Rum and coffee cake

Father’s day always forces me to bake altruistically as one of the CCD’s (Caked Crusader’s Da) favourite cake flavours is coffee, which I cannot abide in any shape or form.  This cake also uses one of his other favourite things: rum.

Sticking with my theme of altruism, I jettisoned any ideas for buttercreams or whipped cream because that is not at all the CCD’s style.  Serve him a wedge of sponge he can just pick up and eat and he’s happy.  Serve him something he needs a pastry fork to navigate around and he sees it as unnecessary fuss.

Given that the cake needed to absorb a lot of liquid without turning to mush I opted for a firmer, closer crumbed sponge and it held up well.  The inclusion of sour cream balances the sugar; I always think the inclusion of buttermilk/sour cream/yoghurt gives a velvety softness to a sponge.  Definitely plan ahead with this bake as it is best made the day before and left to absorb the coffee overnight. 

The liquid does make the sponge depress a little, so don’t worry.  I’m finding it hard to know what to say about this cake because I am so not the target audience for it!  Sometimes, though, the right cake doesn’t need to be flash nor a showstopper - all I can say is that the CCD enjoyed it so, job done!

Happy father's day!

Ingredients

For the cake:

190g unsalted butter, at room temperature
270g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
270g plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
225g sour cream

For the rum coffee syrup:

3 tablespoons caster sugar
4 tablespoons rum
100ml hot, strong black coffee

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Line a 20cm round springform tin with baking paper.

Start by beating together the butter and sugar.  Take time over this and beat until it is pale, light and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in half the flour.

Beat in half the sour cream.

Beat in the remaining flour, along with the baking powder and salt.

Beat in the remaining sour cream.

Spoon the mix into the prepared tin and bake for approximately 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean; check after 40 minutes to ensure the cake isn’t browning too quickly – if it is, loosely cover the top with foil and continue baking.

Leave in the tin and wrap the base and sides of the outside of the tin in foil- this will stop any leakage from the syrup and prevents a sticky cleaning up job!  N.B if you’ve used a liner for the tin there’s no need to do this.

Now make the syrup: mix together the sugar, rum and hot coffee until you can feel that the sugar has dissolved.  If you do this in a glass bowl you will be able to see when this has happened; I usually rely on dragging the spoon along the bottom of the dish – if it seems smooth everything has dissolved!

Poke some holes in the top of the cake and brush the hot syrup onto the warm cake – I find this gives the best absorption.  You can pour but I prefer the control over distribution that a brush gives.

If you feel that the cake is getting too wet, let it rest for 10 minutes then resume brushing on the liquid.

Leave to cool completely in the tin on a wire rack.

It is best to make the cake a day in advance to let the coffee and cake settle down overnight.

Serve in generous slices with some whipped cream.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.