The 21st Century Housewife's Cinnamon Dolce Latte Cake

I have a serious fascination with marble cakes - most likely because my family and friends love them. There is something about the lovely swirls in the batter that somehow make them taste extra good.

This particular cake came into being because of that famous coffee company you see on virtually every street corner. Originally I was trying to duplicate those cute marble loaf cakes they have with the pink marbling. Unfortunately I was never happy with the results, and I was struggling to get the effect I wanted. I found this odd, because my traditional Marble Cake is my most oft requested cake, but for some reason, this slight variation was foiling me.

Then I got to thinking about my absolute favourite coffee at the aforementioned coffee shops - a Skinny Dolce Cinnamon Latte - which I can only get in the US as we don’t have the cinnamon syrup in the UK yet. And the idea for this cake was born. It is not as spectacular in appearance as my original marble cake  - several test cakes later the marbling is pretty, but just not as pronounced - but it tastes absolutely wonderful, and is - not surprisingly - a real treat with a cup of coffee. 

¾ cup butter, softened

1½ cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour (unbleached if possible)

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup milk

1 heaping tablespoon instant coffee granules (I use decaff)

about 2 teaspoons boiling water (use as little as possible)

Preheat oven to 350℉ or 160℃.  Grease and flour or line two eight inch round pans.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Add the vanilla and beat together. 

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon. Gently blend this mixture into the buttery eggy mixture alternatively with the milk - keep the electric mixer keep it on low to avoid being covered in flour! 

Remove about half to three quarters of a cup of batter from the mixing bowl and put in a small bowl. Dissolve the instant coffee in as little boiling water as possible and beat this into the mixture in the small bowl

Divide the larger bowl of batter between the two baking pans. Now dollop three spoonfuls of the coffee flavoured batter in three different places on top of the batter in each of the baking pans. Using an ordinary dinner knife, gently cut through the batter so that the coffee flavoured batter marbles through the plain batter. Here’s how each layer should look before baking.

Place the pans in the oven and bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until a piece of dried spaghetti or skewer inserted into the centre of the cake layers comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for about ten minutes.  Remove from the pans and cool on wire racks.  When completely cold, the layers can be frosted and sandwiched together to make a two layer cake.  Fill and frost as desired. 

The frosting I use consists of 6 tablespoons softened butter creamed with 3 cups icing sugar (confectioner’s sugar) in an electric mixer.  I then add enough milk or cream to make a spreadable icing (usually about 1 to 3 tablespoons). Add about 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and beat through. This should give you enough frosting to cover the top and sides of this cake, with a thin layer in the middle too.