Chai Coffee Cake with Chocolate Crunch

This coffee cake has a nice spiced flavour with all the sweetness of traditional coffee cake without the eggs; and the chocolate topping adds just a bit of richness.   

Chai Coffee Cake with Chocolate Crunch

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3 to 5 chai tea bags

1 3/4 cups warm milk

3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup Greek yoghurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

6 tablespoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons baking cocoa / cocoa powder

4 tablespoons cold butter

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease and flour an 9x13-inch baking pan. Line the bottom with baking parchment paper. Set aside.

In a small saucepan gently warm the milk with the tea bags over low heat. When warm remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 to 10 minutes. Squeeze out the teabags and let milk cool. 

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. 

In a medium bowl, combine the oil and sugar and whisk until creamy. Add the yoghurt, vanilla and cooled chai milk. Gently whisk together. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and combine until just mixed. 

In a small bowl combine cocoa powder, brown sugar and flour. Cut in the cold butter and blend together using a fork or your fingers. Add the chocolate chips and sliced almonds.

Spread the cake batter into the prepared baking tin and sprinkle with the topping mixture. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until cake is set along the edges and a toothpick come out clean. 

Notes: you may use soy milk, instead of milk, if you wish. 

As temperatures plummeted to minus 40ºC, we were keeping ourselves warm by layering and baking! Whatever the temperature outside we hope everyone had a great weekend! 
- JD 

Blueberry Chai Coffee Cake

This coffee cake has a nice sweet spicy flavour that works well with the fresh blueberries. If you do not want a very aromatic flavour of chai spice then simply add less or try adding British mixed spice. As coffee cakes go this recipe is quick to whip up and delivers the recognizable texture that is coffee cake.   

Blueberry Chai Coffee Cake

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2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup coconut sugar

1/2 cup caster sugar

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons chai spice baking blend 

1/3 vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 cup blueberries

Crunchy Topping: 

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Using a fork mix the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons soft butter

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup chopped nuts or coconut (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350ºF. 

Grease and flour a square baking tin. Line the bottom with a piece of parchment paper.

In a large bowl, sift the flour and blend in all other dry ingredients (coconut sugar, caster sugar, baking powder, salt, and chai spice)  together. 

Add the vegetable oil, egg, and milk to the dry ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes. Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin. Place the blueberries on top of the batter and cover with the crunchy topping. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm. 

It was supposed to be warm today however the clouds are looming and there is a coolness in the air. Hopefully by midday things will shift. Have a good weekend everyone! - JD 

Camp Coffee and Banana Streusel Coffee Cake

This is another Italian Centre find here in E-town. My husband remembers Camp coffee, as for myself I am slightly not as well versed. I was curious and the picture was a bit intriguing to me so I thought why not purchase a bottle. And let my baking be infused. 

Camp coffee, according to the bottle, is a product of England. However when you search for information regarding this product it comes up as being a Scottish food product. Which began it's production in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd. The plant was located at Charlotte Street in Glasgow. The original drawing on the bottle was by William Victor Wrigglesworth. Although it seems to have merged and changed ownership throughout the years. It could very well be produced and manufactured in England by now. 

Camp coffee is fluid however the texture is an opaque and molasses-like one. This sticky brown substance consists of water, sugar, 4% caffeine-free coffee essence, and 26% chicory essence. It also may be used as a substitute for coffee. Mix with warm milk much the same way as cocoa or add it to cold milk and ice for an instant iced coffee. Camp coffee is commonly a baking ingredient and therefore used in coffee cake recipes. 

When there is a new baking product in the house I can not contain myself for too long before I have to crack it open and give it a whirl. Yesterday I decided to make a streusel banana coffee cake. I replaced the 1 teaspoon of vanilla with 1 teaspoon of Camp coffee. It gave it more of a rich flavour than a sweet and warm flavour. 

Banana Streusel Coffee Cake 

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1 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup mashed ripe banana (approximately 3 bananas)

1 teaspoon Camp coffee or vanilla

1 1/2 cups of cake flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder 

Topping: Mix together 1 cup of chopped pecans, 3 table spoons of brown sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. 

Note: I omitted the pecans and just went with the brown sugar and cinnamon. However when the coffee cake had cooled I made a simple icing sugar drizzle to go on top.

Preheat the oven to 350º F and grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan. 

Peel and mash the bananas.

In a separate bowl mix the flour and baking powder together, set aside.   

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer. Beat until smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each egg is well incorporated before adding the next. 

In another bowl place the sour cream and mix the baking soda into the sour cream. Then add to the butter mixture until well combined. Stir the bananas into the butter mixture. Add the Camp coffee and stir. Add the flour mixture and stir well. Spoon a portion of the coffee cake batter in to the prepared square pan. Loosely sprinkle some of the topping over the batter and then add the remaining batter over top, smooth as best you can, and sprinkle with the remaining topping. 

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Note: I checked the coffee cake periodically while it was baking. I did set a timer and with just a little over 3 minutes remaining in baking time I ended up pulling it from the oven because it was done. 

A rich delicate flavour that was sweet with a cup of coffee seemed to disappear fast.  

Hope everyone is having a great week. - JW 

Coffee Cake Sounds Great!

The past couple of weeks have been busy. Registering for Food Revolution, registering for this years Art Walk, painting and of course the forever growing list of errands. However I managed to make this classic... coffee cake. The shear name just conjures up a few images... sitting around a table with friends sipping coffee, laughing and nibbling away, grabbing a quick snack, a comforting dessert, brunch or visiting a friend and refusing to go empty handed. Whichever images first come to mind about coffee cake no one can refuse it's cozy charm. As casual as this cake can be I wanted to make it a bit uplifting. I added a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice and the zest of one orange to the list of ingredients. I found the flavour to be a bit subtle however not unnoticeable. Next time you make a classic recipe try adding an ingredient. Playing around with flavours can be great. All so it's a lovely way to engage kids and grownups at the dinner table by asking them if they can tell what the "secret" ingredient is. - JW     

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Yesterday I was desperate to bake something. Remembering I had some sour cream that was soon to go off, I decide to bake a sour cream coffee cake. Flipping through a few of my cookbooks I had finally turned up a recipe. And the photo above is the end result. The cake was served after dinner, warm. The sweet toothed masses devoured every crumb. Leaving little over half a cake left to be enjoyed over the next few days. Weekends are good for a dose comfort food. - JW