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New Kings Coffee “After-Christmas” Cake

The perfect cake for those days in between Christmas and New Year’s when you’re not entirely sure what to do with yourself.

December 2022

By Savannah Coombe / 4 min read

“After-Christmas” Cake

This Christmas season we wanted to make something packed with delicious coffee flavour and a sense of festivity without being overwhelmingly “Christmassy”. This is the perfect cake for those days in between Christmas and New Year’s when you’re not entirely sure what to do with yourself. The ultimate dessert to follow Christmas leftovers! This isn’t your average cake, while it’s moist and packed with spices, the cherries add a pop of sweetness and the salted pistachios on the ‘streusel’ (the crunchy top layer) take it to another level. The hint of bitter coffee rounds it all off with a delicious flavour. It’s a cake for when you’ve had slightly too much Christmas pudding and want something a little different (but still sweet). 

This is a vegan recipe, but if you are simply after a cake made with our coffee there are a couple of substitutions to make this non-vegan. You can swap the flaxseed and water for 4 large eggs, the vegan butter for regular butter, the vegan sour cream for regular sour cream and the coconut cream for heavy cream. If you are looking for a recipe that is simply dairy-free, just substitute the flaxseed and water for eggs and leave the butter vegan, sour cream and heavy cream as is.

After-Christmas Cake

Serves 12

“After-Christmas” Cake

For this recipe we use the contents of two New Kings Coffee bags. You could use any one of our bags you prefer, but we recommend the light roast for its fruity notes. No need to brew the coffee, gently tear open the coffee bags at the top and use the contents as instructed in the recipe. The empty bags can be added to your food waste bin. 

Ingredients:

Cake:
4 tbsp flaxseed ground
12 tbsp water (for the flaxseeds)
360g plain flour 
1 tsp salt 
½ tsp baking soda 
½ tsp baking powder
400g white sugar 
225g vegan butter room temperature
2tsp vanilla extract 
2 New Kings Coffee bags
120g vegan sour cream (see blow to make your own)•
100g fresh, pitted cherries (or glacé cherries) 

Streusel:
100g shelled, roasted and salted pistachios chopped
120g plain flour
200g light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon 
1 tsp ground nutmeg 
½ tsp salt 
120g vegan butter melted

Icing:
140g icing sugar
2 tbsp coconut oil
3 tsp non-dairy milk
½ tsp vanilla extract 
Pinch of salt 

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease a 25cm cake tin (with or without a hole in the middle). 
2. Combine the ground flaxseed with the 12 tbsp water in a small bowl and set aside for a minimum of five minutes. 
3. Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. 
4. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and vegan butter using a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, this should take about 4 minutes. 
5. Turn the mixer down to its lowest speed and slowly add the vanilla and flaxseed mix. Tear open the coffee bags (remove the outer packaging first) and slowly add the coffee grounds. You can dispose of the empty bags in your food waste bin 
6. Alternating between the two, slowly add the flour mix and vegan sour cream to the butter bowl. Make sure you start and end with the flour mix and mix well between each addition. Fold in the cherries. 
7. Pour the mix into the greased cake tin. 
8. For the topping, mix the pistachios, flour, light brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the vegan butter and sprinkle over the top of the cake tin. 
9. Bake for 60 to 70 minutes in the preheated oven. A cocktail stick should come out clean when stuck into the cake. 
10. Allow it to cool in the pan for 30 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack, with the topping side up. 11. Blend all the ingredients for the icing in a blender for about 30 seconds until liquid. Drizzle over the top of the cake and enjoy! 

*Sour Cream Recipe: If you struggle to find vegan sour cream, you can make it at home.

Follow this simple recipe:

Blend 150g of cashews, 50ml of lime juice, 110ml of water, ½ salt and 2 tsp of nutritional yeast in a high-powered blender. Blitz until the mixture reaches a thick and creamy consistency. 

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