Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Camp Coffee Cake


Camp Coffee Cake


First I must apologize for not getting a good photo of this cake, it was just so good it went too fast!! That photo is the last slice from the cake and a couple days old! I've always loved coffee cake, and I mean that in coffee tasting cake not a 'coffee cake' if you know what I mean. I have made a couple vegan ones on this blog but neither were quite right. I didn't realize that the perfect recipe was under my nose all along - the 'Camp Coffee Cake' recipe from my old vegetarian blog, all I had to do was veganize it which was simple - replaced the 4 eggs with my current egg replacer of choice for 2 and all the butter with Vitalite. The flavour was perfect in this as was the texture of the cake - really impressed with this one, nice and moist but no gumminess at all!! A lovely finely crumbed cake....and the frosting is sublime....uber-sweet, but sublime ;-)

'Camp' is a thick coffee flavoured syrup also made with chicory, nasty as a drink but I do find it imparts a great coffee flavour in baking. In Ireland it's called Irel, hope it's still available there as I'll be making this cake a lot!!

Cake:
225g vegan margarine, I used Vitalite
225g golden caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp Camp Syrup
---2 eggs----
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp potato starch
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp xanthan gum
2 tsp vegetable oil
100ml water

Frosting:
225g vegan margarine (Vitalite imparts a lovely buttery taste here)
450g icing sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Camp syrup
soy cream

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Line the bottom of two 8 or 9 inch cake tins with greaseproof paper and grease the sides with marg and dust with flour.

In mixer with paddle attachment, or by hand with a whisk, cream the marg until soft, add the caster sugar and beat until pale and light in texture. In a separate bowl make the 'eggs' by mixing the dry ingredients then adding the water and oil slowly whisking all the time until well mixed, thick and slightly frothy. It's ok if there are tiny lumps. Add to the marg/sugar mixture bit by bit, beating well after each addition. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and fold in until well mixed. Finally stir in the Camp syrup until well mixed.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 25 min. approximately. When cooked the centre of the cakes will be firm and springy and the edges will have shrunk a bit from the edges. Rest in the tins a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack, remove the paper and leave to let fully cool.

When cold sandwich and frost the cake with the frosting. To make simply cream everything but the soy cream together, then if needed add some soy cream to get the right consistency. You may not need any depending on the moisture level of the marg you use.




11 comments:

  1. Yes please. I love coffee cake and don't make it nearly enough.

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  2. This looks great! My bf just peeked over my shoulder and said 'YUM whats that!' lol.

    Rose

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  3. Oh, I think the photo is fantastic! Coffee flavored anything is always welcome in my kitchen... I need to get some of that syrup!

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  4. Looks amazing! I *love* coffee cake. You can buy Camp in Northern Ireland, don't know about the south. Good luck with the move!

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  5. Cheers all!! That's really nice Rose :) Thanks too Eimear - I used to buy it in the south but it was called Irel, hope it's still available, if not I'll have to pop over to NI for some!!

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  6. hi there, I am looking at trying making this cake with the addition of walnuts to make a coffee and walnut cake which I've tried making before but failed.. can I just ask if you only replaced two of the eggs used in your vegetarian recipe (as opposed to 4) or if we should double the quantities for the 2 fake eggs you listed? thank you so much! :)

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  7. Hi Alessio! I just replaced the 4 real eggs with the 2 'fake' eggs. This was partly done because vitalite is a really soft margarine and that helped with the moisture levels. Hope it works out for you, it's one of our favourites this one :-)

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  8. Perfect, I have easy access to Vitalite and the rest of the ingredients so I shall try and bake this over the holiday seasons and let you know how it goes ;)
    Thank you again and have a great xmas!!

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  9. I've just come across your blog and I absolutely LOVE it! Thank you.

    Does it make a difference using two cake tins to make the layers or could I make one big cake and cut it in half??

    Dominique

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  10. Thank you! So glad you like the blog :-) To be honest, I've only ever made this in 2 cake tins, that being said it's fairly firm and *should* be able to hold up being sliced in half. You will need to cook it longer though, just check with a toothpick or skewer if it's done. Hope it works out!

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