Thursday 22 March 2012

Mocha Traybake

There are two ways to use coffee and chocolate together in cakes - one is to use a little coffee to deepen the flavour of the chocolate, which often means the coffee isn't detectable in the flavour, and the other is to use more coffee and less chocolate to make a cake which tastes of the coffee as much as the chocolate. The second is what I tried to do here. The flavour was successful, but the grated chocolate that I added to the batter disappeared during baking, so I didn't get the flecky appearance I was hoping for. I was worried that the very wet batter wouldn't support chocolate chips, but my grated chocolate was too fine and melted into the batter.

This was yet another adaptation of this Annie Bell recipe, which is the nearest I've come to getting the texture of a sponge cake, using oil instead of butter. In this case, I left out all the lemon flavouring and dissolved 3 teaspoons of instant coffee in the milk before mixing the batter. I then folded in 30g grated plain chocolate before baking.

For the topping I made my favourite chocolate fudge frosting - melt 175g plain chocolate and 30g butter over a low heat, then beat in 2 tablespoons golden syrup and 3 tablespoons milk, leave to cool but use while still spreadable - and finished off with a light sprinkle of 'cappuccino pearls'.

Note added 23rd March: At Baking Addict's suggestion I am entering this in the AlphaBakes Challenge, a new monthly baking challenge hosted alternately by The More Than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes. Caroline is hosting this month and the letter M has been randomly chosen. M for Mocha, obviously!

12 comments:

Lauralovescakes said...

The Annie Bell books are really good...and this cake looks delicious! It's making me hungry!! :-)

Katie said...

Looks delicious and a very moist textures cake. I think the chocolate must ahve given the cake a darker colour as I feel I can almost see tiny streaks of it. Yum!

Baking Addict said...

Love the look of this cake. I have the same Annie Bell book which is brilliant. I don't like drinking coffee but I love coffee desserts and this is no exception! Incidentally, this month's Alphabakes is "M" which would fit this cake perfectly if you are interested in joining in :)
http://carolinemakes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/alphabakes-challenge-march-2012.html

Suelle said...

Thanks, BA. I think I'll take up that idea - I noticed the new challenge last month.

Snowy said...

I love this Annie Bell recipe; it's so versatile. A great idea to make a mocha version.

Hazel - Chicken in a Cherry Sauce said...

Really interesting idea of grating chocolate into the mix, what a shame it didn't work! I wonder if it would work with a different type of cake batter? This sounds like a fabulous cake!

Choclette said...

Not being a coffee fan, I prefer the idea of a little coffee enhancing the chocolate. But it looks really good Suelle - light and moist.

Chele said...

That cake looks fab ... but could I order a bowl of the frosting to go please??

Dawn said...

It looks gorgeous as always. I love your blog.

I hope you don't mind but, I’ve awarded you for a Liebster Award http://autumnstorm.com/2012/03/25/liebster-award/

MissCakeBaker said...

Lovely looking cake. Please can I have a slice!

celia said...

I love the combination of chocolate and coffee, even though I'm no longer a coffee drinker! :)

Kit @ i-lostinausten said...

Looks amazing & delicious! This is what I call a great combination! I love chocolate & coffee so this is my kind of tea time cake ! Will certainly try this recipe! Thanks for sharing! Have a lovely day! :)