanilla. Mix thoroughly.

4. Add flour mixture alternately with sour cream, beating well after each addition, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Set aside.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

6. Prepare filling: Combine drained currants, brown sugar, walnuts, cinnamon, and instant coffee.

7. Spread a fouth of the batter into Bundt pan. Sprinkle with a third of the filling. Repeat layering twice, ending with batter.

8. Bake for 55-60 minutes until tooth-pick comes out clean.

9. Cool on wire rack or 20 minutes. Remove cake from pan.

10. Prepare glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar, coffee, half-and-half, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.

11. Spoon glaze over cake. Let glaze set.

(alterations: I used regular butter and omitted the salt. I used regular brown sugar instead of dark. I used milk instead of half-and-half. And I used espresso in the filling instead of instant coffee.)

(If you wanted you could also substitute raisins for currants and use instant coffee instead of espresso. Mix 1 tea. instant coffee in 1 T. hot water for each tablespoon of strong coffee.)

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