Coffee Traybake

What a childhood throwback. A friend asked me if I had a nice coffee cake recipe and I didn’t, but I decided I’d find one for her. In the end I went with a traybake, it goes a long way. It also meant I could give her some and keep some, without it looking like I was giving her half a cake 😉

I initially tried ‘coffee fudge traybake’ from the wonderful Mary Berry’s book ‘ Fast Bakes’ and it was a hit. It was however a bit small, so I decided to just add coffee essence to the regular traybake recipe I use, for my second attempt.

If you can’t get CAMP coffee essence, you can use real coffee (1 tablespoon of coffee granules dissolved in 1 tablespoon of boiling water). I found CAMP in Dunnes Stores and hear SuperValu stock it too.

Ingredients:

• 225 g softened butter
• 225 g castor sugar
• 275 g self raising flour (sifted)
• 2 level teaspoons of baking powder (sifted)
• 4 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons of milk
• 1.5 tablespoons CAMP coffee essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180° or 160° fan. Grease a 12 x 9 traybake or roasting tin. Line the base with baking parchment
2. Measure all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until blended. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level
3. Bake in the pre-heated oven for around 35-40 minutes or until the cake has shrunk from the sides of the tin and springs back to touch. Leave to cool in tin
4. Turn onto a wire cooling rack.
5. Cover with buttercream when cooled (recipe below) and cut into 20 squares.

Buttercream:

Ingredients:

• 75 g butter at room temp (I use unsalted butter)
• 225 g icing sugar (sifted)
• 1.5 tbsp of CAMP coffee essence
• 1 tbsp of cooled boiled water

Method:

1. Using a mixer beat the unsalted butter in a large bowl until it’s very soft
2. Add half the icing sugar and mix on low until smooth.
3. Then add the coffee essence and the tablespoon of water. Mix again and continue adding the remaining icing sugar. Mix on a low speed until all the icing sugar is mixed in.

Some @thecakemum observations/tips:

• Surprisingly kids like this coffee traybake. I think maybe it’s because it uses coffee essence, instead of real coffee? who knows. My kids devoured it.

Happy Baking

De (aka thecakemum)

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