All Cakes Considered - Melissa Gray [37]
Scottish pub down the street. This caused my father-in-law mild distress as he wasn’t used to men in “skirts.” I don’t think we’ll be getting him into a tartan anytime soon. But we will get him and his sons to Paula’s restaurant one of these days.
This recipe comes from Paula’s show Paula Deen’s Wedding. She says this cake is to be baked in a tube pan and frosted with almond buttercream, and then there’s a mysterious note that says this recipe would have to be modified to make it into a wedding cake. How, it does not explain. But as far as I’m concerned, if it’s good enough for a wedding cake, it’s good enough for the All Things Considered staff. Some days I feel like I’m married to all of them anyway, so what the heck.
The cake was so good that I never got around to making the buttercream frosting. I now make it in a decorative Bundt pan, with an added cup of chopped toasted almonds, and I dust the cooled cake with confectioners’ sugar.
You’ll notice that Paula’s mixing directions differ from the usual method of beating the eggs into the creamed butter and sugar and then adding the dry and wet ingredients, and finally the flavorings. She also doesn’t call for salt, so no, that’s not a typo!
If you want to try it with buttercream, turn to page 168 for an easy buttercream recipe. Just nix the honey and add 1 teaspoon of almond extract.
And yes, this cake can be sliced thin, so expect to serve anywhere from 16 to 32 people (all together now) “depending on how you slice it.”
Coffee Spice Cake
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YOU’ll NEED
A 12-cup Bundt or 10-inch tube pan
¾ cup cold strong coffee
¾ cup shortening
1½ cups dark brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
3 large eggs
2½ cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1. Obtain coffee. This is the dark roasted stuff, not watered-down diner coffee. Brew it yourself, or use this as an excuse to run down to your local coffee shop and treat yourself to a grande mocha Frappuccino or a chai latte because you simply haven’t had enough go-go juice today and would like to spend the next few hours bouncing off the walls of your kitchen.
(Actually, I use this recipe as an excuse to get a pedicure. The shop is located next door to my local Starbucks. I think a full pedicure costs roughly the same as a grande mocha Frappuccino and lasts at least twice as long.)
2. Center a rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare the cake pan.
3. Cream the shortening with the mixer on medium speed, and add the brown sugar gradually. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until fluffy, roughly 3 minutes.
4. Shift the mixer to low speed. Add the molasses, then the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. In a separate bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices together.
6. Add a third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beat, then add ¼ cup of the coffee and beat on medium until well blended. Repeat 2 more times.
7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the cake tests done.
8. Cool for 10 to 15 minutes in the pan, unmold onto a cake rack, and cool completely.
9. Sprinkle with coarse sugar or dust with confectioners’ sugar.
VARIATION
Less Spice, More Mocha Coffee Spice Cake
Even though the original recipe got the official “mmm, mmm, good cake!” designation from the staff, decided it was just a little too close to gingerbread and not close enough to coffee, or at least grande mocha Frappuccino. I did want a dash of barista added to this baby, I have to admit. So, I decided to re-cake. The addition of chocolate was generally welcomed by all.
Thus isn’t a traditional coffee cake—it’s a cake in which cold coffee is an ingredient. It seems a lot of older recipes used coffee in cakes, and I’m kind of surprised that Starbucks hasn’t capitalized on this, what with America’s newly developed