Coffee and chocolate are the most delicious combination – add some booze and you can’t beat it. This is our take on the classic dessert, in cake form. Yum!

Words: Extracted from Mint Cakery by Michelle Morfett

From the age of 22, Michelle Morfett has been delighting people with her sumptuous baked goods. Originally selling mini cakes at the Hobsonville Farmers Market, Michelle soon found herself setting up her first store in Point Chevalier, Auckland. However, supply and demand meant that Michelle needed a new, bigger space. Mint Cakery moved suburbs to Ellerslie, where they are today.

Kept busy with Mint Cakery and a newborn, Michelle utilised naptimes to start testing recipes. Off the back of the continued success of the shop, Michelle has revealed her baking secrets in self-published cookbook, Mint Cakery. Every recipe is an instant classic, touching on kiwi nostalgia and indulgent showstoppers. This tiramisu layer cake is a unique twist on a favourite.

Serves: 14–16
Prep time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Bake time: 40–45 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Cake batter:
190g unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla essence
360g icing sugar
3 eggs
340g flour
20g baking powder
300ml milk, warmed

Coffee soak:
2 tbsp instant coffee granules
60ml hot water
20g caster sugar
100ml Kahlúa

Icing and garnishing:
1 batch of chocolate ganache for filling and decoration
1 batch of vanilla buttercream for icing the outside of the cake
cocoa powder, for dusting
1 batch of chocolate shards, for decoration

METHOD

Preheat your oven to 150°C fan bake. Line two 7-inch cake tins with baking paper and spray with oil.

Cream your softened butter, icing sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer or with an electric beater. Once the mixture is light and fluffy, add all of the eggs at once, and beat until they are mixed in. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and give it another mix.

Sift your flour and baking powder together, add this to the mixture and beat. Pour the milk in a slow, steady stream. Scrape the sides of the bowl again and continue mixing until the cake batter has just come together.

Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared tins and bake for 40–45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to finish cooling down completely.

COFFEE SOAK
Mix all the ingredients for the coffee soak together and stir until the coffee and caster sugar have dissolved. Pour the coffee soak over both baked cake layers, and use a pastry brush to disperse it evenly.

STACK THE CAKE
Place your first layer of cake onto a cake board, top the cake with the chocolate ganache, reserving some for final decoration, and use a palette knife to spread it to the edges. Place the second layer of cake on top and push down ever so slightly, so the cake adheres to the ganache. Put the cake in the fridge to set for 15 minutes. This makes it easier to ice the outside of the cake: when it is fridge cold the cake layers won’t slip out of place.

CRUMB COAT
Using a palette knife, spread some of the buttercream over the cake and down the sides. Use a cake scraper to remove any excess icing and smooth it down. Put the cake back into the fridge for another 15 minutes so the crumb coat can set to fridge cold.

ICE THE CAKE
Before you do the final layer of vanilla buttercream, place your icing back in the stand mixer on slow or use an electric beater to burst any air bubbles in the icing that have formed from it sitting.

Scoop buttercream onto the top of your cake, reserving some for final decoration, then use a palette knife to cover down the sides of the cake. Use a cake scraper to smooth it off.

Get your remaining chocolate ganache and put small teaspoon-sized blobs of ganache all over the sides of the cake. Scrape smooth with your cake scraper to pull the ganache through the vanilla buttercream. Put the cake back in the fridge to set.

DECORATE
To decorate the top of the cake, fill a piping bag with your remaining vanilla buttercream and pipe it around the edge on top of the cake. Dust the entire cake with cocoa powder and decorate with chocolate shards.

Keep in the fridge until an hour before you are ready to serve, and enjoy at room temperature. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature for two days or in the fridge for four days.

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Mint Cakery by Michelle Morfett, photography by Manja Wachsmuth, published by Mint Cakery, distributed by Bateman Books, RRP $45, Release Date July 2023.