Mocha Marble Cake with Choc Coffee Beans

I'm not exactly sure how it happened. I used to be one of those people who almost never drank coffee, who would gloat at the people who would stumble around bleary eyed until they had their morning caffeine hit, who would get by on cups of tea with my breakfast. But somehow, I have recently become completely dependent on coffee. I no longer feel human until I've had my morning jolt. I blame the many months of sleep deprivation and stress from to juggling work, wedding planning and well, a lot of other personal crap. I thought I had managed to avoid it. Other than a brief love affair with large mochas in my first year of uni, I was always a tea girl. Now I'm a tea and coffee girl. And I love hot chocolate and milo too. I'm a hot beverage slut...

Even though I never used to drink coffee, I've always quite enjoyed coffee in desserts. Tiramisu, affogato, coffee cheesecake, all good with me. I thought I'd celebrate my new love of coffee with a layered cake that was lightly layered with coffee and cocoa. I decided to make a classic marble cake, but instead of just swirling vanilla and chocolate cake batter together I also added a bit of coffee to the chocolate batter. And then a slathered the whole thing in a very fluffy and light icing with just a hint of chocolate and coffee. I didn't want the coffee flavour to be too intense and overpowering, and it turned out just like I hoped. Then I covered the whole thing in lots of dark chocolate covered roasted coffee beans, for that extra hit of coffee flavour and bitterness. So good! Though you will probably be bouncing off the walls after having a slice of this, especially if you have a cup of coffee on the side.

I adapted my mocha marble cake recipe from Martha Stewart's best marble cake recipe. I might have gotten the ratio of vanilla to mocha cake batter slightly off as the marbling is on the light side, but the flavour is spot on. I love this cake. It's not too sweet, with just a hint of coffee and not enough to make it bitter (though make sure you don't use super crappy coffee or it will be bitter). It's soft, fluffy, with a very fine crumb and the buttermilk ensures that it's not the least bit dry. I would have preferred to have made at least another layer of cake to give it some impressive height, but I only had enough butter to make two. We go through a lot of butter in my house.

You could eat the cake on its own if you were feeling guilty about the masses of sugar and butter in the icing. But I'd rather eat a delicious slice of icing-covered cake (translation: happiness-covered cake) on the rare occasion as a treat, rather than have a less tasty, butter-free, sugar-free version more often. Plus it would be a shame to miss out on this luxurious icing. It's whipped up to be as light as a cloud, it's so creamy and smooth and the lovely mocha flavour lingers lightly on your tongue as you eat it. The added crunch and bitterness of the coffee beans on top is a good contrast in texture and flavour.

Mocha Marble Cake with Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans
(makes one 18cm round cake, adapted from Martha Stewart's Marble Cake recipe)
For the mocha marble cake:
115g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for greasing
300g (1 3/4 cups) cake flour (not self-rising, I used 270g plain flour + 30g (3 1/2 tbsp) cornstarch as per these instructions)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
225g (1 cup) sugar (I used caster sugar)
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/4 cup boiling water + 1 tsp instant coffee granules (or 1/4 cup freshly brewed coffee)
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder

For the mocha icing:
250g salted butter (or unsalted butter + 1/4 tsp salt)
575g (about 4.5 cups) icing sugar , sifted
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp instant coffee granules
1 tsp cocoa powder
Optional: Chocolate covered roasted coffee beans to decorate (I got mine from Captain Coffee)

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F), grease and line the base of two 18cm round cake tins with baking paper. (You can also use a 20cm tin but the layers will be thinner, I used one 18cm tin and baked one layer after the other) Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and use a whisk to combine, set aside. Place butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. With the mixer on medium speed, add eggs one at a time until combined, scraping down the sides of a bowl with a spatula when needed. Add vanilla and beat again until combined. Add flour mixture in 2 batches, alternating with the buttermilk and beginning and ending with the flour. Place 1/3 of the mixture in a separate bowl.

In a small bowl, mix the cocoa, instant coffee granules and 1/4 cup of boiling water, whisking until it is smooth. Gently mix into the separated bowl of cake batter until combined. Spoon half the vanilla batter and half the mocha batter into the prepared cake tin, and the other half of each batter into the other prepared tin, alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and mocha to simulate a checkerboard. Run a table knife through the batter in each tin to create a swirl effect. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean. Cool in tin for 10 minutes and then remove from tin and cool completely on a wire rack. Cakes can be made the night before assembly, wrapped in clingfilm and chilled.

Prepare the mocha icing; remove the salted butter from the fridge 30 mins before starting. Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Place milk, coffee granules and cocoa in a small bowl and whisk until dissolved (I zapped the bowl in the microwave for 15 secs to help it dissolve faster) I use a food processor to get the lumps out of my icing sugar, to save me a lot of sifting. With the mixer on low, gradually add icing sugar until combined, then increase speed and gradually add coffee mixture. Beat on high until fluffy and well-combined. You may need to add more sifted icing sugar if your icing is too runny. It should be smooth and fluffy, easy to spread but stiff enough to hold its shape.

Assemble your cake; if the cakes are slightly domed in the centre you can use a long serrated knife to level the tops of the cake. Place one cake layer on your cake stand and use a spatula to smooth a decent layer of icing over the top of it. Sandwich other cake layer on top and then crumb coat the whole cake with more icing. Chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to set the crumb coat. Cover whole cake evenly with the rest of the icing, using an offset spatula to smooth the surface (regularly running the spatula until hot water will help with smoothing it). Decorate the top of the cake with chocolate covered coffee beans. Chill for at least another 30 minutes before serving. Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for several days.

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