Coffee cake for the sake of whip cream

Mum bought a whole ltr of whip cream for the sake of her mango
mousse cake. The staff from PH told her shd be used up within
2 days so I thot of using it to practice piping deco on cake.  
I tried my hands on a coffee cake since this uses margarine
rather then butter ( i ran out of butter). I do not wish to serve
my kids coffee, but I thought, its just a small amount.

Suppose to make 2 layers but since i just want to practice
piping deco, i only do one layer and half the square piece to
make a layer oblong cake.

A very easy to do cake. Just sift (infact i triple sift), beat everythg
together. This is how the batter looks. Its not runny at all.
I hv to smooth it out in the pan.



However, my mother is trying out baking her bread bun and so
I did not hv time to play piping. I just whipped the cream, add a 
portion with melted chocolate. Use the chocolate cream to
sandwich the 2 pieces. Then whipped up another portion (cos
not enough) to cover the cake. The cream seems very runny
(thou in freezer for a while after whipped) and quite a bad job
done in covering the cake. Well first try, so got to do more
"research" on how to make whipped cream.

 
 would be good to keep the crumbs away but no time for pretty
just now. Sprinkle on choc chips to help cover crumbs
in cream. hehe

Taste of the cake is good. Quite crumbly thou. Not too sweet,
texture quite soft, accept not moist enough to my opinion.
Will try again without coffee next time.

Here's the recipe taken from book "complete cookery BAKING" 
by Ann Nicol.

Cappucino Coffee Cake
(20 minutes preparation, 20 minutes baking, serves 8)

Ingredients :
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules
- 150g/5oz self-raising flour
- 25g/10z cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 175g/6oz soft tub margarine
- 175g/6oz caster sugar
- 3 eggs

Filling and topping :
- 300 ml/ 1/2 pt double cream
- 1 tbsp coffee essence
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 2 tbsp chocoalte sprinkles or cocoa

1) Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Grease two 20cm/8
inch sandwich tins and line the bases with non stick baking paper.
Dissolve the coffee in 1 tablespoon of boiling water and cool.

2) Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl. Add
the margarine, sugar, eggs and cold coffee. Beat together for
about 2 minutes until the mixture is smooth.

3) Spoon into the tins and spread level. Bake for 20 minutes, or
until risen and firm in the middle. Turn out to cool on a wire rack.

4) To make the filling and topping, whisk the cream until it forms
soft peaks, then fold in the icing sugar and essence.

5) Spread half over the top of one cake and place the other layer
on top. Spread with the remaining cream and scatter the chocolate
sprinkles or cocoa on top just before serving.


Some notes :-

- Baked cake on 8 inch square pan.
- I did not follow the topping cos i wanted to use up the whipped
   cream
- Not sure how to make a pipable whipped cream so just try my
   luck. Used 150ml of cream, and it only whips up quite a small
   amount, enough to sandwich cakes. Then I whip another
   portion to cover the cake. I whip till soft peak but gets runny
   after sm time while still smoothing the cream out on the cake.
- Could be not having enough egg, cos I used small eggs. Maybe
   thats y the dryness.