Tuesday, April 6, 2010

COFFEE CAKE THE EASY WAY



Over on Delicious, Delicious, Delicious - Mr P. has been waxing lyrical about this wonderful, super easy, all in one bowl, no measuring equipment needed, change it to your taste and/or mood cake.  I have to attest that he's right on the money.  It is the business!!

The cake is based on a Spanish recipe, and uses a tub of yogurt and then uses the tub to measure out the rest of the ingredients (except for a teaspoon of baking powder).  Mr P. has flavoured his with lemon zest and it looks fantastic http://deliciousdeliciousdelicious.blogspot.com/2010/04/bizcocho.html.

I decided to go the coffee route (a well travelled road!!!) and I added instant espresso powder to both the cake mixture and to the glaze - and even if I say it myself - it is really, really good.  The texture was that perfect state between soft and spongy and moist and dense.  A few walnuts thrown into the batter would have been good too.

I am looking forward to ringing the changes with this one,  lemon (of course), lime (my mouth is watering at the thought) and orange all appeal.  For these you would zest your fruit and add this to the cake batter and then use the juice to make the glaze.

This is the perfect recipe to give to anyone with a badly equipped kitchen - all you need is a bowl, 2 spoons and a loaf tin and "Bob's your uncle!"



Bizcocho


1   tub of yogurt (mine was 150g)
1   tub measure of oil (I used ground nut)
2   tub measures of sugar
3   tub measures of plain flour
4   eggs
1   tsp baking powder
1   tbsp instant espresso powder (or whatever flavouring you
     wish vanilla/lemon zest/ lime zest there's a long list!)


Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare your loaf tin (I just line mine with parchment paper)


Pour yogurt into mixing bowl.
Fill pot with oil and add to the yogurt.
Add the sugar, eggs and flavouring  and mix well.
Add the flour and baking powder and stir gently until well combined.
Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake until a skewer comes out clean. (This took 55 minutes in my oven but start checking at 40 minutes)
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then cool on a wire rack.

When cool prepare the glaze.

Glaze

3 tbsp  icing sugar sifted.
1 tbsp  extra strong espresso (or juice of choice or water and vanilla)

Sieve icing sugar into a bowl and add as much of the liquid as needed to make a smooth glaze.

Decorate the cake with the glaze.

Enjoy.

9 comments:

Lucie said...

This looks fab... I love loaf cakes. Sounds really easy just using one cup, less washing up too! Lucie x PS Thanks for following my blog!

Mr. P said...

I never thought to use coffee! Brilliant! Did you get a nice soft top, or a crust? I got the latter the first time around, and have now perfected my timing to get a lovely soft cake.

T. the Destructor also made this cake - it's doing the rounds.

Rhyleysgranny said...

What a brilliant recipe and so simple. x

Anonymous said...

Your loaf looks lovely and so easy. I wanted to pop over and let you know that I made your extra healthy bread last night. I had a piece for breakfast and it's so good. I'm going to try your soda bread next time. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Vicky said...

So simple! Love coffee cake, especially one that comes with less washing up!

Melanie Heavenly said...

Great recipe - what size loaf tin did you use?

Brownieville Girl said...

Melanie, sorry I should have said, my tin is 23x13cm - a bit bigger than the normal 2lb tin. Mr. P. used an ordinary tin and got 4 buns as well!
Edie, delighted the bread went well - I have a few new bread recipes to blog soon.
Mr P. the cake had a slight crust - but I think this is a good thing!!
Thanks Lucie, Granny and Helen:-D

Coby said...

BG, I am not a coffee fan, but I love this style of cake:) The type I tried called for flavoured yoghurt though so different again - shows how many variations there really are!

Deelitefull said...

I have a hankering for a nice piece of coffee cake, I think I am going to give this a go