Caramel Latte Cake

I've been meaning to make a coffee cake for a few weeks now, but have been putting it off, because, if I'm honest, they never live up in reality to the image in my mind. I like my cakes moist and packed with flavour, and I tend to find coffee cakes dry, and monotone in taste - I guess I've just never found the right recipe. So I was quite excited when, in the middle of an insomnia fuelled sleepless night last week, I came up with this gem of an idea, and when it came out of the oven even better than I had hoped, I just had to share it with you all... 

Caramel Latte Cake... tastes just like a Caramel Latte!

This cake isn't the most polished or fancy to look at, and I did toy with the idea of adding an additional layer of frosting to cover the 'poke-holes' however I decided that it would unbalance the flavours, which are just perfect as they are. It is based on my favourite coffee-based drink, the sweet, creamy Caramel Latte, and it captures all of the taste of one of those heavenly drinks in a beautiful slice-able form. This is a cake to eat, not just look at!

The stroke of genius in this recipe is switching out the majority of the sugar for condensed milk, which adds a more gentle sweetness to the cake, and produces a moister, creamier texture to the sponge - this is definitely something that I will be trying again in future recipes. I had also seen a few American posts about 'poke' cakes, where you make deep holes in the sponge to absorb the moistness of the frosting all the way through the cake, so decided to employ this tactic to this bake as well.

Ingredients;

For the Cake...

175 grams unsalted butter
50 grams caster sugar
3 eggs
200 grams condensed milk
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 tablespoon Tia Maria or coffee based liquor
1 tablespoon water
200 grams self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the Caramel topping...

160 grams condensed milk
80 grams butter
80 grams caster sugar
2 tablespoons Tia Maria or coffee based liquor

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees, and line an 8 inch square cake tin with baking paper. The baking paper is essential to this bake, to allow you to be able to easily remove the cake from the tin once the caramel has cooled.

Take a large mixing bowl, and beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the caster sugar, and cream together for a minute. Add the eggs, and the condensed milk, and whisk together to form a creamy batter.

In a small bowl or cup, dissolve the instant coffee in the water and Tia Maria (if you don't want to use the liquor, use two tablespoons of water instead). Gradually add this to the mixture and beat well until combined.

Add the flour and baking powder, fold well into the mixture, then transfer the batter to the prepared cake tin. Spread it evenly to each of the sides of the tin to ensure an even rise.

Place the cake in the oven to bake for around 30 minutes, or until the sponge is firm, and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Meanwhile, whilst the cake is baking, make the caramel topping. Put the condensed milk, butter and sugar in a saucepan, and the Tia Maria if desired, and place on a low heat.

Heat gently until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved, then bring to the boil, stirring continuously, until the mixture turns a pale brown colour. Take off the heat and set aside.

As soon as the cake is removed from the oven, and still in its tin, take a wooden spoon, and using the handle, make a series of holes in the cake, pushing the handle right down to the bottom of the tin. Space the holes about an inch apart.

Pour the warm caramel mixture over the cake, making sure that it runs into the holes made. Spread the caramel evenly over the surface, and place on a cooling rack, leaving the cake to cool completely in the tin.

Once cool, use the edges of the baking paper to lift the cake from the tin, then remove.

This cake is moist from the extra liquid in the condensed milk, and gooey from the caramel running through the whole cake via the poke holes. The sponge is delicate, and not overly sweet as there isn't a lot of sugar in the cake batter, which sits well with the sweetness of the caramel frosting. It absolutely tastes like a caramel latte from your favourite coffee shop chain!