Coffee Bundt Cake and a Lesson Learned

All bundt tins are not made equal. This I have learned. The hard way.  So just because you picked up a shiny new bundt tin that you’re dying to use, don’t assume that any old bundt cake recipe will do.  Check your measurements. And if you have a bundt tin like mine, halve the quantities below. Or else you’ll be eating (tasty) coffee cake for about a week. And scraping overflowed mixture off the oven floor. Also, grease the tin really really well. Grease it twice. Assume that the cake mixture is just dying to get stuck right in to every groove in the bundt tin. Because it is.

Apart from my misjudged quantities, this recipe produced a delicious cake. I took the recipe from Elissa’s blog 17 and Baking. She made a plain buttermilk pound cake, and insisted that the pictures didn’t convey the moist delightfulness that this cake will being to your life. Well, she’s right. A really moist cake that gets better after a day or two. And my pictures don’t do it justice either :)

Elissa’s recipe is here. I made a few adjustments to give a coffee flavour (I was just in that mood) and I iced the cake with coffee icing (mainly to mask the hideous bits that stuck to the tin).

What you need: (half of this recipe is enough for a small bundt tin)

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups (about 340g) unsalted room temperature butter, plus more for greasing the pan
3 1⁄2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for flouring the pan
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1⁄2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup cultured buttermilk
2 generous tablespoons of coffee essence (or dissolve some instant coffee powder in 2tbsp hot water)

For the coffee icing:

2 tbsp instant coffee

2 tbsp hot water

2 tbsp milk

about 100g icing sugar

What to do:

Grease and flour the bundt tin. Really grease it. Preheat oven to about 150C.

Sift together salt, baking soda and flour. Beat the butter and slowly add in the sugar, beating it well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Add the vanilla and coffee essence. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add in about one third of the sifted flour. When it has been incorporated, pour in one third of the buttermilk. Mix until just combined. Repeat with the rest of the flour and buttermilk.

Pour into the prepared bundt tin. At this point, I was getting a bit nervous at how full the tin looked.

Bake for about 1hr 15 mins – 1hr 30 mins, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.  Cool in the pan, on a wire rack,  for about 20 minutes, and then turn out onto the rack and cool completely.

It all looked good from that side. (note: how huge is this cake?)

Unfortunately, the other side didn’t fare so well.

Yes. Not quite the ‘self-decorating’ bundt tins are known for. Maybe now you understand why I decided to ice it. To make the icing, dissolve the instant coffee in the hot water in a large bowl and add the milk. Stir until smooth. Gradually add the icing sugar, whisking until smooth between additions. You want the mixture to thicken up but still be pourable. Because the surface of the cake was so bumpy, I applied one coat of icing and allowed it to dry.

While it was drying, I put the rest of the icing into the fridge to let it harden a little. When the first layer is dry, apply the second layer.  The cake is ready to cut when the icing is completely dry. Elissa recommends leaving the cake a day or so before eating. I iced the cake the day after I made it, and then cut it the following day.

The buttermilk really adds to the texture of the cake and leaves it truly delicious. I thought the icing went well, and it brought a bit of sweetness that meant we didn’t need cream or ice cream with the cake. Great with your afternoon tea or coffee. Also good as a ‘breakfast dessert’. I kept the cake covered on a cake stand. The last slice, eaten 6 days after the cake was baked, was as good as the first, if not better.

I really want to try a chocolate variation of this, though I may try the plain buttermilk recipe first. Thanks Elissa for recommending this cake!

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