Coffee cake

Its been quite quiet in the 365things kitchen this month. Me n Hubs were in Ireland over Easter for a bit of a holidays, and since then, I’ve been on a health kick. I’ve pared things back a lot and cooking a lot simpler and healthier, so things like grilled lean meat such as turkey and chicken breast or fish roasted in a little oil and lots of herbs and spices. These are accompanied by boiled or steamed veggies. Its also a good opportunity to finish up the ends of packets, so couscous, quinoa and brown rice are served alongside. I’ve made a couple of yummy breakfast smoothies using (for 2 people) a low-fat yogurt, one banana, one cup of frozen berries, a glug of milk, a shake of cinnamon and two dessert spoonful’s of muesli. I sometimes add a good dessertspoon of almond paste if I feel like it. These are blasted in the blender for one minute and slugged. If it is a bit thick, add a little more milk. Lunch is a massive salad with lettuce and/or spinach leaves, tomatoes, a little bit of blue cheese or lean protein (turkey slices, tinned fish without oil) or substantial soup made with beans and lentils. I’ve been doing this for a little over a week, and I’m already down two kilos*.

But still, it’s the weekend, and weekend = little treat. While we were in Ireland we went to a gorgeous little coffee shop in Galway city called Cupan Tae (it’s Irish for ‘cup of tea'). The shop is a mishmash of china cups, chintz curtains, lace tablecloths and general kitchness. They serve sandwiches and divine homemade cakes. I tried the coffee cake, and I’ve been dreaming about it ever since. So, I tried the BBC Good Food/Angela Nilsen Ultimate Makeover coffee cake this weekend.

Half-iced coffee cake

The original recipe is here, and this is my version. It’s not as low in fat as the BBC version, as there are some things I don’t like, such as oil in cakes, but I’ve indicated all changes. I didn’t put any walnuts into the cake itself as my SD is allergic to them. Overall, it’s very light and tasty cake.

2 dessertspoons of coffee (made coffee, not granules!)

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

25g ground almonds, as this is all I had in the cupboard

85g light muscovado sugar

50g golden caster sugar

2 eggs, beaten

250g 0% fromage frais

75ml melted butter

Icing

2 tbsp golden caster sugar

2 dessertspoons of coffee

250g mascarpone

lots of icing sugar

¼ tsp vanilla extract

Walnut halves

Heat your oven to 180°C and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Mix the flour, baking powder, ground almonds and both sugars into a large mixing bowl. Make a dip in the centre and stir in the eggs, fromage frais, melted butter and the coffee with a wooden spoon so everything is evenly mixed. Spoon the mixture into the tin, smooth the top to level it, then bake for 40-45 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the tin briefly, then turn it out and peel off the lining paper. Leave to cool completely while you make the icing.

Put the caster sugar and coffee into a small, heavy-based saucepan. Heat gently, stirring to help the sugar dissolve. Once dissolved, raise the heat, then boil at a fast rolling boil for about 2½-3 mins until thickened and syrupy. Pour into a small heatproof bowl and set aside to cool. When cold it should be the consistency of treacle.

Beat the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla together until smooth, then stir in the cold coffee syrup. It said in the recipe that you need a tablespoon of icing sugar, but the icing was very runny, so I just kept adding spoonfuls until it thickened up. I’ve no idea how much I used in the end.

Split the cake into 2, then sandwich back together with the filling. Spread the icing over the top, scatter over the chopped walnuts and leave to set.

As the sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed, I only iced half the cake. Hubs isn’t as fond of the sweet stuff as I am, so decorating like this means we can both enjoy it. #compromise.

'light' coffee cake

* I'm neither a doctor nor a nutritionist, so please seek the advice of a doctor before going on any diet. Also, I'd lost the 2 kilos before eating the entire cake (with Hubs) over the weekend. The 2 kilos lost has become 1 kilo lost ;-)

making up for lost time!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I haven’t been cooking that much so far this month. I more than made up for things this weekend.

On Friday I made sweet potato falafels with haloumi. On Saturday we had the in-laws over, where I made a recipe on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s page in the Guardian for bulgur wheat and tomato soup, a meaty version of a vegetarian filo pastry pie and steamed apple pudding.

Currently in the oven are: doughnut muffins (I’ve nick-named them “duffins”), coffee cake and parsnip and golden syrup cake. More on how these turned out later in the week.


UPDATE: 18.02.12
Yes, very remiss of me... I forgot to follow up on the parsnip and golden syrup cake, which was a hit! Huge hit. 
The original recipe comes from the November 2011 edition of Delicious magazine. My version went like this:


175g butter
250g cassonde (brown sugar)
3 dessert spoons of golden syrup
3 eggs
250g flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
A good teaspoon of mixed spice and ginger
250g (2 large) grated parsnips
1 apple, also grated


Heat oven to 160°. I used a square tin, about 18cm in diameter, greased and lined. 


Melt the butter, sugar and the golden syrup in a large pot. You make the cake in the pot, so you will need the space. 


Cool the liquid and whisk the eggs in. Sift in the flour, baking powder and the spices and fold this in. Fold through too the grated parsnips and apples. Pour this into the cake tin. 


The recipe says to cook for 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes. I always find that my cakes need longer, regardless of the oven, so I end up covering them with tinfoil. I cooked this cake for an hour and a half. Once cooked, stand it for about 5 minutes so that it shrinks slightly from the tin, before turning it onto a wire rack.


The cake is really delicious - gooey end earthy, and it smells divine. The parsnip taste is not at all overpowering. 

Parsnip cake. Delicious. Try it. You know you want to!

While I'm here, the coffee cake was 50/50 - I ended up making the cake twice as it was too low (I wanted a 'tall' cake). The first batch was too dense while the second batch was perfect. I don't know what I did different the second time... Just one of the great mysteries of the kitchen.
The duffins were great - another success with family and colleagues. I used a few different types of jam - raspberry, rhubarb and lime - as these ends were lurking in the fridge begging to be finished. Mmmmmmm.