Coffee cake with coffee glaze..

Christmas and the holiday season brings joy and happiness. The crisp chill in the air adds to the feeling. Shops are now stocked with cakes & Christmas decorations. Streets are getting decked up with lights. It's great to see how we all overcome the barrier of religion to celebrate every single occasion in Kolkata. The parks, zoo, museum and gardens in and around the city gets the highest foot fall during this time. The most common sight during this season is of course the picnickers enjoying the winter sun and food with friends and family.  As we celebrate Christmas, we also celebrate winter in Kolkata. People of Kolkata enjoy relief from the hot and humid weather during this brief period of 2 months.

I personally love winter in Kolkata. The weather is so comforting I feel charged up to venture and try out something new in the kitchen. I bake a lot  during this time, as the warmth of the oven feels so pleasant in this wintry chill. I bake regularly, but during the time of Christmas and New Year it almost becomes a daily activity. Now-a-days different gadgets and tools are available that makes the task easier. Here are few gadgets that I personally use. While baking a cake or bread I always use an oven thermometer. It ensures the exact temperature needed for baking and also tells me that the temperature is constant throughout the baking time.

I do use a hand mixer for preparing the batter for the cake. I have seen my mother and aunt mixing the cake batter with hand, it was such laborious and time consuming process. An electric hand mixer makes the job of mixing so easy and it incorporates more air and blends all the ingredients evenly, resulting in a much better cake. I use a Morphy Richards electric hand mixer, and I have been using it for last ten years and is an integral part of my kitchen.

Many are intimidated by the process of baking cake. But if you have all the ingredients measured accurately, a good oven and some cake tin to bake, it's something  that a 10 year old can also manage to do.
A common complaint is that the cake doesn't come out smooth from the cake tin. For that make sure you have greased and floured the cake tin or lined the cake tin with parchment paper. Also ensure that you have let the cake cool down before taking it out of the cake tin. Patience is an important ingredient while baking.

If you are new to baking, strictly follow the recipe, use measuring cups while measuring the ingredients, use good quality bake-ware for baking. Many ask me how to know whether the cake is done or not, follow the time mentioned in the recipe, press the cake, if it's done it will spring back, or insert an toothpick at the center, if the cake is done the toothpick will come out clean, or simply check the sides, the cake will start to come off the sides of the cake tin. Hopefully these few tips will encourage you to bake a cake this season.

For last few days I was down with some health issues and was getting impatient to get back to the kitchen.  This year I thought of experimenting with different flavors. This one too is the result of such trial. Instead of usual vanilla cake I baked a cake flavored with coffee and to give it an extra notch I glazed it with a simple coffee glaze. And it was an instant hit. To my joy, my hardcore critic the little one in the house said that I should not serve only a piece of this, one needs at least two slices of this coffee cake and of course some extra glaze to go with. Nothing is more rewarding than this.

This post is going to the Christmas Special event of KFB, check the facebook page of KFB more such delicious recipes.

Things needed to make coffee cake with coffee glaze:

For the cake:

• Butter: 100 gm
• Granulated Sugar (light brown sugar or white sugar): 1 cup
• Eggs: 3
• Milk: 1/3 cup
• Coffee: 2 tsp
• Flour: 1 cup
• Baking powder: 1 tsp
• Vanilla extract: 1/2 tsp
• Salt: 1 tsp (if using unsalted butter)

For glaze:

• Milk: 1 tbsp
• Coffee: 1/2 tsp
• Cream: 6-8 tbsp

To garnish:

Chocolate (grated)

Steps of making coffee cake with coffee glaze:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 C.

2. Grease a 9 inch round pan with butter or oil and dust it with flour. Or line the cake pan with parchment paper.

3. In a large bowl sieve flour, baking powder and salt. If using salted butter then no need to add salt. Keep aside the dry ingredient.

4. Take milk and instant coffee in a mug and microwave on high for 40-45 sec. Mix well. Keep aside.

5. In another bowl cream butter and sugar. Scrape the sides in between. I used my Morphy Richards electric hand mixer for this. stand mixer with paddle attachment can also be used.

6. Add one egg at time and mix. Add vanilla extract. Mix well.

7. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar-butter-ebb mixture. Fold with a spatula. Add half of the milk-coffee mix and fold gently. Add another 1/3 of the flour mixture and fold and next add rest of the milk-coffee mix and fold. Add rest of the flour mixture and mix well.

8. Pour the cake batter in the prepared cake tin and bake at 180 C for 20-25 mins or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool down in the pan on a cooling rack.

9. For the glaze: Mix 1/2 tsp coffee with a tablespoon of milk. Sieve a cup of confectionery sugar or powdered sugar in bowl. Add the coffee and milk and 6-7 tablespoon of cream. Whisk with a fork or balloon whisk. Do add the cream gradually, keep mixing while adding the cream, this will ensure to get the perfect consistency of the glaze required. If you want to make the glaze runny add more cream, to make it thick add more sugar.

10. When the cake has cooled down, invert it on a plate and glaze with the coffee glaze and sprinkle the grated chocolate.

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