The Vegan Baker: Coffee Cake
Home » Blog » Miyuki McGuffie » The Vegan Baker: Coffee CakeThis week a little reminiscing inspires blogger-baker Miyuki McGuffie to recreate a delicious old favourite.
When we were in high school, one of my friends often used to make coffee cake from the Edmonds cookbook. It was always delicious and although I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, the cake reminded me of days spent at her house, just hanging out, doing what we pleased, and the lack of responsibilities we had at the time.
So of course I had to make it!
This cake recipe is now officially my go-to, as it has been used in this blog already in its chocolate form. This time I removed the cocoa and substituted half the water content with strong coffee. I used a French press to make roughly 1.5 cups (that’s metric cups, not regular ones) of an undrinkably strong brew. Feel free to try this with instant, using the same volumes.
I iced this cake with a 'buttercream' frosting—essentially whipped fat and sugar (like mock cream)—with a little coffee added in for flavour. My friends over here in the US really liked the cake and all commented on how good it looked. A couple of them even dunked theirs in their coffee!
Beware when you are taking the cake out of the pan. Even after 10 minutes' rest my cake was very fragile, so be gentle.
Coffee Cake
- 3 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup very strong coffee
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 teaspoons vanilla essence or extract
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Sift dry ingredients together in a big bowl.
Make a well, then add wet ingredients. Mix until an even batter forms with no lumps.
Bake for 40 minutes in a greased cake tin.
Let cake rest for 5–10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Cool completely before icing.
Coffee 'buttercream' frosting
- 8 tablespoons non-dairy margarine, room temperature
- 3½ cups icing sugar
- ¼ cup strong coffee, room temperature
Using an electric beater, whip the margarine until pale and fluffy. Add sugar a bit at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat until combined.
Add the coffee gradually while continuing to whip the icing. Once the coffee is mixed in the icing is ready.
If you’ve cut the top of the cake off to make it even (optional), you might want to do what is called a “crumb coat”. Spread a thin layer of icing over the cake, then chill to set (about 30 minutes). After this, you are ready to ice as usual. A “crumb coat” stops crumbs from getting mixed into the icing. Purely a presentation issue, it shouldn’t be necessary if you are frosting the cake intact.
Sun September 12, 2010 @ 03:50 PM
