It is fun to decorate a cake. There are all kinds of decorations that look great. Depending on the occasion and whom the cake is for, you can have edible flowers, tiny figurines, trucks, trains, bottles and rattles and a host of other decorations. No wonder the cake is so popular. It’s fun to make and decorate. It seems that cakes are always around for a special occasion. Cakes help celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, bridal showers and any other occasion you can think of.

For health and weight conscious people, the cake has adaptations that make it virtually fat-free. There are recipes for cakes that are sugar-free, butter-free and contain no eggs. Believe it or not, they taste good too. The basic ingredients for those of us who like to indulge are sugar, eggs, butter, cream (sometimes milk) and flour.

Vanilla is often added as is chocolate and fresh fruits.

Author: Jason Gluckman

A coffee cake will be a welcome treat for anyone that enjoys their coffee and good tasting cake at the same time. It will bring much pleasure to your stomach and it is an easy cake to eat. Having this cake in the mornings can also be a good way to start the day.

As the Coffee cakes are often paired with a strong beverage, normally coffee, but can also with tea, the ingredients for these cakes tend to have strong flavours, typically with fruits, cinnamons, and nuts.

It is easy to locate this type of cake at your local grocery stores. You will have the choice to either pick one of the standard coffee cakes or you can be more adventurous and get one that has special toppings, such as crumbles or nuts. No matter what you taste buds are after, you will surely find it available with these cakes.

New recipes for coffee cakes are always being developed; you can enjoy such tasty cakes as Cinnamon walnut coffee cake, Pumpkin coffee cake or Sour Cream Pecan coffee cake with your favourite cup of coffee. Although some of these cakes may made sound strange, make sure not to turn one down until tasting it first.

If you like baking at home you will surely discover that coffee cakes will be a great choice to make. Once you have the recipe and ingredients for you favourite cheese cake, which may be a Banana Chocolate Chip coffee cake, you will be instantly be hooked on the wonderful aroma, moistness and delightful flavour of these cakes.

Coffee cake may deceive some people as it is not actually made with coffee. In fact, it does not taste anything like coffee. They are named because of the beverage that they are consumed with, which is most typically coffee, not because they actually contain it. However, it does taste great when you are eating it with an excellent cup of coffee. You can either sit alone having a peaceful moment or in company having a great conversation whilst enjoying your coffee cake that will enlighten any moment.

Author: Darren Lintern

2 cups warm water

4 teaspoons of bulk yeast (or two packages of yeast)

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup canola oil (or other cooking oil)

2 eggs

5 to 6 cups of flour (I like to use 1 or 2 cups of whole wheat flour and the rest white flour).

6 tablespoons butter (melted)

1 cup of sugar

2 to 3 teaspoons cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Let stand for a couple of minutes. Stir in sugar, salt and cooking oil. Beat in eggs. Add 1 cup of flour and stir until smooth. Add 2 more cups of flour and stir until smooth. Add remaining flour — enough to make a dough that is a little sticky.

Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, grease the angelfood cake pan. Mix up the sugar and cinnamon. Melt the butter.

Tear off chunks of dough the size of a small egg. Roll the dough between your palms to make it smooth. Roll in the melted butter. Roll in the cinnamon and sugar. Place in the bottom of the angelfood cake pan. Don’t fit the dough balls into the pan too tightly. They need room to rise. Line the bottom of the pan, then add more layers until the dough is all used.

Allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.

Bake in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool for 10 to 15 minutes. Turn the coffee cake out onto a large cake plate.

To serve, use a fork to separate pieces of the coffee cake.

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© 2007 LeAnn R. Ralph

LeAnn R. Ralph is a newspaper reporter in Wisconsin. She also is the author of books about growing up on a small family dairy farm 40 years ago. The Midwest Book Review calls this series of books “Highly recommended reading!” You are invited to sign up for the twice-monthly newsletter from Rural Route 2 — http://ruralroute2.com

Author: LeAnn Ralph

Prep Time:15 min

Start to Finish:1 hr 15 min

Makes:8 servings

Crumb Topping

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

1/3 cup of all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 cup of firm butter or margarine

Coffee Cake

2 cups of all-purpose flour

3/4 cup of granulated sugar

1/4 cup of shortening

3/4 cup of milk

1 egg

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of salt

2 Cups of Amish Family Recipes’ Caleb’s Blubarb Jam

Vanilla Glaze

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

1 ½ teaspoons of hot water

1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Heat oven to 375°F. Grease bottom and side of 9-inch spring form pan or 9-inch square pan with shortening or cooking spray.

2. In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/3 cup of flour and the cinnamon. Cut in the butter, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until crumbly; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix all the coffee cake ingredients except the blubarb jam; beat with spoon for 30 seconds. Gently fold in blubarb jam. Spread in pan. Sprinkle with crumb topping.
4. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cake (not fruit) comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan if desired.

5. In small bowl, mix all glaze ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle glaze over warm coffee cake. Serve warm if desired.

Author: Kurt Yordy

The most vital thing about any ingredient in a preparation is that is should be fresh. Fresh coffee beans can be bought and ground to fine powder. While using coffee in a particular preparation it should be made with clean filtered water just before making the food. Normally a stronger coffee is needed to be prepared while using it a recipe. You can use a regular coffee maker or a single serve coffee maker for these recipes.

Let us try out some recipes using coffee

An Australian recipe of coffee meatloaf sauce has become very popular worldwide. To make this sauce we need to mix one tablespoon of fresh instant coffee to a quarter cup of water. Then we need to put half cup ketchup in a quarter cup of dry red Worcestershire sauce. Finally we will need one ounce of margarine, two tablespoon full lemon juice and two tablespoon full vinegar and a little bit of brown sugar. This will make the coffee sauce. Now, we will cook the meatloaf for half an hour and then bake it with the sauce for forty five minutes at 375F.

The next recipe will be a snack called Espresso Brownies. To make espresso brownies we will need half cup of sugar, a stick and a half of butter and a teaspoon of salt and heat it in a pan. After it gets mixed well we will need to pour one teaspoon of vanilla essence and four ounces of sliced cooking chocolate and mix the whole thing till it melts. Then we need to add one teaspoon of fresh coffee powder to it. After stirring for a while when all the ingredients gets mixed well we need to remove it from flame and allow it to cool. Then we need to add a cup of flour and three eggs in the mixture while it is still warm. Now, we can bake the mixture for thirty minutes to get warm and fluffy espresso brownies.

Black Russian Cake can be treated as a dessert dish. It is a very easy to make dish which require Russian coffee - a combination of one ounce of vodka, half ounce of kahlua and 5 ounces of hot black coffee as the main ingredient. To make the cake we need to mix dark chocolate cake mix, a packet of instant chocolate pudding, one cup vegetable oil, four eggs, half cup creme de cacao and most importantly Russian coffee. The mixture should be beaten until it is smooth. Then we only need to put the mix in a baking pan and keep it for baking at 350F for 45 minutes.

A wide variety of ice cream cookies and all sorts of goodies uses coffee. The list can even be endless. Some of the famous cocktails also has coffee as their main ingredient. Coffee syrup is made by mixing one cup of sugar and strong brewed Colombian coffee. We just need to boil the mix stirring till the sugar gets melted completely. Then we will simmer the coffee for a few minutes, cool it and take the sip.

Author: John J. Baker

First select a knife you are comfortable holding. A long slender knife works best. Begin the first cut about two inches from the edge. Cut along the entire edge of the cake keeping the knife in about two inches. Your cake will now have an outer ring two inches wide.

Next cut the outer ring into two inch wide slices. This outer ring is perfect for those who enjoy a lot of frosting. To serve use a cake spatula and easily lift each slice from the outer ring of cake.

Follow these same steps with the center of the cake. This technique will give you uniformed attractively displayed slices every time.

By serving the outer ring to those who enjoy the frosting this leaves the moist inner cake to those with less of a sweet tooth.
http://www.gourmayeats.com

Author: Shauna Hanus

Using simple box cake mix, with a few tweaks to make it stand up to a lot of icing and a little imagination, I was able to come up with a real hit for her birthday celebration. It all comes down to cutting basic round cake layers and I make a rectangle pan cake and have found that the small egg shaped pan works very well to add some shaping to the cake for legs, facial features etc. A crumb coat layer is essential in building the cake and using the icing to stick the layers together.

I actually get something to look at for the shape like a toy or picture for inspiration and draw out a sketch of how I am going to use the cut pieces and put them together on my cake board. I then actually put the pieces together and move them around until I get exactly the scale and shape that I want.

When that is done, glue them together with the icing and prepare to frost, which is the most time consuming aspect. Using a basic butter cream frosting recipe, frosting bag and basic tips (star tip and round tip), color gels for coloring and a lot of patience you can bring your shape to life. There are many resources online for inspiration and help.

Author: Angie Kennedy