Coffee Pecan Layer Cake with Joyce Vance
This is a classic British tea-time cake. It’s probably considered a bit old-fashioned, but let’s just call it homey instead, shall we?
It’s easily one of my favorite layer cakes to make (easy and quick) and eat (deep coffee flavor; soft, delicate cake and if you don’t find yourself stuffing shards of pecan brittle in your face, well, I don’t know what to do about you.)
Please note this recipe uses AP flour, but you can substitute self-rising flour in equal amounts. Just delete the extra salt called for in the recipe.
Invest in a nice bottle of powdered espresso. You will use it in everything from brownies to tiramisu to chocolate chip cookies (recipe to follow).
Caramel-cooking phobes: Once you master it with my few tricks, you may become obsessed with making it in its many possible incarnations (hazlenuts are nice!). Leftover brittle can be pulverized into praline and sprinkled on coffee ice cream, or mixed into the buttercream below instead of coffee powder. Or sprinkled on crepes, or into cookies, or over muffins. You see what I’m doing here? Let me know how you use it.
Coffee Pecan Cake with Pecan Brittle
Ingredients
For the cake:
8 oz/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz/1 cup dark brown sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
8 oz/1 3/4 cups + 2 Tbs AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
2 Tbsp instant espresso coffee, dissolved in 2 Tbsp boiling water
3 oz/3/4 cup pecans, chopped fine (use a large knife or mezzaluna; if you use a food processor, add 1 teaspoon sugar when chopping to prevent it from turning into a paste.)
[Note: Walnuts are classically used in this cake; I used hazelnuts for the cake pictured.]
For the pecan brittle:
8 ounces/1 cup granulated sugar
6 Tbsp water
3 ounces/3/4 cups pecan halves
For the buttercream:
8 oz/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
10 oz/2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 Tbsp instant espresso powder, dissolved in 1 Tbsp boiling water.
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How to make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.
Spray 2 8” cake pans with Baker’s Joy or butter and flour the pans.
Using a stand or hand mixer (or by hand for those into arm workouts), put all the ingredients for the cake in the bowl. That’s right, all of them together at the same time. On slow-to-medium speed, begin mixing ingredients until flour is just incorporated. Then raise mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes or until mixture is well-blended, with no sign of butter lumps.
Divide the mixture evenly between two pans. Give the pans a light tap on the counter to smooth the batter and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cakes cool for ten minutes, then turn out pans onto baking rack.
While the cakes are baking, make the pecan brittle:
Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper (or lightly butter the baking sheet).
Pour the sugar evenly over the bottom of a light colored pan (preferably one that has a lid). Use a light-colored pan so you can see the caramel as it changes color.
Pour the water over the sugar. Do not stir.
Cook the mixture of medium heat. Just after it starts to bubble, place a lid on the pan for 2-3 minutes to let the condensation that forms wash any errant sugar crystals down the sides of the pan. Remove the lid and watch carefully (this is not a time to look away) as the sugar begins to darken. You want it to turn a light golden color (if it gets too dark it may not harden properly). Remove from the heat and gently stir in the pecans.
Pour the pecan-caramel mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Leave at room temperature to harden. When hard, cut into shards to decorate the cake with.
Make the buttercream:
Beat the butter, confectioners’ sugar, and espresso and water together until smooth. On higher speed, beat a minute or so longer to make the mixture fluffy and frosting-like.
Assemble the cake:
Place one of the cake layers upside down on a plate. Spread half the icing on top, then place the other cake on, also upside down (this helps create a smooth and even-looking cake). Spread the second half of the icing on top. I hold back about a quarter of the remaining icing to do a (ja, trendy) crumb-coat finish on the sides.
Decorate with pecan brittle.
Try to let the cake sit a few hours (at least) to let the flavors develop. In the meantime, if you can’t control yourself, use leftover pieces of brittle to scrape clean the sides of the buttercream bowl…if you want to be just like me, that is.
