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

Karma Citra: Beer and Desserts

Relatively new to the growing Sheffield craft beer scene, Karma Citra are a group of beer enthusiasts who have recently started hosting an array of interesting events. This one was no exception - beer and pudding. Who can resist that?!

Held in the laid-back setting of Brewdog, we were greeted by "I hope you're hungry" - always a good sign when you're about to embark on a four-course meal of pudding!

We started on the "light option" - Buxton Far Skyline Berliner Weisse served with a lemon mousse. Unusually strong for this style of beer at 4.9%, initially I found the Buxton a little too sour for my taste - not something I'd usually go for. However after gobbling down some of the tart yet sweet lemon mousse (and getting a fair amount all over my face), the sourness softened and the fruity, hoppy characteristics of the beer came to the fore, making it deliciously palatable. The sweet and sour combination was ultimately a winner, and we scored it 9/10 - the bar had been set!

Second up was Weihenstephaner Hefeweisse, paired with a banana and peanut butter cheesecake. Hailing from the oldest brewery in the world, the Hefeweisse was tasty, if a little on the thin side - although the clean feeling it left on the palate was welcomed. However, again the dessert accompaniment really brought the beer to life and enhanced the banana-y flavour present in the style, and the two together worked really well. Score: 8/10.

We all needed a little bit of a rest after this, before the third offering was brought out - Magic Rock's collaboration with Norwegian brewery Lervig Aktiebryggeri - Farmhouse IPA, served with a carrot cupcake, with cream cheese icing. The beer was all classic IPA on the nose, with a great hoppy flavour and just a hint of citrussy spice. The spiciness of the carrot cake complemented this well and little hints of orange in there went nicely with the hoppy nature of the beer. A solid 7/10.

And then came the piece de resistance, and what a finale it was! Brewdog Cocoa Psycho brownie (Meghan's recipe can be found here) and a Sam Smith's Chocolate Stout float, with vanilla ice cream, a generous helping of squirty cream and chocolate sprinkles. The Cocoa Psycho gave a wonderfully sumptuous coffee and chocolate flavour and was just everything you could ever want from a brownie - the beer float was almost delicate in comparison! This whole lot came with a jug of cream on the side "to make it less heavy". That's my kind of pud. Full marks all round from the table-10/10!

From now on, I demand that all my drinks come as a float and that all my Sundays be decadent.

All gone!

Cheers,

Laura