Friendship
I had some friends come over for dinner last night. Some I see regularly, some I haven’t seen for years.
As I was making the cake for them I was thinking about cakes and friendships and there really isn’t one cake that can represent all friends. But cakes in general are pretty much like friends.
There is the one you can never get enough of no matter how many times you have it. There’s the one that although it is a favourite, no one else seems to want to share it. Then there's the one that everyone loves but you just don’t get why, even though you’ve tried…
We’ve all discovered that new recipe, which tastes soooooo good the first time but the second time you make it, not so much.
And what about that other favourite which is super delicious but can only be enjoyed in small servings. Then there is the one you have enjoyed for years and suddenly it stops agreeing with you. Also the one that you hardly ever make and when you finally get around to making it again, you wonder why you don’t make it more often. There is the one that never rises to the occasion and you just have to let it go and the ones that, if you don’t handle them with with care will crumble and fall apart.
But good friends are like spring. It's always reliable, it maybe early it maybe late but when it arrives, it’s so welcomed. The world would remain cold without it. Everything blooms under its magic and when it’s gone you look forward to the time when it comes again.
This cake is just like a good friend, it wont let you down. It is simply delicious.
Cake Ingredients
6 Eggs separated (at room temparature)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 sachet Vanila sugar
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup of sifted flour (120g)
1 & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 table spoon instant coffee
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup broken walnuts
100g milk chocolate grated or broken into small pieces
pinch of salt
Cake method
Pre heat the oven to 170C or 160C depending on how hot your oven gets
Line a 26cm cake tin with baking paper OR line two cake tins that are 22/23cm each
I used two cake tins.
With an electric egg beater, whisk egg white with 3/4 cup of sugar and vanilla sugar, 1 spoon at a time, until firm peaks form.
Add the egg yellow one at a time. Slowly add oil and whisk for another one minute until all ingredients are well incorporated.
Turn mixer off set a side.
In a seperat bowl using a large metal spoon mix all the dry ingredients, make sure everything is nicely coated with the flour, that way nothing sinks to the bottom of the cake and there are no lumps.
Slowly fold the dry ingredients (in three batches) into the egg mixture .
Pour into either one large cake tin or two.
If you baked in two tins it takes 20-25 min for each cake to bake
If you baked in one tin it takes 30-35 min to bake.
You can check your cake by inserting a skewer into the cake, if it comes out clean then the cake is ready.
Leave cake/s to cool down at room temperature while you prepare the syrup and mousse.
Coffee Mousse ingredients
*If you want to pipe the cream it helps if you use gelatine.
600mls thickened cream
1/3 cup pure icing sugar
130g dark chocolate chips
130g white chocolate chips
1 tablespoon instant coffee
1 teaspoon gelatin powder, dissolved in 1teaspoon of hot water (optional)
Mousse Method
*A tip for a firm mousse. It’s best to chill your bowl and beaters before getting started. Keep your cream in the coldest part of the fridge or you can place it in the freezer up to 15 min before using it. This will help your whipped cream thicken up quicker and increase the volume too!
With an electric beater whip 400mls thickened cream with 1/3 cup icing sugar until firm peaks form. Put cream in the fridge.
In a small pot over low flame, heat up 200mls thickened cream with coffee, dark and white chocolate until the chocolate has melted and the texture is smooth. Remove from heat.
Stir the dissolved gelatine into the chocolate mousse and allow to cool to room temperature about 5 minutes. Fold in the whipped cream.
Place the chocolate mousse in the fridge.
Coffee syrup
1/4 cup white sugar (depends how sweet you like it) (I used 1/4 cup)
1 & 3/4 cups water
1 &1/2 teaspoons instant coffee (or more depending on your love of coffee)
1 tablespoon coffee liquor (optional)
Syrup Method
Boil 1/2 cup of the water and dissolve the coffee and sugar in boiling water, add the remaining 1 cup cold water and coffee liquor (if using) and stir to combine and allow to cool right down
Assemble the cake
If you’ve made one cake cut in half, if you’ve made two no need to cut.
Place bottom layer of cake on a serving dish and using a table spoon pour half the coffee syrup all over cake a tablespoon at a time.
spread half the cream on top. Repeat with second layer.