Sunday, August 31, 2014

Coffee Almond Cake [Egg-less]


Now, when there are back-to-back birthdays in the family, there ought to be back-to-back cake posts here right? :) So, here I am with my second cake recipe that I created for a birthday... this time mine! :D Yeah, a week after my Grandpa's 100th year celebrations, it was my turn to celebrate my birthday! 

I always get excited when my birthday arrives. I don't know what it is about birthdays but I love it when they come by. I am not a party person, so no major plans or parties or any of that sort. I just like feeling special and happy about that day being my very own special day amongst rest of the days of the year! :) 


And what is a birthday without a cake, right? 

In the last few years, ever since I began baking, I have baked cakes for my parent's anniversary, brother's, sis-in-law's, hubby's and mother-in-law' birthdays and more recently a special Zebra cake for my Grandpa too. I realized, I hadn't baked a cake specially for myself yet! As I said, birthdays are special to me and I believe in celebrating it in my own simple way. Oh, I am not talking birthday pastries here. My forte is egg-less tea cakes and I love experimenting with various combinations and seasonings. No icing, no cream. 


I wanted to bake the cake on the previous day to my birthday and I had the final look of the cake ready in my head while at office that day! I simply could not wait to get home and begin baking! Haha, these baking urges I tell you!! :D

So, what cake did I want? I had various options swaying in my head. But coffee and almond kept dancing in my head until I simply had to surrender and allow them to be the core flavouring agents in my cake! So, Coffee Almond Cake it was :)


The batter was delicious! Yes, I licked the last bit left after filling in the cuppies!! Tee heee :P 

The smell was divine! This is one of the most fragrant cakes I have baked till now. The home was filled with the beautiful smell of coffee, while these little guys baked away in the oven. And the next day, when I opened the box in which I stored the cup cakes, we were welcomed with a whiff of that lovely coffee flavour again! So, if you are a coffee lover... you just do not want to miss this one! :)



Makes: 5 big cup cakes

Ingredients

All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 cup
Cocoa powder - 1/2 cup
Instant coffee powder - 1 tbsp
Curd - 1 cup
Powdered Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 1/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1/2 cup
Vanilla Essence - 1/2 tsp
Chopped Almonds - 1/2 cup
Almond Slivers/flakes - for garnishing

Icing Sugar - a little (optional)


Method
  • Pre-heat the oven at 180 deg for ten minutes.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat together the curd and sugar until the sugar dissolves in the curd.
  • Add baking soda and baking powder and mix well.Set aside for a few minutes till small bubbles start to appear on top.
  • Add in the vanilla Essence and oil. Mix again.
  • Combine together Flour, Cocoa Powder and Coffee Powder in a separate bowl.
  • Slowly add in the flour mix into the wet mixture little by little and fold in the batter to combine the dry and wet ingredients. 
  • Continue doing this until you have tossed in all the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and formed a creamy batter.
  • Toss in some chopped almonds and fold into the batter.


  • Line a cup cake tray with liners and scoop the batter into the liners until just over 1/2 the capacity. I used some sturdy cup cakes liners which need not be placed inside cup cake trays. I could just place them on a baking tray and bake.
  • Sprinkle almond slivers/flakes on top.
  • Bake at 170 deg. for 20 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake.



Now, to make this simple cup cake look a little more festive and fancy, I sprinkled some icing sugar on top. Well, it was birthday cake after all! :D It was delightful to watch the fine particles of the icing sugar come dropping down and settling on the cake, as if it were a snow fall! :) Pretty pretty!

10 comments:

  1. Hello Nandita, what a visual treat this post is! I love the makeover of the header.....lovely cakes and a cake stand with lovely cup cake. I too, am a fan of coffee. Last time when we were in Pondicherry, we got a kg of filtered coffee and loved the deep satisfying aroma. I always wanted to bake a cake with coffee in it. You give me inspiration to go ahead. I have also been hunting for a cake stand. I found one in Fabindia but it was was overpriced. I love your silver cake stand. Nanzie your pictures are sooo beautiful. I can feel the texture of cup cakes and imagine the aroma......Thanks for the lovely share!

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    1. Thanks a lot Namita for your wonderful words, as always! I saw a coffee cake on your blog too! And that cake stand, I got from Fabindia :) It was on sale and I got i for a good deal.

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  2. Dear Nandita,
    Will try out this recipe as well. Happy Birthday by the way. You have every right to feel special and bake as many cakes as you like( and eat them too!) Fabulous pictures too. Louvina

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    1. Thank you very much Louvina :) Much delighted that you are planning on baking this one too! Hope you like it and enjoy it as much as you did the Zebra cake :) Happy Baking! :)

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  3. osm cupcake and I love those liners also very much :)

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  4. Lovely cup cakes nanditha.... I love coffee flavour. ..I miss baking😦

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  5. And belated happy birthday to your grandpa

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  6. I happened to try out the delightful coffee almond cuppies and they came out perfect. loved the flavour. happy to have stumbled on to your blog. thanks nandita

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