Since posting my recipe for Chocolate Almond Slice, I have been pondering the possibility of a cake that contains neither butter nor added oil. The result is this Hazelnut Coffee Cake in which moisture is provided by the oil in the hazelnuts. I should acknowledge my work colleagues who were (probably unsurprisingly!) more than happy to taste test each version of this cake! Their feedback was extremely helpful and just quietly, I think they were a little disappointed when “version 0.3” was deemed “spot on”, meaning an end to their tasting!
Both the hazelnut and coffee flavours are delicate rather than over-powering. The cake is light and moist but doesn’t rise a lot during baking. It keeps well in a tin for several days.
I talk about grinding hazelnuts in my post for Hazelnut Biscuits. I find when I grind them myself in the food processor, they are never as fine as store-bought ground hazelnuts. However, for this cake, the slightly coarser texture of nuts ground in the food processor is perfect.
Ingredients:
- 3 eggs
- 1 egg white
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee
- ¾ cup milk
- ¾ cup ground hazelnuts
- ¾ cup brown rice flour
- ¾ teaspoon Xantham gum
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
Method:
Grease or line a 20cm round cake tin.
Beat together the eggs, egg white and sugar until pale and frothy.
Heat the milk then dissolve the coffee in the milk. (The milk doesn’t necessarily need to be boiling, just reasonably hot.) Lightly whisk in to the egg mixture.
Add the hazelnuts, flour, gum and baking powder. Mix until well combined. The mixture is very runny.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and set aside while the oven heats.
Heat the oven to 180ºC. Place the cake in the oven and cook for 35-40 minutes. The cake will be coming away from the sides of the pan when it is cooked but for good measure, test the cake with a skewer before removing from the oven!
This cake is a perfect accompaniment for coffee but tastes good with any chosen beverage.
