MOLASSES COFFEE CAKE

While Pane di sabbia (German Sand cake) quickly disappeared from our kitchen, I unearthed an interesting recipe from A. C. Vangalder's Modern Women of America Cookbook that was published in 1913. Interesting because it's flavored with coffee, an exotic ingredient I like better than dark chocolate - though in very small quantities. Not surprisingly, there is much in the history of coffee I ignored: I did know that coffee powder is derived from the roasted bean of the coffee plant but I'd thought it originates from Brazil and it doesn't.

Coffea naturally grows in Ethiopia and its neighbor Yemen and was introduced to Europe via the Ottoman Turks who fought in the Battle of Mohács (1526) and the Great Siege of Malta (1565). The drink became popular in France, Germany, and England during the 17th century when every large city featured a number of coffee houses. The British partly replaced coffee with tea some decades later, also carrying the habit to their overseas colonies, but, after the Boston Tea Party (1773), Americans opted for coffee. Then Haiti, where cultivation of the plant had been transported in the 1720s, became the world's number one producer of coffee until it was replaced by Brazil.

 

The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor - Nathaniel Currier, 1846

 

Surprisingly, Modern Women of America Cookbook features coffee cake recipes that actually use coffee. In most other historic cookbooks, so-called coffee or tea cakes are just ordinary cakes that accompany coffee and tea. Like devil's food, coffee cakes by A. C. Vangalder form an entire subcategory, gathered from the author's correspondence with U.S readers. The coffee cake recipe that I slightly adapted for today's post was contributed by a Mrs. Electa (or Electra?) Terry from a place called Farry in Oklahoma:

"Coffee cake. 

One cupful butter, one cupful sugar, one cupful molasses, one cupful cold coffee, three cupfuls flour, two teaspoons baking powder, one teaspoonful nutmeg, one teaspoonful cinnamon and one teaspoonful cloves."

There were no instructions on how to combine ingredients and/or bake, as you see, although the first recipe of the subcategory did provide a few hints. Incidentally, all of the recipes used equal parts of molasses and sugar (two more ingredients produced until then via slave labor).

 

 

MOLASSES COFFEE CAKE 

In the following version, I have replaced cold coffee from the original recipe with milk that I flavored with espresso coffee powder. I also omitted the egg because I couldn't find a reason for using just one. For the large Bundt pan that I chose, I increased Mrs. Electa's recipe (molasses excepted) by one third.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

4 cups plain flour

4tsp baking powder

1 1/4tsp each of nutmeg, cinnamon & cloves

1tbsp espresso coffee powder

1 1/3 cups butter, melted and cooled

1 1/3 cups unrefined sugar

1 cup blackstrap molasses

1 1/3 cups whole milk

 

M e t h o d

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC. Brush a large Bundt pan with melted butter, then dust with a little flour. 2. Sift the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the butter, sugar, and molasses in another. 3. Combine the mixtures, gradually adding the milk. 4. Pour into the baking pan and bake in the middle of the oven for an hour or so. Check if it's done by inserting a skewer into the middle of the cake. 5. Upturn on a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

N o t e

If liked, prepare a glazing with 100g confectioner's sugar, water and 1tbsp black rum or melt 150g dark chocolate in a double boiler. Pour the hot glazing over the cake and refrigerate for several hours before cutting.