Rich Coffee Butter Cake

I had to use a tub of sour cream which I originally earmarked for making Twice Baked Potatoes. It's always the same story. I buy an ingredient for a recipe and then the recipe never happens. Ah hah! You want to know if the sour cream expired. Yes? Yes. One week past due. ***slap forehead***

And then I found 2 sticks of Nescafe 3 in 1 in the pantry. Again, it was originally intended for coffee cookies. But never mind. Coffee cake is also lovely and better still if it is a butter cake.

I remember a cake I attempted which contained 250g butter and 250g sour cream. That was a very rich butter cake, so moist and so lemak. 

Some recipes for coffee flavored cakes call for coffee emulco. I have never used an emulco and I don't want to buy because I may not use it often. Besides, I prefer to use real coffee for that original taste. I don't know, emulco could be as good since it is so widely used in many recipes.

Then I found a small packet of almond flakes in the fridge.  I need to clean out my fridge because it is seriously packed. I think I need another fridge hah..hah... But no, I must refrain from acquiring more appliances. The more storage space I have, the more stuff I will collect. 

After I made the cake batter, I divided the batter between two 6 inch cake pans. Just for the fun of it. Instead of one 8 inch cake, I have two 6 inch cakes. One I left plain while the other I topped with almond flakes.

Since this was my first time baking 2 small cakes, I had no idea what was the baking time. I was prepared to tent the cakes if the top was browning too fast. I set the oven for 50 minutes and checked after 30 minutes.

The cake was still not cooked through but I noted my almond flakes were quite brown and there were some burnt spots. Yikes! So I tented the cakes and continued baking for another 10 minutes. 

This is a very moist cake. And no, you won't taste the sour cream. You won't even know it is there and it is what makes this cake moist. If you are not comfortable with so much sour cream, I reckon using half the amount is not a problem.

The aroma and taste of coffee is very prominent in this cake. If you love coffee, you will find this cake very pleasing. Oh, I also added some chocolate chips to this cake because coffee and chocolate go quite well together. I intend to bake this cake again and I will add walnuts. Yup, I need to clear my fridge.

Rich Coffee Butter Cake

Recipe source : Phong Hong

Ingredients :

- 250g self raising flour

- 250g butter

- 250g sour cream (can halve this if you wish)

- 150g brown sugar

- 1 cup milk chocolate chips, tossed in flour (to prevent sinking)

- 3 eggs

- 2 sachets Nescafe 3 in 1 dissolved with 1/4 cup hot water

Method :

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.

3. Add Nescafe and mix well.

4. Fold in flour and sour cream alternately and gently mix until combined (I used a spatula at this point and did the folding by hand).

5. Fold in chocolate chips.

6. Pour batter into a lined and greased 8 inch pan and bake at 160C for 50 minutes.

Note for my future reference :

1. I baked this cake in two 6 inch pans.

2. I tented the cakes after 30 minutes.

3. The cakes were done after 40 minutes.