Barley to Bake: Laphroaig and Coffee Cake

It's no secret that I love both baking and whisky. Until recently, for some utterly unknown reason I had never combined the two. However, when my fellow Islay-loving, whisky-drinking, baker extraordinaire friend Sarah of the Starbake Sisters posted an absolutely mouth-watering image of a Laphroaig coffee cake, I just HAD to pester her for the recipe! Sarah has been kind enough to share this, along with a little bit about why she loves the extraordinary Isle of Islay. Having made this cake myself I can absolutely attest to the recipe, and the result is delicious.

May I present...

A malt whisky cake inspired by the Queen of the Hebrides

"Islay: first discovered by the Starbuck family in Spring 2004, ever since that Easter holiday we all have a place in our hearts for this Hebridean island.  Its breath taking scenery and quaint, welcoming villages make it hard not to want to revisit… So we did just that, several times over the years.

Nestled between the expansive beaches and tumbling hills you will find Islay’s 8 malt whisky distilleries dotted over the island, and I can proudly claim to have visited them all. The huge quantities of peat that the island is built on make for remarkably distinctive flavours in the whiskies and yet each distillery has been boasting different tastes, smokiness and sweetness for hundreds of years.

I love food. It’s primarily this fact that sparks my interest and enjoyment of cooking and baking. I find little more satisfying than preparing nice food for family and friends, and seeing them (hopefully) enjoy it!  So it seemed a natural progression with my family’s long awaited return to Islay this summer to incorporate Islay malts into a new recipe. Not wanting to waste quality malt by being too extreme with my creativity, I decided to first come up with a cake recipe to use it in. 

Choosing a sponge flavour wasn’t too challenging. I felt a plain sponge wouldn’t quite enhance the whisky’s aromas, chocolate would have proved too sweet. I had also considered ginger, as my sister had tried out in Islay with Bruichladdich, but I didn’t want anything quite as strong to overpower the whisky, as I wanted the malt to be the main feature. Coffee cake struck me as the most appropriate.  

Now to choose a malt.  I went for Laphroaig 10 year old.  It’s a well-known whisky, with fantastic earthy peat flavours and sweet smokiness that I felt would be effective alongside a coffee cake recipe.  You could of course use your own favourite malt/blend, though I’m yet to experiment using other whiskies with other sponge flavours.

The trick with this recipe is not to add the whisky before baking. The characteristic flavours mentioned above get lost in the baking process.  So, still not willing to waste good malt, I used a trick I had seen in Primrose Bakery book when making mojito cakes with my little sister. They suggest making a syrup with rum, sugar and lime juice, and brushing it onto the still warm sponge fresh out of the oven. This method worked perfectly with just caster sugar and Laphroaig as well. Any syrup left over from the sponge I then added to the golden icing sugar buttercream.  This addition was even more effective and maintains the sweet, distinctly Laphroaig, smoky flavour throughout.

I was delighted with the results and even more delighted to hear my dear friend, Mrs Mashtun, wanted to try it too. I hope she and Mr Mashtun have enjoyed it as much as I and my family and friends have. 

Sláinte!"

Ingredients

Cake: 

150g caster sugar

150g butter

150g self raising flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

3 eggs, beaten

1tbsp hot (not boiling) water

1tbsp instant coffee

Syrup: 

4tbsp whisky to 2tbsp caster sugar

Buttercream: 

225g golden icing sugar

100g butter

About 1-2 tsp of the whisky syrup

Preheat the oven to 160, and line and grease 2 sandwich tins.

To make the cake, beat the sugar and butter together before gradually adding the eggs. Add the sifted flour and baking powder and fold in. Next, dissolve the coffee in hot water and add to the mixture.

Divide into tins and bake for 25-30 minutes. 

Whilst the cake is baking, warm up the whisky and sugar slowly over a low-mid heat until all the sugar has dissolved, and allow to cool a touch.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool enough to remove it from the tins, and cool on a wire rack. While the sponge is still warm, brush the tops with the whisky syrup (leaving a splash for the buttercream).

Beat the icing sugar and butter together to make the buttercream. When combined, add the remaining whisky syrup, and apply to the sponges once they are cooled.

A little Mashtun holiday photo!

And finally, for any cake fans lucky enough to be dwelling in Edinburgh, you can find the work of cake decorating genius Starbake Sister #2, Emily, at Banco.

Enjoy!

Laura xx

The Whisky Collection pt. Islay

Islay is one of our favourite places on the planet. Situated about 70miles from Glasgow as the crow flies and 150miles as the car drives, through undulating hills to the picturesque Loch roads, towards a 2 hour crossing past the Paps of the surrogate sister island to Islay, Jura.
  

The Old Schoolroom

It is a place that breathes pleasantness in such spades that when we pointed out that the front door to the Old Schoolroom (our home for our honeymoon week) did not lock, the owners confided that they left the car keys in the ignition overnight. This revelation sat strangely with us townies, but on such a secluded yet welcoming island the only option was to embrace the situation.

With 8 active distilleries and two more opening shortly, the island is a worthy pilgrimage for any whisky fanatic. Ranging in size from the massive annual production of 3.5 million litres of Caol Ila, to the smallest distillery, Kilchoman, that struggles to produce per year what Caol Ila makes in a day.

The whiskies themselves, whilst generally peaty, are always interesting and different, and for this post i am going to focus on a few of my favourites.

Kilchoman warehouse

Kilchoman is a farm distillery that at the time of visiting made the only 100% Islay whisky, with most distilleries importing the malt from the mainland. The 5 Year 2006 tastes like a young whisky, in that it is not as refined or smooth as a longer aged whisky. That being said it is by no means bad, more I feel it the opposite, something unique and to be treasured, with a light pear smell that gives way to a gingery peat on the tongue and ends in a woody finish. 

The bay of Laphroaig

Laphroaig is arguably the most famous distillery on the Island and is often seen in pubs and supermarkets around the country. The 10 year old, which is provided as the 'Drivers Dram' from the distillery for those partaking on the tour, is the most often seen. It is a heavily peated whisky that seems to float the head in a soft smoke on the nose, with sweet hints of oak across the palate with vanilla and spice that end with an iodiney finish

I will stray slightly from the isle for the penultimate dram, to the incredible island of Jura, a land of stags and stills, described by George Orwell as 'extremely ungetatable'. The distillery itself has an great range of excellent whiskies demonstrating a spectrum of peatiness and sweetness. The 'Duirachs Own' is one of the free drams you can get from the hotel across from the distillery if you are part of the members club. This 16 year old whisky is aged for the final 2 years in sherry casks, giving it sweet vanillas on the nose and across the palate with additional layers of honey and slight apples, reminiscent of crumble and custard. 

And finally... I am leaving these whiskies till last not only because they are some of my favourites but because the distillery is one of the most interesting. Bruichladdich is run with an air of experimentation; a flair seldom seen in whisky production. It showcases the ambition to try new things, new woods, greater peat content and even a gin. They have a series of whiskies named Port Charlotte (also one of the towns on the island), one of which, entitled Peat Project, is a heady mix of spice and smoke, that engulfs the skull with the caressing warmth of pepper and a smooth creaminess that brushes the palate. It provides a taste which is well rounded and whole.

I recently had a dram of a release of a Octomore: one of the most heavily peated whiskies ever made. This limited release has steadily increased in its peat levels since the first batch, starting at 131ppm and with a level around 167ppm for its newer releases (up to version 6.2). For those who aren't aware, ppm stands for the Phenol content in Parts Per Million, in reference to peat levels in the whisky as a whole, which is added when drying malt in peat smoke. As a guide, Laphroaig 10 year is around 40ppm and Springbank being 7ppm. While this whisky is probably the most heavily peated you will ever try, it does not feel that way, being surprisingly smooth and quaffable. On the nose it smells sweet and grapey due to its ageing in Bordeaux barrels, which adds a sincere refinement throughout the mouth as a whole. The sweetness continues to tickle across the tongue as the smoke fills the back of the throat. Having had a dram in the distillery I have been on the look out for it ever since. Buying a bottle of this whisky can set you back up to £200, but as a single measure in the pub it is closer to £7 and worth every penny. 

Slainte 
Jim