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Coffee & Orange Swirl Cake

A simple, moist & flavourful marble cake with the aromas of coffee & orange are sure to delight anyone!
Course Cakes
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 16 servings
Author Shireen Sequeira @ www.ruchikrandhap.com

Ingredients

  • 40 grams walnuts or pecans
  • 40 grams soft brown sugar * see notes
  • 3 teaspoons instant coffee powder
  • 2 teaspoons mixed spice * see notes
  • 225 grams all purpose flour * see notes
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 175 grams butter at room temperature
  • 175 grams caster sugar
  • 3 eggs at room temperature
  • juice a little less than 1/2 cup and zest of 1 large orange

Instructions

  • Grease & line an 8 inch round pan with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. (160 degrees for fan forced ovens)
  • Remove lumps if any from the soft brown sugar and add it along with the walnuts, coffee powder & mixed spice into a mixer jar and pulse the mixture for 2-3 second intervals till the walnuts break down and resemble fine bread crumbs. Do not use the 'grind' option of your mixie as the walnuts will begin to leave their natural oils and turn the mixture into a paste. Simply use the 'pulse' option of your mixie/food processor. Keep this mixture aside.
  • In a large bowl beat the butter & caster sugar till the mixture looks pale. Add the eggs, orange juice & zest and beat again.
  • Sift in the flour, baking powder & salt and beat till incorporated. Do not over beat the mixture. If you wish you can fold in the batter using a spatula, but the electric beater is fine too. This recipe is very forgiving.
  • Now using a spatula, spread out one third of the batter into the prepared tin. Sprinkle half of the coffee-walnut mixture over it. Spread another portion of the batter over it, followed by the remaining coffee-walnut mixture. Add the final portion of batter and even it out the surface.
  • Run a clean knife through in the shape of the number eight to achieve a marbled effect.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or till the skewer inserted comes out clean.
  • Remove and leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Then invert it on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely. Cut and serve. This cake keeps well in an airtight container kept in a cool place for upto 3 days.

Notes

Note:
If you don't have soft brown sugar you may use caster sugar and 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder to achieve the dark brown colour that gives this cake a marble effect. However, the cocoa flavour may stand out (I haven't tried it, just a suggestion)
Please check the recipe for the mixed spice from my website. Mixed spice is generally used in Christmas cakes and is a blend of many warm spices. If you don't have mixed spice handy, you can use a mix of coriander, dry ginger powder, cloves, mace, cinnamon, all spice, cardamom & nutmeg. For this recipe I used whatever was handy and just added 1/8th teaspoon each of coriander powder, dry ginger powder, all spice, cardamom, cinnamon & nutmeg powders and about 5 whole cloves & a blade of mace directly to the coffee & walnuts and pulsed them together. 
Instead of all purpose flour you may also use readymade self raising flour in which case you can use only 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead of 2 as the self raising flour will already have baking powder in it.