Coffee-flavored coffee cake

 

This is a sponsored post by Challenge Butter, but the text and opinions are all mine. Thank you for supporting brands that make Kylee's Kitchen possible! 

Coffee cake is not typically flavored with coffee—it gets its name from the fact that it's meant to be eaten with coffee. But on honor of National Coffee Day, I was inspired to make a coffee-flavored coffee cake so you can have your coffee and eat it, too! 

I incorporated coffee into each of the three parts of this cake: the crumble, the filling, and the cake itself.

There are a few things I want to point out about this recipe. 

Many coffee-flavored baked goods use espresso powder, but I used finely ground coffee instead. We purchase coffee beans from local Indianapolis roasters (primarily Helm, Blue Mind, and Tinker). These locally roasted beans have an incredible amount of flavor. So I ground about 20 grams of beans at the finest setting on our grinder, and I used the ground beans instead of espresso powder. If you don't have access to a grinder, you can use espresso powder instead.

Coffee concentrate is highly concentrated coffee. My husband and I make coffee concentrate using beans from our local roasters, and then we use that concentrate for cold brew. If you don't want to make your own concentrate, you can buy it from the store or you can brew a really strong cup of coffee and then let it cool.

As you can tell by reading this blog post, I put a great deal of effort in making sure I use high-quality ingredients to achieve the best tasting product. If I'm going through the effort in grinding my own beans and making my own concentrate, the rest of the ingredients I'm using better be high quality. That's why I only use Challenge butter in my recipes. It creams better, it tastes better, I could go on and on... and it contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients.

I hope you enjoy this coffee cake with your morning (or afternoon or evening) cup of coffee! Stay caffeinated, friends! 

Coffee-flavored coffee cake

Yield: Makes 1, 9x5-inch loaf cake

Time: About 2 hours

Ingredients

For the crumble

• 1/2 cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup (50 grams) all-purpose flour
• 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted Challenge butter
• 1 teaspoon finely ground coffee beans
• Optional: 2 ounces pecans, chopped 

For the filling

• 1/4 cup (50 grams) light brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons (15 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon finely ground coffee beans

For the cake

• 1 1/2 cups (180 grams) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 3/4 cup (180 milliliters) sour cream
• 1/4 cup (60 milliliters) coffee concentrate
• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) Challenge unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) light brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons finely ground coffee beans
• 2 large eggs

Directions

For the crumble

1. Mix brown sugar, flour, butter, ground coffee beans, and pecans until you have large crumbles. Set aside.

For the filling

1. Mix brown sugar, flour,  and ground coffee beans. Set aside. 

For the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper or spray with nonstick spray.
2. In medium-sized bowl, mix flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and salt. Set aside.
3. In small bowl, mix sour cream and coffee concentrate.
4. In bowl of stand mixer, beat butter, brown sugar and ground coffee with paddle attachment on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape bowl. 
5. Add eggs 1 at a time while mixing on low speed.
6. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing until just combined and alternating with sour cream-coffee mixture in 2 additions. Scrape sides of bowl after each addition.
7. Pour half the cake batter into the loaf pan. 
8. Sprinkle filling mixture over top of cake batter.
9. Spread remaining cake batter over filling and sprinkle crumb mixture over top of cake batter.
10. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until cake is baked through. Cake should spring back when touched.
11. Allow cake to cool in pan for about 20 minutes before cutting or trying to remove from pan.