Louise Read's Coffee crunch cake

Louise Read's Coffee crunch cake

This recipe pairs a nutty meringue with coffee-flavoured Victoria sponge. No wonder it made it into the top three in our 20th birthday cake competition

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 40 mins

Method

  1. Make the meringue: whisk the egg whites until stiff, add half the sugar, whisk again until stiff, then repeat with the remaining sugar. Mix the coffee with 3 tbsp boiling water to dissolve the granules. Gently fold the walnuts and 1 tsp of the coffee into the meringue. Set aside while you make the cake mixture.
  2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease 2 x 20cm loose-bottomed sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then gradually whisk in the eggs. Fold in the flour and baking powder, then finally fold in 2 tsp of the coffee liquid. Divide the mixture between the 2 tins, putting a little more mixture in one than the other.
  3. Spread the meringue on top of the tin containing less cake mix. Bake the untopped sponge for about 20 mins until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Continue baking the meringue-topped sponge for an additional 20 mins, then carefully remove both cakes from their tins and leave to cool on a wire rack.
  4. To make the filling, beat the butter and icing sugar together, adding 2 tsp more coffee. To make the icing, mix a final tsp of the coffee into the icing sugar. Add a drop more water to make a runny icing. 5 Sandwich the 2 cakes together with the coffee filling, putting the meringuetopped sponge on top. Drizzle all over with the coffee icing to finish.

565 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 66g, fat 33 g, saturated fat 19g, fibre 1g, sugar 49g, salt 1 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, November 2009.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • Binder photo L Steele

    02 October 2009

    L Steele commented on this recipe

    made this last night - going to assemble tonight for a birthday party so will confirm if it's as good as it looks then! suprisingly easy to make so far!

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  • Binder photo Pelupi

    04 October 2009

    Pelupi rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Lovely cake. beautifully moist. Will definitely make again. Used golden caster for a lovely honey colour.

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  • Binder photo kaird

    11 October 2009

    kaird rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    Quite easy to make but baking powder plus self raising flour made it taste too much of baking soda for me. Do you think I could use less baking powder?

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  • Binder photo Aliam

    17 October 2009

    Aliam rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    My husband loved this cake but for me I found it not moist enough and didn't like the butter filling. I didn't have any baking powder so left it out and there was no difference.

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  • Binder photo Lynn

    17 October 2009

    Lynn commented on this recipe

    Should the filling ingredients 100g icing sugar 50g butter not the other way round ?

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  • Binder photo Spam

    19 October 2009

    Spam rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Fabulous tasting cake plus it looks great for a special occasion. A real winner

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  • Binder photo Happy Cooker

    23 October 2009

    Happy Cooker commented on this recipe

    Great cake, easy to make and looks really impressive. Went down a storm at a recent birthday party, will definitely make again!

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  • Binder photo Noodles

    26 October 2009

    Noodles rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Very nice cake especially liked the meringue on the top. It is quite dry so maybe you could add some milk to the sponge mix.

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  • Binder photo Ellie

    26 November 2009

    Ellie commented on this recipe

    I remember a good food magazine having a similar recipe but it was lemon with a lemon and mascarpone filling. Nicest cake i have ever eaten. Can't find it on the website though.

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  • Binder photo Georgelikescake

    04 December 2009

    Georgelikescake rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I made this when the magazine came out. I loved the flavours, the meringue was nice but overall im not sure whether it added that much to the cake so next time would probably do it without the meringue - although it did look good!

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  • Binder photo PegoHart

    21 January 2010

    PegoHart rated this recipe

    2 stars

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  • Binder photo Drumm

    13 February 2010

    Drumm rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Hannah

    11 April 2010

    Hannah commented on this recipe

    Made this for Easter weekend. Was difficult to cook the meringue for long enough without it catching. Needed the heat a little lower for the second 20 mins

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  • Binder photo Vachim

    21 April 2010

    Vachim rated and commented on this recipe

    2 stars

    it tasted nice, especially the meringue. However the cake itself was a little heavy. I've had better. Doubt I'll bother making it again, unless i make the cake itself to a different recipe.

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  • Binder photo Bexb

    23 August 2010

    Bexb rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    This cake is amazing! YUM YUM! Don't be put off it's not complicated. I ended up making it twice as it was sooo good. Follow the recipe exactly with regard to the cooking times and you will have a moist and light cake. I also turned the temperature down in the last 20 mins for the meringue half to stop it catching!

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  • Binder photo angbav

    06 November 2010

    angbav rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Made this as my daughters 17th Birthday cake because it looks different & it Looks like the picture. I've added coco to my cake mix. If i made again I would make the cake mix first, as the meringue lost some of its consistency. Lets hope it tastes as good as it looks!!!

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  • Binder photo Christine

    20 November 2010

    Christine commented on this recipe

    I made this cake but I think the ingredients for the filling are incorrent, I thin it should be 4oz icing sugar 2 oz softened butter - can you verify?

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  • Binder photo lizzi89

    17 December 2010

    lizzi89 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I love this recipe! Made it a few times now... my boyfried doesn't like coffee so I usually make a toffee version. The meringue works better if you turn the oven down to around 150 after the first cake comes out, and cook it for another 30 mins instead of 20.

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  • Binder photo EmSmith

    20 September 2011

    EmSmith rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Just gorgeous! The only reason I felt the need to dock a star was that I had some trouble with the top layer. It took an age for the sponge to cook through and by the time it was cooked the meringue was rather dark. Perhaps a slightly lower temperature and maybe covering the tin with foil might help (although I suppose that might make the meringue/cake a little soggy). Other than that, the textures were just gorgeous....crunchy, spongey, creamy. I did add slightly more coffee to all the component parts too because I was worried the coffee flavour was getting a little lost. Oh, and I doubled the amount of walnuts and buttercream. But that's just because I'm a piggy.

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  • Binder photo Belkey

    11 October 2011

    Belkey rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Fantastic cake - it gets 5 stars from me as I know Lousie Read's lovely daughter! Tasted fantastic and was a great texture - only complaint was that, like one of the other users, by the time I made my cakes, the meringue had turned to liquid so I had to do that again. The end result was MORE than worth it though!

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Serves 8

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing
  • 175g caster sugar
  • 3 medium eggs
  • 175g self-raising flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder

FOR THE MERINGUE TOPPING

  • 2 egg whites
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 3 tsp instant coffee granules
  • 25g chopped walnuts

FOR THE FILLING

  • 100g softened butter
  • 50g icing sugar , sifted

FOR THE DRIZZLE ICING

  • 3 tbsp icing sugar
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565 kcalories, protein 6g, carbohydrate 66g, fat 33 g, saturated fat 19g, fibre 1g, sugar 49g, salt 1 g

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