CHOCOLATE AND COFFEE SPONGE CAKE
Chocolate and Coffee sponge cake with soft jelly speckled eggs. My son’s request for his birthday today. A light, moist sponge cake.
- Sponge layers:
- 4 large eggs
- 300 g/375 ml castor sugar
- Mix the following together for liquid mixture:
- 50 ml sunflower oil
- 200 ml water
- 5 ml vanilla essence
- Mix the following together:
- 30 ml dark cocoa
- 30 ml Nestle Gold Espresso powder
- 50 ml hot water
- Sift the following together:
- 500 ml/280 g cake flour
- 15 ml baking powder
- pinch of salt
- Chocolate and coffee buttercream:
- 100 g soft butter
- 2 x 250 ml icing sugar, sifted
- 30 ml cocoa powder
- 10 ml Nescafe Gold Espresso powder
- 30 ml hot water
Beat together the eggs and castor sugar with balloon whisk attachment until thick and pale yellow (could take up to 10 minutes by hand but is quicker with Kenwood). Combine the oil, water and flavouring in a measuring cup and stir, set aside.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Mix the hot water, cocoa and espresso powder until smooth and lump free in a separate mug.
Add half the liquid mixture to the beaten egg mixture and beat it in.
Sift the flour mixture over the egg mixture once more and beat in slowly while adding the remaining liquid mixture.
Add the cocoa and coffee mixture. Beat only until well blended.
Grease 2 springform cake tins (220 – 240 mm)* well with margarine or spray with non-stick.
Cut a disc of baking paper the size of the bottom of tin and also spray that after putting it inside the tin. Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and bake at 200°C for 15-20 minutes until golden and firm and thoroughly baked if tested with a metal skewer.
Note:
*To get a small high celebration cake I used 2 x 18 cm dia cake tins.
Bake at 180°C for 25 minutes.
Loosen the sides of the tins and cool for 5 more minutes before turning out on cooling rack. Allow to cool completely before icing and decorating.
Making the cocoa and coffee butter cream:
Put the soft butter in mixing bowl and with the creaming beater attached, beat the butter until its fluffy and light. Add the sifted icing sugar in two batches and beat in between. Add the cocoa and coffee powder dissolved into the hot water and beat until the right intensity of flavour and consistency is achieved.
Put the layers together with some buttercream and decorate the cake on top.
The amount of buttercream is just enough to ice between the layers and on top.
Decorate as preferred. I used soft jelly speckled eggs and hundreds and thousands.
Recipe and photo: Elsabie Templeton
