Show the love this Father’s Day with Rachel Allen’s scrumptious recipes for coffee, lemon and cardamon or rich chocolate cake
If the dad in your life has a sweet tooth, what better way could there be to celebrate all he does than with freshly baked treats?
Rachel Allen's coffee squares with mocha buttercream. Photo: Tony Gavin
Use a cheese slicer to make chocolate curls. Photo: Tony Gavin
Mocha is the combination of coffee with a little chocolate that hails from the Yemeni port of Mokha. Photo: Tony Gavin
Ingredients for Rachel Allen's coffee squares with mocha buttercream. Photo: Tony Gavin
If you are looking for a little Father’s Day baking inspiration for next weekend, here are some ideas.
Pictured above are coffee squares, topped with a mocha buttercream and gorgeous chocolate curls. Mocha is the combination of coffee with a little chocolate that hails from the Yemeni port of Mokha, which was well-known for its coffee trade centuries ago where a little chocolate was originally added to sweeten the hot drink.
The chocolate curls are easy to make if you have a cheese slicer. The chocolate needs to be melted and slowly set to just the right temperature, so that the lovely curls form when you drag the slicer across the top.
Once you have made as many curls as you want, you can store them in an airtight box for a week or so. Scrape any remaining chocolate from the tray and use for baking another time.
Happy baking!
Ingredients for Rachel Allen's coffee squares with mocha buttercream. Photo: Tony Gavin
Coffee squares with mocha buttercream
Serves 16
For the cake you will need:
For the mocha buttercream you will need:
For the chocolate curls you will need:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/350F/Gas mark 4.
2 Line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin with parchment paper, see Tip.
3 First make the cake. Cream the butter until soft in a large bowl or an electric food mixer.
4 Add in the caster sugar in a few increments while still beating, until all the sugar and butter are combined and light in texture.
5 Crack the eggs into a separate bowl with the coffee essence and whisk to break the eggs up, then add them gradually into the butter and sugar mixture while still beating. You want to add the eggs slowly so the mixture stays nice and creamy, which will give you a light sponge.
6 Once all the eggs are added, sift in the flour and mix well. Tip the mixture into the lined tin, spreading it out on top until even, then bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until cooked in the centre. Take out of the oven and let the cake sit in the tin for five minutes before lifting it out and sitting it on a rack to cool.
7 Meanwhile, make the mocha buttercream. Cream the butter well then sift in the icing sugar and cocoa powder gradually, adding the coffee essence and one tablespoon of the milk. Beat well until soft and light, adding a little more milk if necessary, to make it a spreadable but thick consistency. Set aside, but not in the fridge, for spreading on the cake once it’s cool.
8 To make the chocolate curls, place whichever chocolate you are using into a mixing bowl and sit it over a saucepan with a few centimetres of water in it, making sure that the base of the bowl isn’t touching the water — it should just be suspended over it. Place the saucepan on the heat and bring the water up to a gentle simmer then immediately take it off the heat, allowing the chocolate to sit and melt really slowly.
9 Once the chocolate has melted, pour it out onto a baking tray (I normally turn the tray upside down so the edges don’t get in the way) and let it spread out on its own — it needs to be about 5mm thick. Set the chocolate aside to set gently, but not in the fridge or it’ll be too brittle and won’t curl.
Use a cheese slicer to make chocolate curls. Photo: Tony Gavin
10 When the chocolate looks matt and not shiny in appearance, it is ready to curl. Holding the cheese slicer, scrape it over the top of the set chocolate, dragging it towards you to form curls. If the chocolate is too warm and not set enough the curls won’t be able to form, and if the chocolate has got too chilled it will be too brittle and not able to curl, so it’s the magic spot in between that you are looking for.
11 Once you have made as many curls as you want, you can store them in an airtight box for a week or so. Scrape any remaining chocolate from the tray and use for baking another time.
12 Once the cake has cooled, remove the parchment paper and place it on a plate or cake stand.
13 Spread the mocha buttercream over the top of the cake and cut into squares to serve, each with a chocolate curl on top.
Mocha is the combination of coffee with a little chocolate that hails from the Yemeni port of Mokha. Photo: Tony Gavin
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Lemon and cardamon cake
Cardamon, also called cardamom and cardamum, is one of my favourite spices and it works just as well in cakes as in curries. Its floral, almost eucalyptus flavour and fragrance is enhanced here with finely grated lemon zest and tangy natural yoghurt, which also brings a lovely soft crumb to the lemon and cardamon cake.
If you have a bundt tin, which has a hole in the centre, you can use that. Otherwise, a regular round cake tin works too. Served with a generous drizzle of the white yoghurt icing and scattered with either fresh raspberries or chopped pistachios, this makes a really lovely treat to serve for dessert or with coffee.
Serves 10-12
For the cake you will need:
For the icing you will need:
For baking you will need:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/160Fan/ 350F/ Gas Mark 4, and butter the bundt tin. If you are using a round cake tin, butter the sides and line the base with a disc of baking parchment.
2 Cream the butter until soft in a large bowl or in electric food mixer. Add the sugar in gradually, while beating, and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Next, beat in the lemon zest and the ground cardamon.
3 Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition, then mix in the yoghurt.
4 Next sift in the flour, the baking powder and the salt, folding in until just combined.
5 Tip the batter into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula or palette knife. Bake the cake for 50–55 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6 Allow to cool for just five minutes, then, if using a bundt tin, place a wire rack on the top and invert the cake so it is upside down, remove the tin, turn upright again and leave to cool on the wire rack. If using a standard round cake tin, remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then loosen around the edges using a small, sharp knife and carefully remove from the tin before leaving on a wire rack to cool down completely.
7 As the cake cools, make the icing. Beat together the icing sugar, the cardamon and 25ml of the yoghurt, adding a tiny bit more yoghurt if the mixture seems too stiff. (It should be a thick drizzling consistency: too thin and the icing will slide off the cake, too thick and you won’t be able to drizzle it.)
8 Place the cake on a cake stand or serving plate, then drizzle the icing backwards and forwards from the centre to the outside of the cake in a zigzag pattern (or in zigzags across the top if it’s been made in a standard tin).
9 Decorate immediately with the raspberries or the chopped pistachios, whichever you’re using, while the icing is still wet so they stick to the icing.
10 Cut into slices to serve.
Rachel recommends: To remove the seeds from cardamon pods, lightly crush the pods, then pick out the black seeds, discarding the husks. Crush the seeds using a pestle and mortar, or place in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin.
Divine rich chocolate cake
If it’s a full-on chocolate cake that you’re looking for then this divine, rich chocolate cake should tick the box. Intensely chocolatey and delightfully dense, this cake recipe, which is from my second-ever cookery book (that I wrote 20 years ago!) can be whipped up in minutes and will not disappoint. And happily, it can be gluten-free too if you wish, see the tip below.
Serves 6-8
For the cake you will need:
For the chocolate glaze you will need:
1 Preheat the oven to 160C/145Fan/325F/Gas mark 3.
2 Butter the sides of a 20cm cake tin (or springform tin) and line the bottom with parchment paper.
3 To make the cake, place the chocolate, the butter and the caster sugar in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of simmering water and melt, stirring until smooth.
4 Next, beat in the eggs and stir in the sifted flour until combined.
5 Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until the centre is just set, then remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.
6 To make the chocolate glaze, place the chocolate in a bowl with the cream and the butter and sit over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Stir gently while the chocolate and butter melt, until smooth. Take the bowl off the heat and allow to cool slightly (but don’t place it in the fridge) until it has thickened — this should take about 10 minutes.
7 Take the cooled cake out of the tin, place on a plate or cake stand and pour the glaze over the top, letting it drizzle down the sides.
8 Serve in slices with some softly whipped cream.
Top tip: If you want the divine rich chocolate cake to be gluten-free, just replace the 50g of plain flour with 50g of ground almonds for a deliciously nutty version.
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