Venus Cake
by Tannie Maria
from Recipes to Die Live For by Sally Andrew
The Venus Cake, hailed as one of Tannie Maria’s finest culinary creations, combines a
delightful array of her favourite ingredients: chocolate, coffee, cream, apricot jam, and
peanut butter. This rich and indulgent cake serves 10–12 people and is a highlight of
Recipes to Die Live For by Sally Andrew.
Introduction
“This cake is one of my best inventions ever. Out of this world. The recipe combines some of my favourite ingredients: chocolate, coffee, cream, apricot jam, peanut butter … My, oh, my.”
Ingredients
|
1½ cups |
freshly brewed hot strong coffee |
|
3 cups (380 g) |
cake flour |
|
2½ cups |
white sugar |
|
4 t |
bicarbonate of soda |
|
½ t |
salt |
|
1 cup (110 g) |
Dutch cocoa powder |
|
1 1/3 cups |
sunflower oil |
|
1½ cups |
buttermilk |
|
3 |
eggs |
|
1 t |
vanilla extract |
|
about 9 T |
crunchy peanut butter |
|
about 3 T |
apricot jam |
Coffee-Chocolate Icing
|
½ T |
instant coffee granules |
|
180 g |
dark baking chocolate, broken into pieces |
|
¼ cup (60 g) |
butter |
|
3 T |
milk |
Topping
|
1t |
instant coffee granules, crushed to a fine powder |
|
|
peanut brittle and edible flowers for decorating |
Method
Get your coffee started. Make it lekker strong. Preheat a convection oven on the fan setting to 180 ºC. Grease two 20-cm cake tins and line the bottoms with baking paper.
Sift the flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and cocoa into a large bowl and whisk thoroughly by hand or with an electric mixer. This mixes them together and lets in air.
Gently add the oil, followed by the buttermilk and then the eggs, one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Put the hot coffee in a jug and add it to the mixture, pouring it down the side of the bowl.
Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 20 minutes, then turn down the temperature to 160 ºC and bake for a further 25–35 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean.
Allow to cool for at least 20 minutes before removing from the tins, then let the cakes cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, if the tops of the cakes are bumpy and crusty, you can use a bread knife to cut them flat. (It is important for the cake that will form the bottom layer to be flat.)
Spread a generous layer of peanut butter on the bottom cake and top it with a comfortable layer of apricot jam. Put the second cake on top.
To make the icing, melt the ingredients together in a double boiler. (You can also melt them in a mug inside a bowl of boiling water.) Use a fork to mix the ingredients thoroughly.
Allow to cool and thicken, then spread the icing on the top and sides of the cake.
Allow to cool some more (you can even pop the cake in the fridge for a while), then sprinkle over the teaspoon of coffee powder. Decorate with peanut brittle and edible flowers.
Notes
* Dutch (or Dutched or Dutch-processed) cocoa is more alkaline than plain (it has a pH of 8; normal cocoa has a pH of 5) and has a different texture and flavour. But if you use plain cocoa the cake is still delicious.
* Your dark chocolate should be about 40% cocoa; 70% will be too dry and bitter.
* If you like a neat cake, you can cut the upper crust off both layers, then turn the top layer upside down, so it has a very flat top. You can also bake in heart-shaped cake tins.
* For the best texture, it is important to let the cake layers cool completely before icing them. I know this is hard to do, because you will be impatient to gobble up this amazing cake.
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