The Baker’s Dozen – Coffee Cake
Nos gusta endulzarte la vida, por eso te traemos una nueva receta en inglés para que sorprendas a todos tus amigos con una tarta deliciosa.
Welcome back to the Baker’s Dozen and the world of cakes.
Baking is very much a traditional part of Britain and there’s nothing quite like a cup of tea and a piece of cake as the ultimate pick-me-up in the afternoon. Now as we all know, Britain is a nation of tea drinkers: we go through 165 million cups a day or 60.2 billion a year and 84% of the population drink tea or herbal infusions everyday. No wonder that the most stereotypical images of the Brits are that they are blond and blue-eyed, go red in the sun, only ever eat fish and chips and love a good cup of tea.
Well, I have to admit that some of these stereotypes are true to some extent. There is a large percentage of the population that are blond, blue-eyed, look like a lobster after a few hours in the sun and we do eat fish and chips (but only every now and again). So this leaves us with the last one and this is where I have to buck the trend. My apologies in advance for destroying the stereotype but I hate tea. I haven’t drunk it since I was 11 and I cannot think of anything worse than a cup of tea with my cake. When it comes to the world of hot beverages, I am very much a coffee lover. There is nothing better than a ‘café con leche’, but I do prefer to avoid some of the well know chains who only seem to serve coffee in varying bucket sizes.
Although I love coffee, I am a little contrary as I don’t like coffee flavoured foods, which means that coffee cake is a most definite non-starter. The following recipe I have been making for some time as the family all love it and I was persuaded to try it by my children, as they like the cake but don’t like drinking coffee (they have obviously inherited my contrariness in reverse). It doesn’t have an overtly strong coffee taste, so if you’re like me and you’re not keen on coffee flavoured foods, I would recommend it.
Coffee Cake
Pre heat oven to 190ºc
- 175g Self Raising Flour
- ½ tsp Salt
- 150g Sugar
- 110g Butter at room temperature, cubed
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp instant coffee (just the granules)
- 3 tbsp milk
Method
- Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl
- Beat together using an electric whisk, starting slowly.
- Beat on maximum for 2 minutes
- Pour into a cake mould; I use a square one
- Bake for about 30 minutes, check if it’s done by piercing the centre with a skewer or knife and if it comes out clean then it’s done.
- Leave to cool
If you wish you can decorate the cake with butter cream frosting, or even cut the cake in half and place this in the middle but we prefer it without.
Enjoy with a cup of tea or better still…….a cup of coffee!
Vocabulary
Pick me up: something that makes you feel better or give you a little more energy, it could be a drink or tonic
Buck the trend: go against the norm/have a different opinion
Beverage: a generic word for a drink of any type.
Contrary (to be): (adjective) a contrary person is someone who disagrees and annoys others more often than not on purpose, but in this context of the blog it is used to mean that it is the opposite of what has just been stated.
Non-Starter: an idea or plan that has no chance of success
Overtly: something which is obvious or done in an obvious or public way and isn’t secret.
Keen on: very interested in something, or as used in this context to like something or not!
Self raising flour: flour that already has the baking agent added to it (harina de bizcocho):
Tsp: teaspoon, it’s used to stir tea or coffee but as a measurement it is equivalent to 5ml or about 5g.
Cubed: cut the butter into the shape of a cube!
Tbsp: a large spoon used for measuring food and liquids and it’s equivalent to about 15ml or 15g.
Beat together: the action to mix together ingredients vigorously, e.g. batir los huevos.
Cake Mould: the recipient for cooking a cake, it can be of different sizes and shapes.
