A beautiful swirl of coffee and vanilla sandwiched together with caramel buttercream.
When I was reading the proofs of my debut romance novel, Art and Soul, I was dismayed to find mentions of cakes I hadn’t made yet! I wanted to correct this serious oversight as quickly as I could. You can find all the recipes for the other cakes mentioned in the novel in Sweet’s Cakes. And if you enjoy reading uplifting contemporary romance, you can get a copy of Art and Soul on Amazon.
One of those cakes was a cappuccino swirl cake. When I wrote that, I just made it up. However, I’m pleased to say the recipe I came up with to make it real turned out fantastically well.
I got the original recipe for the cappuccino / coffee element of the sponge from the BBC Good Food site.
I am not the greatest fan of coffee or coffee cake, but this one is absolutely delicious. Probably because the sweeter elements take the edge off the bitterness of the coffee.
Ingredients (serves 10 – 12 or more or less, depending on how big you cut your slices!)
For the vanilla sponge
- 125 g/ 4 oz caster sugar
- 125 g/ 4 oz butter/ baking margarine
- 125 g/ 4 oz self-raising flour
- 2 eggs (medium or large)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
For the cappuccino sponge
- 125 g/ 4 oz light soft brown sugar and 2-3 tsp sugar
- 125 g/ 4 oz butter/ baking margarine
- 125 g/ 4 oz self-raising flour
- 2 eggs (medium or large)
- 100 ml/ 3.5 fl oz very strong coffee. I made mine using 4 heaped tsps of coffee granules and boiling water.
For the caramel buttercream and decoration
- 150 g / 5 oz butter at room temperature
- 300 g / 10 oz icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp caramel flavouring
- 20 g / 1 oz your preferred chocolate for grating
Method
Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees C (160 fan)/ 356 degrees F or Gas Mark 4.
Grease and line two 8-inch/ 20-cm circular tins.
Start by making the vanilla sponge. Making this flavour first will mean you can reuse your mixing bowls to make the coffee flavour sponge without having to wash them in between!
If you have a stand mixer or electric hand beaters, I recommend you use them. Beat together the caster sugar and butter. I have a stand mixer and I beat together the butter and sugar for 3-4 minutes.
Add the vanilla essence and then the eggs, stirring between each addition. Add the flour and fold it into the mixture gently until it’s all combined.
Spoon “blobs” of your vanilla mixture into your baking tins, leaving gaps between the blobs for the coffee flavour sponge mix. If you want to be really even you can weigh the mixture into the tins to make sure you split the mixture equally between the tins.
Now make the coffee / cappuccino sponge cake mixture. Beat together the 125g brown sugar and butter. Again, I would advise doing this for at least 3 minutes.
Add the eggs and beat until combined. Stir the flour through the mixture. Don’t worry if it seems very stiff at this point, the coffee will sort this out!
Add just 50 ml (half) of the coffee to the cake mixture. Stir through until combined. Don’t panic if it looks sloppy at first, it will come together nicely as you keep stirring.
Spoon “blobs” of the cappuccino sponge cake mixture into your baking tins between the vanilla sponge mix blobs to fill the tins.
Drag a knife through the blobs, moving it back and forth to create a swirl.
Bake the cappuccino swirl cake layers for 25-30 minutes. With my oven I only needed 25 minutes. If you put a knife or skewer into the middle of the cakes after 25 minutes and it comes out clean then they’re done.
Leave your cakes to cool for about 5 minutes in their tins before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Add 2-3 tsp of sugar to the rest of the coffee you made earlier. I heated up the coffee in the microwave for 30 seconds so it was warm enough to melt the sugar. Stir well, then use a dessertspoon to drizzle the coffee over the base of your cooling sponges.
While your sponges finish cooling, make the buttercream.
Buttercream, assembly and decoration
Use your stand mixture or hand mixer to make the buttercream if you have one. Remember, mix slowly and gently at first or the icing sugar will go everywhere.
Start by beating the butter on its own. To get really smooth buttercream, beat the butter for at least 5 minutes. Then add the icing sugar and caramel flavouring and beat for at least 2 minutes until you have a smooth buttercream.
(You can also make caramel buttercream using actual caramel. If you’d rather do that, check out my recipe for caramel cupcakes with caramel buttercream for instructions).
Spoon half the buttercream onto one of the cappuccino swirl cakes and spread out using a knife or the back of the spoon to cover the layer evenly. Place the other cake on top. Spread the remaining caramel buttercream onto the top of the second layer and spread out. Finally, if you like, use a fine grater to grate some chocolate over the top of the cake.
I don’t really like coffee cake, but this one is delicious because the coffee flavour is so subtle and balanced nicely by the sweetness of the vanilla and caramel. It will keep well for 2-3 days in an airtight container and a cool, dry place.
I’d suggest you eat it quickly before any small hands steal your slice (Exhibit A below!).
Wondering what other cakes feature in my book? These for a start … and you can find more in Sweet’s Cakes.
Old school simple sponge cake with white icing and multicoloured spinkles.
Raspberry ripple sponge cake with raspberry buttercream filling.
Oh wow. This looks amazing
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you!
As it was a bit of an experiment, I was absolutely delighted with it. I was worried the kids wouldn’t like it because of the coffee flavour, but it was so subtle they didn’t mind at all and wolfed it down 🙂
Going on my favourites list! x
LikeLike
😊
LikeLike
My heart! ☕️ My tummy! 😋🌿
LikeLiked by 1 person
Haha!
One of my best experiments. Have to make it again soon as it was one of the ones where I found myself saying, “Even though I say so myself, that is absolutely delicious!” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for you! 👏
LikeLiked by 1 person
This look yummy! Have you really got a novel coming out?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! Not a word of a lie, it was absolutely delicious. I surprised myself with how good it was! haha!
After nearly 5 years of submitting my novel to agents and publishers who have all been very nice about it but apparently it’s just not for them, I’ve decided to just publish it myself 🙂 Provisional date is April 23rd. It’s a contemporary romance: all happy, uplifting stuff (featuring quite a bit of cake too) which I don’t think we can get too much of at the moment 🙂
Feels like a weight off my mind now I’ve decided to go for it. Might even get the dreaded second novel finished this year. Fingers crossed! xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow that’s so exciting good luck xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂 xx
LikeLike
Fingers crossed your book publication all goes to plan, Claire. Your book reviews are so good and insightful, it’s plain you can write so I’m really looking forward to reading your debut novel. How exciting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Everything crossed!! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exciting news. Congratulations x
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you!! It’s very exciting 🙂 Will try not to bore on about it til nearer the time!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m going to redraft and edit mine in NaNoWriMo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck! 🙂 My next mission is to finish book 2… one day! X
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good luck to you too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Links I’ve Enjoyed This Week – 13/10/19 #WeeklyRoundUpPost 🔗📆 🔗 #SecretLibraryBookBlog – Secret Library Book Blog
Pingback: Q&A with Debut Author Claire Huston! – Anita Kushwaha