Dalgona Coffee Cake

An isolation recipe special. Seems like quarantine has sent everyone crazy about the Korean speciality Dalgona coffee. For those who haven’t seen the world making this on instagram, it essentially involves whipping instant coffee, sugar and boiling water into a foam and serving it over ice milk. Of course, I decided this would also be excellent cake inspo so here is my Dalgona coffee cake. Just a warning that the icing doesn’t last well, so I recommend icing just before serving. 

Makes 1 large cake

Ingredients:

For the cake

175g butter/oil

150g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

4 tbsps coffee brewed (I use it straight from the coffee machine)

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

pinch of salt

For the syrup

1 cup coffee, brewed

2 tbsps honey

For the icing

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup hot water

1/2 cup instant coffee granules

Cocoa powder to dust

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a cake tin with butter/oil.

Cream the sugar and butter with an electric beater until fluffy and smooth. You can also use a food processor.

Beat the eggs and slowly add to the butter-sugar mixture.

Sift the flour and salt in a separate bowl. Slowly fold into the butter-sugar mix.

Add the vanilla and coffee to the mix and spoon into the cake tin. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes until a knife inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool.

To make the syrup, gently eat the honey & coffee over a medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Once the cake is cool, gently puncture the top and brush over the syrup. You may not need to use it all. Leave for about half an hour.

To make the icing, add the sugar, water and instant coffee to a bowl.

Using an electric whisk, beat into stiff peaks like meringue. Ice the cake and dust with cocoa powder.

Just FYI, the icing sinks after a while, especially if you cover with tin foil. It also packs a punch of caffeine.