I wanted to bring a small cake to an informal office party and I decided to try the Gâteau Moka aux Amandes from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. It's a lean sponge cake filled and frosted with coffee-flavored French buttercream, covered with sliced almonds.
The sponge cake only has three ingredients: eggs, sugar, and self-raising flour (I made my own self-raising flour by adding some baking powder to all-purpose flour, so technically I used four ingredients; I did not add salt because self-raising flour in the UK does not contain any). You beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale, gently fold in the sifted flour, and bake the batter in a greased and floured 9-inch pan. My cake did not rise very much in the oven and the center was slightly sunken.
To make the buttercream, you beat a hot sugar syrup into egg yolks, beat until cool, incorporate softened butter, and add coffee extract. This recipe makes a small amount of frosting; it calls for just 2 egg yolks and six ounces of butter.
When the cake was cool, I split it into two layers but they ended up quite uneven because of the sunken center; the top layer was embarrassingly thin in the middle. And there was so little frosting to go around that I spread only the skimpiest coating between the two cake layers. I then spread a thin coating of buttercream over the entire cake and covered it completely with toasted sliced almonds.
I had reserved a small amount of frosting for decoration and learned that the buttercream didn't really stick to the almonds. The rosettes I piped were just laying on top of the almonds and not solidly attached. I stored the cake in the refrigerator overnight but took it out several hours before serving. As you can see in the photo above, the buttercream was still pretty stiff even after a few hours at room temperature; a sharp knife cleanly bisected the decorative rosettes. Also, if you look closely, you can barely make out the fine layer of frosting between the two layers and the fact that the center of the top layer is much thinner than the outer edge. I wasn't thrilled with my wonky cake layers.
I was also worried that this cake would be dry, given how lean the cake batter is and the fact that the cake layers weren't moistened with sugar syrup. The cake was in fact a little dry. But I actually didn't mind. The overall dessert was quite well balanced considering the pairing of the cake with the super rich frosting. And if you look at the cake as basically a conveyance for the delicious coffee buttercream and flavorful crunchy almonds, it totally did the job. I liked this cake a lot.
There was some leftover cake that I took back home and my husband and I enjoyed it over the next few days. I kept the cake in a closed container in the fridge, and each evening I just trimmed off the exposed cut edge (which did dry out pretty badly) to reveal the less dry cake inside. It was still delicious even on days three and four. I'd like to try making this cake again to see if I can get it to rise properly. Whatever the outcome, it would be worth it for the coffee buttercream alone.
Recipe: "Gâteau Moka aux Amandes" from Mary Berry's Baking Bible by Mary Berry.
The sponge cake only has three ingredients: eggs, sugar, and self-raising flour (I made my own self-raising flour by adding some baking powder to all-purpose flour, so technically I used four ingredients; I did not add salt because self-raising flour in the UK does not contain any). You beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale, gently fold in the sifted flour, and bake the batter in a greased and floured 9-inch pan. My cake did not rise very much in the oven and the center was slightly sunken.
To make the buttercream, you beat a hot sugar syrup into egg yolks, beat until cool, incorporate softened butter, and add coffee extract. This recipe makes a small amount of frosting; it calls for just 2 egg yolks and six ounces of butter.
I was also worried that this cake would be dry, given how lean the cake batter is and the fact that the cake layers weren't moistened with sugar syrup. The cake was in fact a little dry. But I actually didn't mind. The overall dessert was quite well balanced considering the pairing of the cake with the super rich frosting. And if you look at the cake as basically a conveyance for the delicious coffee buttercream and flavorful crunchy almonds, it totally did the job. I liked this cake a lot.
There was some leftover cake that I took back home and my husband and I enjoyed it over the next few days. I kept the cake in a closed container in the fridge, and each evening I just trimmed off the exposed cut edge (which did dry out pretty badly) to reveal the less dry cake inside. It was still delicious even on days three and four. I'd like to try making this cake again to see if I can get it to rise properly. Whatever the outcome, it would be worth it for the coffee buttercream alone.
Recipe: "Gâteau Moka aux Amandes" from Mary Berry's Baking Bible by Mary Berry.
Comments