Gluten Free Coffee & Cherry Bundt Cake

As yesterday was Father's Day I decided to treat my Dad to this gorgeous rich bundt cake, coffee flavoured with sweet cherries nestling in the batter and more decorating the top. He loved it so much he had several slices for tea, then we each had another slice sat at our beach hut by the seaside, along with a glass of bubbly, before ending the evening with a fish and chip supper. We're such gluttons in my family it's a good thing for our waistlines that Father's Day only comes once a year!

Recipe
My own. Inspired by the cappucino bundt recipe given by Chrysta Wilson in her lovely book Kiss My Bundt.  Buy the book on Amazon here.

Serves 10-12



325g gluten free plain flour (Dove's Farm or M&S recommended)
50g ground almonds
185g caster sugar
2 and a half teaspoons gluten free baking powder (Barkart recommended)
3 large eggs, room temperature
165g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 and a half teaspoons vanilla extract
360ml whole milk, room temperature
5 tablespoons instant coffee granules
200g fresh cherries, pitted




1. Heat oven to 180 (160C Fan) and thoroughly grease a 25cm bundt tin. It can be hard to release cakes from bundt tins, but I've discovered that spraying the tin with Lakeland's 'Cake Release' lets them slip smoothly.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, for about 3 minutes.

3. Add the first egg, and beat well before adding the second and then the third into the mixture. Beat again, before throwing in the ground almonds and vanilla extract.

4. Next sieve in half the flour and baking powder, and stir gently with a metal spoon until combined. Then sift in the rest of the flour, and stir again.


5. Mix the milk with the coffee granules in a measuring jug, stirring until the coffee has disolved.


6. Gently stir the coffee milk into the cake batter, until just combined.

7. Pour half the batter over the base of the greased bundt tin, before placing the pitted cherries evenly over the top. Then add the rest of the batter ontop, spread and smooth down with a spatula. Make sure that all the cherries are covered by the batter.

8. Put in the oven to bake for approx 40 minutes. You'll know it's done when a skewer comes out clean.

9. Leave to cool in the bundt tin for at least 10 minutes, before gently and carefully turning the cake out on to a wire rack or plate to cool further.

for the coffee icing:

250g icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons hot water
approx 80g fresh cherries, with stalks and stones intact



10. Sift the icing sugar into a mixing bowl.


11. Combine the coffee with the hot water, and stir until dissolved and cooled a little.


12. Then add a tablespoon of the liquid to the icing sugar, beating it in before adding enough to create a firm but runny consistency. I added a little more liquid than you may wish to, because I really love a runny glace icing!


13. When the cake is cool, spoon the coffee icing over the top of it, letting it drip down the sides, and quickly, while the icing is still wet on the cake, place fresh cherries over the cake, pressing them into the icing to keep them in place. Put the bundt in the fridge to allow the icing to harden for about 20 minutes.


14. Serve with coffee and perhaps a little cream.

This bundt cake was idly baked whilst listening to Portico Quartet's album Knee Deep in the North Sea

4 Tier Coffee & Walnut Birthday Cake

I didn't mean to make this cake so tall. I'd planned a normal 2 tier cake for Mr Eve's birthday, but then forgot to add the baking powder to the batter, and so decided to bake another set of sponges to try again. It turned out the second attempt didn't rise much higher than the first, so rather than waste cake (a terrible sin in my book), I put all the sponges together to make a rather comical looking high rise tower of cake.

Coffee & Walnut is a deservedly classic flavour combination, one of Mr Eve's favourites, and this version is as scrumptious to taste as it is fun to see. For a more conventionally delicate and smaller layer cake, just halve the ingredient quantities for the batter and the buttercream.

Recipe
Adapted from the recipe in a River Cottage Baking booklet by The Telegraph newspaper. You can buy the River Cottage baking book by Pam Corbin from Amazon here.

Serves 16

400g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
400g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g light muscovado sugar
200g caster sugar
6 eggs, room temperature
100ml coffee essence (or 2 tablespoons instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons boiling water)
200g chopped walnuts
85-100ml milk

1. Turn the oven to 180C, and grease and line four 18 inch sandwich baking tins.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour after each one, and beat well after each addition.

4. Mix in the coffee essence or dissolved instant coffee.

5. Next sift the flour and baking powder into the cake batter, stirring it in gently with a wooden or metal spoon. Finally, add the walnuts, and stir gently again until just combined.

6. Distribute the batter evenly between the four cake tins, and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. You'll know the cakes are done when the tops spring back under your finger, and a skewer comes out clean.

7. Leave to cool in their tins for 20 minutes, before placing onto wire racks or plates to cool further.

for the buttercream:

180g unsalted butter, softened
375g icing sugar
6 teaspoons coffee essence or 6 teaspoons instant coffee dissolved in 6 teaspoons of boiling water
50g chopped walnuts


8. To make the coffee buttercream, beat the butter until creamy and then add the sifted icing sugar and coffee flavouring, beating thoroughly until well combined.

9. When the cakes are cool, place one on a large plate, then spread with a layer of buttercream.

10. Place the second cake ontop, pressing down carefully and firmly, before spreading the top of that cake with more buttercream and placing the third ontop.

11. Spread the third cake with buttercream, then sandwich with the top, fourth, cake.

12. Finally, spread the leftover buttercream generously over the top cake. Dot with more chopped walnuts.

for the chocolate heart topper, optional:

50g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

13. To make the topper, melt the chopped chocolate in a bain maire (a bowl over a pan of simmering water).

14. Once melted, take off the heat and pour into a piping bag with the smallest circle nozzle. If you don't have this you can make a piping bag by snipping a hole in the corner of a freezer bag.

15. Next line a baking sheet or tray with parchment or baking paper. Pipe chocolate onto the paper in a heart shape, making sure that all the lines join up. Then place the sheet into the fridge to chill the topper for 10 minutes.

16. Using a spatula, gently lift the topper from the paper, and place it atop the cake.


17. Serve in small slices with cream.

This cake was idly baked to the sounds of the Cello Suites No.s 4-6 by Bach.