Recipe: Espresso Martini Drizzle Cake

A little while ago I was asked to write about coffee. This isn’t a hardship, I’m a bit of a caffeine addict.

OK, a big caffeine addict.

Though I have a selection of 22 teas in my office, when it comes to coffee, I don’t have anywhere near as many, in fact it’s only been the last 3 years that I’ve made the switch from instant to ground coffee. And I’m left wondering why I even bothered with instant. I find it quite hard to stomach now.

So given the change, you can imagine my distress when, in the space of a week, I broke both of my little cafetieres. I reverted back to instant for a bit while I tried to decide. Do I go for a pod machine? A filter machine? Do I just buy another cafetiere? Or go a bit hipster and try one of the vacuum brewers, drip cups or, do I buy an Aeropress?

Luckily, I know a couple of people who know about coffee. So, after a discussion with one of the local roasters in Manchester, James from Coffee Circle, I did it, I went hipster. I bought an Aeropress.

Actually, I’ve just ordered a second one for home.

This set the idea for this cake in motion. One of the coffees that James has given me to try, Chateau 76, has so many flavours that are complimentary to chocolate, especially the maple syrup notes. Perfect for an espresso Martini.

Adding two and two together, this is a really simple recipe to do, but it’s velvety, moist and boozy as hell.

I made this as a small cake, given the amount of booze it contains, but as it’s so velvety, cupcakes would be ideal and it’s very easy to scale up and double the recipe. If you fancied adding to it (!) a light vanilla frosting would be fabulous on top.

Espresso Martini Drizzle Cake

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

150g Softened butter

150g Golden caster sugar

100g Self raising flour (I cannot recommend the Sainsbury’s Sponge Flour enough!)

70g Cocoa powder (please do not use hot chocolate powder, it’s not rich enough).

2 medium eggs, beaten

Splash of milk for moistening

For the drizzle:

50ml Coffee Liqueur (Kahlua or Toussaint)

50 ml Espresso coffee

100 ml vodka

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

2 tablespoons of golden caster sugar

Method:

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees/Gas Mark 4

Grease and line a 20cm cake tin with grease proof paper, or if making cupcakes, pop the papers into the tin.

Put your softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until creamy.

Then stir in the eggs until combined.

Sift in your flour and cocoa. Watch it go a gorgeous rich chocolate colour. Try not to eat any of the batter.

Add a splash of milk if it’s too dry – it probably will be to be honest. You want it so that it just drops of the spoon with a soft plop (giggles).

Pour into your cake tin/cupcake papers and put into the oven.

It won’t take long at all, probably around 20 minutes (the cupcakes will take much less). Test by inserting a skewer into the cake. If it comes out clean, you’re done.

Oh and now  you can lick the bowl.

For the drizzle

Make up the coffee using your preferred method, and put all the ingredients in a pan on the hob.

Heat until the sugar has dissolved and it comes to the boil. Let it boil for a minute or two, then take off the heat and allow to cool.

Once your cake is out of the oven and while it’s still warm, poke lots of little holes in the top – yes it’s back to your trusty skewer.

Drizzle the syrup on top, trying to make sure you get good even coverage. It should sink in nicely.

Let the cake cool and once cool, well, eat it.