Aunt Kate’s Kitchen: Try your hand making this mocha custard sandwich and a coffee fruit cake

Add these two scrumptious coffee recipes from a kitchen in the 1930s to your baking repertoire this spring.

Coffee has always been a hit in baking recipes, especially these from Aunt Kate’s 1933 Baking Book.

Last September we featured three recipes including a coffee loaf, nut squares and a cream roll from Aunt Kate which use coffee in them as an ingredient.

If you enjoyed those, then the coffee fruit cake and the mocha custard sandwich recipes below are likely to take your fancy as well.

For more recipes from Aunt Kate, take a look at the series so far here.

Coffee Fruit Cake

Ingredients

• ¾ lb (340g) flour
• 1/3 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2 oz (56g) citron peel
• ½ lb (approx 225g) sultanas
• 6 oz (approx 170g) butter
• 1/3 teacupful (approx 36g) honey
• 2 tbsp coffee essence or brewed coffee
• 2 oz (approx 56g) preserved cherries
• 5 oz (approx 140g) sugar
• 2 eggs
• Almonds

Method

1. Wash, pick over and dry the sultanas. Then cut up the peel and the cherries.
2. Sieve the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and then rub in the butter.
3. Add the sugar and fruit, and mix all the dry ingredients together.
4. Whisk up the eggs and stir in the slightly warmed honey and the coffee essence or brewed coffee.
5. Whisk these together, and add them to the flour and other dry ingredients. Beat the mixture well, and turn it into a prepared cake tin.
6. Strew some blanched almonds on top, and bake in a moderately hot oven (approx 180-190C) for 1½ to 2 hours.

Mocha Custard Sandwich

Ingredients

• ½ cup (approx 113g) butter
• 1 cup (approx 200g) sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 cups (approx 256g) flour
• 3 egg whites
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ½ cup strong, cold, black coffee

For the custard cream: 

• 1 tbsp water
• 1 egg
• 1 gill (approx 142ml) milk
• Vanilla
• 1 dessertspoonful custard powder

For the mocha icing:

• 9 oz (approx 255g) fresh butter
• ¾ lb (approx 340g) icing sugar
• Coffee essence

Method

1. Beat the butter and sugar to a cream. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the butter and sugar mixture, along with the coffee and vanilla, mixing well.
2. Then fold in the stiffly-whipped egg whites and bake the mixture in two greased and floured sandwich tins for 20 minutes in a moderate oven (approx 180-190C).
3. Cool the layers on a wire tray, then put them together with custard cream (recipe below, point 5).
4. Ice the top and sides of the cake with mocha icing (recipe below, point 6) and sprinkle thickly with the finely-chopped blanched almonds.
5. To make the custard cream: Gradually add the water to the custard powder, stirring smoothly. Add the egg and beat well, then boil the milk and pour it on. Turn all into a double boiler (or a saucepan), bring to the boil and, when cool, flavour with vanilla and use.
6. To make the mocha icing: Cream the butter and sugar together until soft and creamy, then add the coffee essence, a few drops at a time until the icing is of the right colour and consistency to spread easily.

More in this series…