Spelt Airfryer Coffee Cake with Coffee Icing
This spelt Airfryer coffee cake is made with coffee and is finished off by a simple icing (glaze). Quick and easy, it has a rich coffee flavor and can be made with either regular or spelt flour.
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The difference between coffee cake in the UK and USA
This spelt Airfryer coffee cake is made with coffee. Yeah, sounds weird putting it like that if you are from the UK, where a coffee cake is always a sponge cake made with coffee. However, I do know that Americans call a coffee cake any cake you would have with coffee, but more often not with a crumble-type topping. Coffee cake is absolutely one of my all-time favourites. There is something so irresistible about sponge cake with the unmistakable taste of coffee.
Fika in Sweden
We have something similar in Sweden. When they take a coffee break, it is called fika, which is both a verb and a noun. It’s serious business in Sweden. Most often, fika involves coffee, but it doesn’t have to. There’s always some kind of snack that goes with it, such as cookies, cake, an open sandwich or topped crispbread. Sometimes, they have something called fikabröd.
The word bröd means bread in Swedish, so this is anything that accompanies the coffee (that isn’t cake or cookies). It is always sweet and often bread. The classic kanelbulla (cinnamon bun) fits into this category. However, it doesn’t have to be bread, it and could be pastries, small cakes, or chocolate wafers.
I’ve made many recipes that would fit into the fika category:
- Classic Swedish kanelbullar
- Chocolate sockerkaka (sugar cake)
- Swedish apple cake
- Swedish chocolate cookies
- Lime fikabröd
- Cardamom bread
Making cakes in an Airfryer
This spelt Airfryer coffee cake was my second attempt at an Airfryer cake. My first was the beautifully fluffy Airfryer lemon cake. Gosh, I loved it so much, I was very eager to try another one. I wasn’t disappointed.
Like my lemon cake, there are no airs and graces about this cake. It is very small, has somewhat of a cracked and volcanic-like middle and won’t win any prizes for beauty. It was baked at a low temperature (much lower than a conventional oven), but I perhaps need to tweak the times to prevent the doming, which is usually caused by the pan (and consequently the outside of the cake) heating up more quickly than the middle. I definitely need to do a little tweaking and adjusting. However, it was delicious. So, so good.
If you would like something very impressive, though, then I thoroughly recommend my two layer coffee and walnut cake. It’s one of the most popular recipes on my blog, and it’s a corker of a cake.
Topped off with coffee icing (what many would refer to as glaze), my Airfryer cake was so more-ish that I quickly snaffled three slices. It’s okay though, because they were dainty and small. A bit like me. Not.
Spelt Airfryer Coffee Cake with Coffee Icing
Ingredients
Cake:
- 55g (¼ cup) butter (room temperature)
- 80g (⅓ cup) brown cane sugar
- 1 medium egg (room temperature)
- 120g (1 cup) spelt flour (see note 1)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- 60ml (¼ cup) milk
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee
Coffee Icing:
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee
- 2 teaspoons milk
- icing/powdered sugar (just enough to make a thick icing)
- chopped roasted hazelnuts (optional)
Instructions
Cake:
- Prepare a small baking pan - mine was an 18cm (7") by greasing and using baking paper on the bottom of the pan.
- Using an electric mixer or food processor, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (around 3-4 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Whisk the egg in, just until well incorporated.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda and then add to the wet ingredients. Stir just until combined.
- Add the instant coffee to the milk and mix together. Leave for a minute or two until the coffee dissolves.
- Turn on your Airfryer (about two minutes before the cake is ready to bake).
- Add the coffee and milk mixture to the other ingredients. Don't over mix, just stir until everything is combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan and place it in your air fryer on 155℃ (311℉) for around 20-25 minutes. Check every now and again to make sure it's not browning too quickly on top. The cake is ready when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in the pan for around ten minutes, then remove the outer edge (if using a springform). After about 30 minutes, turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Coffee Icing:
- Mix the milk and instant coffee together, and leave for a couple of minutes to make sure the coffee has dissolved.
- Add as much icing sugar to reach your desired consistency.
- Pour over the cake, and think sprinkle a few chopped roasted hazelnuts (if using). Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- You can use regular flour instead of spelt. I often interchange spelt and regular flour (and have never had any issues at all), but for the sake of transparency, I have not made this recipe with anything other than spelt flour.