Coffee Cake Recipe - for Edinburgh Cake Ladies East West Cake event

Here is the recipe for the coffee cake I made for Edinburgh Cake Ladies East West Cake Event this January. It’s based on the coffee cake recipe from Ballymaloe’s 12 Week Professional Cookery Course. Unlike most Ballymaloe recipes where vanilla extract is used and never essence, this uses coffee essence, (really chicory). Camp is the most common brand in the UK. I love cooking with things like this, it's one of those ingredients that feels really nostalgic and old fashioned to use. I suppose it's the same as when people buy golden syrup in a tin instead of those practical plastic bottles. The cake itself is really intense and coffee-ish, even though the sponge on it's own has a quite delicate flavour. You can decorate it how you like, add chocolate curls and bitter cocoa or keep it simple.

My version

This is the recipe from Ballymaloe, I have multiplied the cake ingredients by 50% to make three thick layers from the original two, as I wanted to give the cake more height for the East West Cake theme, 'showstopper cakes'. I did the same for the coffee icing ingredients. The butter cream is increased by 100%. To decorate I added cocoa, chocolate curls and some gold sugar decorations.

Coffee Cake

12oz soft butter
12oz caster sugar
6 large eggs (preferably organic)
12oz plain white flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp Camp coffee essence

Coffee Butter Cream

4oz butter
8oz icing sugar
4 tsp Camp coffee essence

Coffee Icing

11/2 lb icing sugar
 3 tbsp Camp coffee essence
Boiling water

To decorate (all optional)

3 oz walnut halves
2 oz dark chocolate
2 tbsp cocoa powder
Gold cake decorations

Tins

2 or 3 x 8in round sandwich tins

A note on logistics - I only have two sandwich tins, so made this in two batches. I made two thirds of the cake mixture up first, poured it into the two tins and baked them. Once they were cooked and the cakes cooling, I made up the smaller second batch to fill one tin. I also have a gas oven, with only enough room on one shelf for two tins. If you have enough tins and enough shelf space, two ovens or a fan oven enabling you to cook on multiple shelves you can make the cake in one go.
You can't make it all in one go and then keep a third of the batter back while you wait for the first two to cook as the raising agent will have started to react and the cake won't rise when you eventually bake it. You will also get holes on the top of the cake as it will not  have been put into the heat of the oven quickly enough. You could just cook it with two layers, decreasing the ingredients as above, it will still look impressive as per Ballymaloe here:

Pam's coffee cake from Ballymaloe demo, how I would love to have an oven like theirs!

Right, on with the recipe!

The cake

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4
2. Line the base of the tins with greaseproof or silicon paper. Brush the sides with melted butter and dust with flour
3. Cream together the butter and sugar, by hand using a wooden spoon or in a food mixer (I use a Kenwood Chef, using the K beater). I recommend a mixer as you need to really beat the butter and sugar till it is pale and fluffy. If you think it's ready still beat it a bit more!
4. Whisk the eggs and add to the mixture bit by bit, mixing well between each addition
5. Sieve the flour with the baking powder and stir gently in by hand. Don't over beat the mixture here, almost fold it in with your spoon.
6. Finally add the coffee essence and mix in, again fold it in gently.
7. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared tins, paddling it round with a metal spoon (you can use an electric scales if you're that way inclined for a perfect split)
8. Bake for 30 minutes, till the cakes are firm and springy in the middle as well as the sides.
9. Rest in the tin for a minute or two, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
10. If you are making it in two batches, repeat steps 1-9 above from scratch.
11. While it's in the oven melt the chocolate for the chocolate curls over simmering water. Pour over the back of a plate or baking tray and leave somewhere cool.
12. Make the coffee butter cream. Sieve the icing sugar into a large mixing bowl - yes this takes a lot of time but really does give a better result.
13. Whisk the icing sugar with the butter, by hand or machine, as it starts to come together add the coffee essence. Continue to whisk till light and fluffy. Cover with cling film till ready to use.
14. When the cakes are cooled sandwich together the sponges with two layers of icing, evening them out with a bread knife if need be. Have enough cream to fill in the sides to give a straightish line for the icing.

Decoration

1. One the cake is assembled make the icing. Again sieve the icing sugar, add the coffee essence and then enough boiling water to make it the consistency of double cream. Add the water sparingly, not too much in one go or you will be back and forth adding more sugar and liquid all day to get it right!
2. Pour icing over the top and paddle it out and down over the sides, smoothing it with a palate knife. Work quickly or do it in batches, patching it up where needed as the icing can slide down the cake before it dries.  
3. Add walnut halves around the bottom of the cake to decorate, they will hold to the icing. You can also use hazelnuts as they do at Ballymaloe.
4. Once the icing has started to set sieve the cocoa powder over the top. If it's set a bit you can dust off any that has stuck to the sides for a neater finish. You could also combine the cocoa with some fine espresso/instant coffee powder.
5. Scrape the chocolate curls from the plate/tin, using a wide Parmesan slice. Try and take long confident sweeps. If the chocolate is too hard or too soft put it somewhere warmer/colder for a bit. It will soften quickly so you may need to wait and do two batches. I hold my hands under a freezing tap as long as possible to stop the chocolate melting, it helps but it hurts! The curls don't need to be perfect as they're all piled on the top, but a bit of practice and they can start to look surprisingly good.
6. Pile the chocolate curls on the top with the gold cake decorations.

Ballymaloe Weekend 9 - Pizzas and Party

It was the weekend but I was back in the kitchen like an idiot ‘helping’ out at the Saturday pizzas they sell here at the café in the school. The pizza dough is made up in a huge batch on Friday and left to rise overnight. Then it’s shaped and cooked to order on Saturday with lots of delicious local seasonal toppings such as Gubbeen cheese and bacon, black pudding, fennel, herb mayonnaise, rocket and so on. They make the pizzas out of this Italian 00 flour which comes in this huge cool looking bag, it also makes a really tasty dough more to the point:

Italian Flour

I was shaping the pizzas, they got better after the first few attempts, honest! It wasn’t too busy but I felt like I’d done loads. I also chopped some herbs for gremolata to sprinkle on the pizzas and for mayonnaise. The pizzas get cooked in the Italian wood fired oven so they are really authentic and crispy.

Pizzas shaped by me

 After a bit of a rest this evening we had a party and food in the courtyard cooked up by Ted of Wildside Catering. He made lots of asian style food including deep fried wantons with crab, a spicy duck soup full of fresh coriander and really fresh noodles with chicken and cucumber. There were also lots of cocktails to wash it down and we had a fire and stuff, it was cool.

Me in front of the cottage

Me on the balcony

Ballymaloe Day 43, March 8th - Canapé Capers

Middle of the week and there was loads on today. First off the cheeseboard, which this week was Goats’ Cheese, then the canapé demonstration which was an epic affair with both Rory and Darina showing us how to prepare dainty little morsels for any occasion. There were quails eggs, smoked salmon, fish kebabs, anchovy straws, marinated feta, lamb on rosemary skewers, tiny Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish, meatballs and more. Top tips for presenting the food in a quirky fashion were foraging for an old birds nest (??!) and an antique dormouse grill if you happen to have one. It would certainly start the conversation among your guests if the Prosecco hadn’t done the trick!

Foraged bird's nest!

Quail's eggs, shrimps

Darina and Rory

Anchovy straws at the front

Field mice grill centre!

Canapes on artisan tiles

 

It gave me loads and loads of ideas for when I get back!After a short lecture on freezing and one on spices we all trooped off to Ballymaloe House Hotel a few miles down the road. I had already been to the kitchen to chop cabbages and to the shop and café a few times (warning, the shop is full of cool kitchenware you’d be tempted to buy) but this time we had a tour round the dining room, kitchen, wine cellar and bedrooms. The wine cellar down in the basement has some old stone walls from the remains of the original castle. We also went out to see the Grainstore, a converted barn they use for events which is a fabulous space, and the onsite coffee roastery. Yes, they really do have everything here! It was a gorgeous sunny day and afterwards we had some afternoon tea in the conservatory, all cakes we have cooked ourselves of course! The Allen family told us a bit about the history of the house and how Myrtle Allen first established the restaurant back in the 1960s, cooking country house family food with ingredients from her garden.

Ballymaloe House

The grounds

The wine cellar

The kitchens

Coffee Roastery, The Golden Bean

The Grainstore

The Coffee Roaster

Another thing I managed to fit in to today was the infamous sourdough. The trouble with this sourdough has been the second rising, it has risen fine but it's over risen and sunk a bit the second time. Mainly because its been rising in the middle of the night and would have been perfect to cook at 4 in the morning! Well they had sunk a little but still looked good so I baked then in the morning, here they are:

My sourdough

Ballymaloe Weekend 8 - English Market in Cork 3rd March

 So this weekend was the first time I have been to the famous English Market in Cork. It is full of butchers, bakers and artisan producers. There was loads of fish, cheese, charcuterie, coffee, chocolate and fruit and vegetables.

Market Sasanach

The English Market

Artisan Breads

Cheese

Fish

Spanish Hams

More breads

Meat and Poultry

There were loads of the foods and producers we have been using here at the school. Cork was bustling with people and it was nice to see it on a sunny day. I got the bus back, a bit of a trek down the windy country roads!

Cork

Ballycotton Lighthouse from the bus

Ballymaloe Day 39, March 2nd - Road Trip & Meat is Murder (part 2)

Okay, this is a bit of a long post so grab some more wine! Today was Thursday and the day of the school trip. We had a hectic day planned, beginning with an early start and a trip to the smokehouse at Belvelly. Unfortunately the bus had broken down but eventually it was fixed and we all had time for another cup of coffee while waiting. We went to see Frank Hederman’s smokehouse, he is one of the many local artisans (sorry Henry!) working in the area. It is organic farmed salmon which they salt and then smoke and sell all over including Fortnum and Masons as well as the nearby farmers’ markets. We were lucky, it was a lovely day so I got to see some of the Irish countryside from the bus.

Nice hairnet

Salmon smoking

Rosemary flowers

Next up was the farmers’ market at Mahon Point shopping centre near Cork. It is every week and draws a big crowd of people and a huge variety of stalls. There were meat, chicken, fish, baking, apple juice, honey, cheese and a myriad of artisan producers. We had some food to eat as well including pizza, steak sandwiches and curry. People come here every week to meet up and have a coffee and get their shopping as well as going into the big centre and it seems to work well. I bought some goat’s cheese from an enthusiastic young goat farmer and had a pizza with pepperoni, buffalo mozzarella and black olives, yum yum!

Back on the bus and we had a bit of  trip over to county Tipperary to visit the place where they make Cashel Blue cheese, the most famous blue cheese from Ireland. We drove down the country lanes till we got to their huge new factory near Cashel and saw how the cheese was made. It was such a sunny day! We also tasted some of the second cheese they have been making, a sheep’s milk, Crosier Blue.

As the afternoon went on we drove over the hills and down to Lismore. It was a spectacular drive and we had a great view of the landscape. In Lismore we went to McGrath’s Butchers, an old family business who still have their own abattoir, lovely! It was all really interesting though and we got to have a look round and they told us all about killing and butchering the meat. We’re welcome to come and see the slaughtering being done on a Monday if we want!

Lastly we went to two food businesses, O’Brien’s Chophouse which has an old wooden bar at the front and sells dishes including tongue and offal and lots of local produce including smoking their own fish. They also have a cute little garden out the back which would be amazing to sit in on a sunny day. Then The Summerhouse which is owned by an ex-Ballymaloe student and he gave us cake and some advice. It was interesting to hear more about the ins and outs of the food business. Lismore was a lovely place in the evening light, with the Castle and lots of little streets and shops. After all this we were absolutely exhausted, the bus was a bit more reserved on the way home!