Get cosy for autumn with one of the best flavour combinations: coffee and salted caramel.

Salted Caramel Coffee Cake

Coffee lovers, this one is for you! I present you one of the easiest and tastiest cakes you’ll make. An incredibly moist cake filled with delicious coffee and topped with creamy salted caramel and mascarpone frosting. This delicious cake can be enjoyed any time of the day – who said cake is not for breakfast??.

So, what’s in this cake?

This cake is not only the easiest cake you’ll make, it also allows for variations depending on how strong you like your coffee. This is all you’ll need:

• Vegetable oil, personally, I like to use sunflower oil for my cakes
• Brown sugar, I used only brown sugar on this cake to allow for a deeper, caramel like flavour
• Greek yoghurt
• Vanilla bean paste, can be substituted for vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• Self raising flour
• Instant coffee and boiling water
• Espresso grounds, this is optional, but if you are a coffee lover, I highly recommend adding it for extra flavour
• Salted caramel

Tips for the perfect coffee cake

I adapted my favourite cake recipe to make this coffee cake. I love this recipe because it’s so easy to make and it’s a massive crowd pleaser. It’s also not sweet at all and it definitely packs a punch with a healthy amount of coffee. The recipe is super easy, but here are some tips for perfection!

• Don’t over mix – simply mix it all together until there are no lumps of flour
• Don’t over bake – of course! make sure you don’t over bake your cake as it will dry up, and nobody wants dry cake!
• Bake to your taste – this recipe allows you to customise it depending on how much you love coffee, if you are a coffee addict, follow all the steps, if you are not, simply remove the coffee ground

Salted Caramel Coffee Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 115 ml of vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
• 110 gr of brown sugar
• 120 ml of greek yoghurt
• 1 tbsp of vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• A pinch of salt
• 200 gr of flour
• 4 tbsp of instant coffee
• 2 tbsp of boiling water
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tsp and 1/2 of espresso grounds (optional)

For the icing:

• 180 gr of mascarpone cheese
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp of double cream
• 50 gr of icing sugar
• Salted caramel to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees celsius.
2. In a small bowl, mix the boiling water and instant coffee and allow to cool down.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the vegetable oil and the brown sugar. Then, add the greek yoghurt.
4. Add in the eggs one at a time beating them into the mix every time you add one. Then, add the vanilla extract and mix again.
5. Once the eggs and vanilla are incorporated, add in the coffee and mix again.
6. Now add in the dry ingredients, the flour, baking powder and espresso grounds and mix just until incorporated, make sure you don’t over mix!
7. Butter an 18-20 cm springform baking dish and pour your batter into it. Cook in the oven for 40-45 minutes until a inserted skewer comes out clean.
8. Let it cool completely before doing the frosting. If your cake has a bit of a dome, simply cut it with a bread knife so it’s even.
9. Once the cake is cold, in a bowl mix the double cream, mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla and beat them together with a hand mixer until nice and smooth. Leave. the salted caramel on the side for now.
10. Spread the frosting over the cake and add around 6-8 dollops of salted caramel and spread over with a spatula, feel free to add more if you wish. Enjoy!