Coffee cake

Today I want to share a simple recipe that will be the perfect addition for your afternoon cofffee. This time we'll prepare a fluffy, incredibly moist vanilla cake enriched with layers of cinnamon and coffee icing.

Vanilla cake is pleasantly fluffy and moist, and it melts in your mouth almost instantly. Layers of cinnamon create a nice pattern inside to make the cake pretty, and they bring distinct spiced notes, too. All of that under coffee-flavoured, lightly sweet icing and crunchy walnuts that provide a bit of texture.

You'll find the list of ingredients, method and approximate nutritional value below.

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List of ingredients (18 x 28 cm baking tin)

Cinnamon layer

• 150 g all purpose flour
• 100 g light brown sugar
• 3.5 tsp cinnamon
• 120 g butter

Cake

• 250 g cake flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• Salt, small pinch
• 175 g soft butter
• 225 g sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 180 g soured cream (18%)
• 50 ml milk
• 2 tsp vanilla paste

Icing and decoration

• 120 g cream cheese
• 60 g icing sugar
• 2 tsp instant coffee + 1 tbsp hot water
• 40 g walnuts

Method

1. Prepare cinnamon mixture. Put 150 g all purpose flour, 100 g light brown sugar and 3.5 tsp cinnamon into a medium bowl. Stir through the ingredients with a whisk, only until evenly distributed.
2. Add 120 g cold, cubed butter to the dry ingredients. Rub fat into flour with your fingertips until the mixture starts to resemble wet sand. It won't take long, a minute or two should be enough. Once you've got the right texture put the bowl into a fridge as you move on to batter.
3. Sift 250 g cake flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder and 0.5 tsp baking soda through a fine sieve to remove any lumps. Add a small pinch of salt, stir through the mix shortly with a whisk to distribute everything evenly, and set aside.
4. Put 175 g soft cubed butter into a separate, large bowl and add 225 g fine white sugar. Beat the contents of the bowl with an electric mixer until light and quite fluffy, and until sugar dissolves completely. We have a lot of sugar here, so be patient - it will take a while. It took my over 10 minutes to get the right texture. It is worth scraping down the sides of the bowl from time to time with a silicone spatula. It will help you assess if sugar has dissolved, and give you confidence that everything has combined as it should.
5. Once batter is fluffy, add 3 large eggs, one at a time. Beat batter each time for ingredients to combine.
6. Add 180 g soured cream (18%), 50 ml milk and 2 tsp vanilla paste to the batter. All ingredients should be at room temperature, so remember to take them out of a fridge at least an hour ahead. Mix the contents of the bowl until combined and put the mixer aside - we won't need it anymore.
7. Add dry ingredients to the batter. Do it in three batches, a few tablespoons at a time, and combine the contents of the bowl carefully each time with a silicone spatula. Batter will be grainy at first, but that will change after you add all of flour.
8. Transfer half of batter into a baking tin lined with baking paper, 18 x 28 cm, and spread it evenly across the whole surface. Transfer around a half of cinnamon mixture on top of batter. Form large lumps, as you would with a crumble, and arrange them to cover light batter completely. Lumps will dissolve during baking and create a pretty barrier between two layers of cake. Transfer remaining batter on top of cinnamon mixture. Do it carefully, covering as large a surface as you can. It will be a bit easier to spread batter this way and even it out. Finally, scatter remaining cinnamon mixture on top.
9. Bake the cake in an oven preheated to 180 deg C, no fan, for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean. There is a lot of sugar and butter in the cake, making it brown quickly, so cover it with a piece of baking paper after a few minutes. Take ready cake out of the oven and set aside to cool completely.
10. Prepare coffee icing. Transfer 160 g lukewarm cream cheese into a small bowl and add 60 g icing sugar as well as 2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in a tablespoon of hot water. Stir through the contents of the bowl with a whisk, only until sugar dissolves and uniform icing forms. Transfer ready icing into a piping bag and squeeze it out directly on top of the cake, covering the whole surface. Scatter roughly chopped walnuts on top to finish.
11. Enjoy! 

Approximate nutritional value 

100 g 

• 418 kcal
• Carbs: 47 g 
• Fat: 24 g
• Protein: 6 g
• Fibre: 1 g

1 slice (recipe makes 15 slices)

• 426 kcal
• Carbs: 48 g 
• Fat: 24 g
• Protein: 6 g
• Fibre: 1 g