I call this blonde mocha simply because the chocolate, that is combined with the coffee to make this cake, is white rather than the usual dark – and because the name pleases me. If anything, though, the mixture works better than the traditional combination: the richness of the white chocolate offering an unfamiliar counterpart to the smoky depth of the coffee. It’s not a light cake, I’ll admit straight off, but that has never seemed to stand in its way. And although it’s not what you might think of first off to serve on a summer’s day, it’s not just our haphazard climate that makes it all too often appropriate. There are, simply, times, whatever the weather, when you need something sweet with this amount of goo.
for the cake:
225g self-raising flour
225g very soft unsalted butter, plus more for greasing tins
225g caster sugar
4 teaspoons instant espresso
4 large eggs
approx. 4 tablespoons full-fat milk
for the icing:
250g white chocolate
90g very soft unsalted butter
300ml crème fraîche
250g icing sugar, sieved
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and butter and flour two sandwich tins of 21cm diameter (and just under 5cm deep). But it’s probably best, if it’s at all warm out, to make the icing first and then stash it in the fridge till needed.
So: melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over some simmering water or else in the microwave (but see note about melting white chocolate). Remove to cool a little, then add the crème fraîche – which you do need rather than ordinary cream, to undercut the otherwise oversweetness of the white chocolate – before gradually beating in the icing sugar. Put the icing in the fridge to set a little.
Now get on with making the cake. The easiest way is just to put the flour, butter, sugar, coffee and eggs in a processor and then, when fully incorporated, pour the milk – processing again after a little bowl-scraping with a rubber spatula – down the funnel to make for a soft, pouring consistency, adding more milk if needed but starting off just with a couple of tablespoons.
Remove the double-bladed knife, then pour and scrape the cake batter into the prepared tins and bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester (or piece of raw spaghetti) comes out clean and the cakes are beginning to shrink away from the sides. Let them stand in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then turn them out and leave them there till completely cool.
Now, cut out four strips of baking parchment and make a square with them on a cake-plate. Put one of the cakes on top, and add a good dollop of icing, spreading it almost, but not quite, to the sides and then cover with the remaining cake and spread the top and sides generously with the soft, rich, buttery icing. When it’s all done, whip away the pieces of parchment, but not so roughly as to smear the icing over the plate, which would rather defeat the whole exercise.
Depending on the weather, you may want to put the assembled cake back in the fridge for 10 minutes or so before cutting.
Serves 8.