In One Tin Bakes, Edd Kimber includes a recipe for a coffee cake that's not just meant to be served with coffee, but actually made with it (well, instant espresso powder, to be precise). I love coffee-flavored desserts and buttery cake, so I was game to give it a try.
You need to make the streusel first because it needs to chill/freeze for a before you add it to the cake. It's a mixture of browned butter, flour, sugar, and salt that you stir together until it forms crumbs. To make the cake, you cream room temperature butter with sugar until light and fluffy; add vanilla and eggs; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and sour cream. You spread two-thirds of the batter into a parchment-lined pan; sprinkle over a mixture of brown sugar, espresso powder, and cinnamon; and spread the remaining cake batter on top. Finally, you sprinkle on the chilled brown butter streusel before baking.
While I was assembling the cake, I remember thinking that the espresso swirl filling called for a lot (a full tablespoon) of instant espresso powder, and the coffee aroma was quite fragrant. When I took my first bite of cake, my initial reaction was that the coffee flavor was much less prominent than I had expected. The coffee flavor was definitely there, but it wasn't front and center, perhaps because the espresso powder was mixed with a fair amount of cinnamon. Instead, all of my attention was focused on the generous layer of streusel, which was so crunchy and so flavorful and so decadent. I love a crumb topping that stays in individual crumbs instead of all melting together, and this one was perfect. The cake itself tasted like a standard sour cream coffee cake, which is to say that it quite tasty and nicely textured -- but unlike the streusel, it's not what I will remember.
Recipe: "'Coffee' Coffee Cake" from One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber.
You need to make the streusel first because it needs to chill/freeze for a before you add it to the cake. It's a mixture of browned butter, flour, sugar, and salt that you stir together until it forms crumbs. To make the cake, you cream room temperature butter with sugar until light and fluffy; add vanilla and eggs; and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and sour cream. You spread two-thirds of the batter into a parchment-lined pan; sprinkle over a mixture of brown sugar, espresso powder, and cinnamon; and spread the remaining cake batter on top. Finally, you sprinkle on the chilled brown butter streusel before baking.
Recipe: "'Coffee' Coffee Cake" from One Tin Bakes by Edd Kimber.
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