I hate to blame the recipe, but there were more holes in it than a sieve. The official recipe from the BBC Food website - where I download them every week - had dodgy quantities, vague instructions and the method was so full of grammatical errors that it seemed apparent that no-one had thought to proof read it before publishing. I think it's meant to be a variation of the Mokatines in Mary Berry's Baking Bible, but I couldn't make much sense of either one. It could just be me, but it was a nightmare!
I suppose it didn't help that I was on a time limit this weekend so really could have done with it going a lot smoother than it did. For the first time it felt almost like a real Technical Challenge and I hated it! Obviously I had a lot longer on the clock than the bakers to account for photographing/tidying up etc. but it was still ridiculously stressful!
The original recipe can be found on the BBC Food website here (although I really wouldn't recommend it), and it's also below edited with my notes and photographs.
Ingredients:
For the genoise sponge:
40g/1½oz butter
3 large free-range eggs
75g/2½oz caster sugar
65g/2¼oz self-raising flour
1 tbsp cornflour
For the coffee icing:
50g/1¾oz butter
1 tbsp instant coffee - make sure this is a powder (not the granules pictured) as it dissolves better
225g/8oz icing sugar, sifted
For the crème beurre au moka:
[These are the quantities I used from the original recipe, but you need to double them to make enough.]
40g/1½oz caster sugar
1 large free-range egg yolk
75g/2½oz softened butter
2 tsp coffee essence - be warned, this is near impossible to find. I checked Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose before calling in to a local cake shop, Fairy Dust Cake Shop, to ask for help. The lovely Helen gave me lots of advice for alternatives, but my mum managed to find this brand - the exact one Helen told me to look out for! - hidden on a bottom shelf in Asda. Top tip: go to Asda for coffee essence!
To assemble:
4 tbsp apricot jam
100g/3½oz chopped almonds, toasted (Waitrose do packs of 100g chopped almonds - saves so much time with the preparation!)
EITHER 100g/3½oz white ready-to-roll fondant icing with brown gel food colouring OR 100g brown fondant icing (Tesco have packs of 5 x 100g colours - one of which is brown - for £3.99. It saves so much faffing, and the other colours will definitely come in at a later date.)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a shallow 18cm/7in square cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. I didn't have a shallow tin, but a loose-bottomed deep 18cm tin seemed to work fine.
For the genoise, gently melt the butter, then set to one side to cool slightly.
Measure the eggs and sugar into a large bowl or a free-standing electric mixer with a whisk attachment and whisk at full speed until the mixture is pale, mousse-like and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted from the mixture.
Sift the flours together into a bowl. Carefully fold half the flour into the egg mixture.
Then gently pour half the cooled butter around the edge of the mixture and fold in.
Repeat with the remaining flour and butter. I hate this stage of a genoise as I'm always terrified I'm either going to knock all of the air out or leave huge lumps of flour/butter. Don't be overly gentle (as I always am) but equally don't go overboard on the mixing and destroy all the air!
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until well risen and the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed with a finger.
Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack. It's extremely delicate, so be careful when handling the sponge!
To make the coffee icing, DO NOT FOLLOW THE ORIGINAL RECIPE: IT'S RUBBISH. The BBC say to: "measure the butter into a small pan and gently heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the coffee powder until dissolved. Add the icing sugar and beat until smooth and glossy. Set aside to thicken." This does not work. At all. I tried it twice and each time it was a total disaster - these quantities create icing sugar with lumps of coffee and not a smooth frosting as expected. On my second attempt I managed a more even sandy consistency (the type you get with a Hummingbird Bakery frosting recipe before you add the milk to bind it together) but I abandoned it with a thoroughly overdramatic flourish on the verge of a meltdown. Both times however, proved that there just isn't enough liquid to create the desired result.
Instead, I tried my own method - third time lucky - using what little baking knowledge I could muster in a mad panic and it worked like a treat. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the coffee powder (definitely not granules as I tried to start with - they don't dissolve properly).
Pour this coffee mixture onto the icing sugar and mix them together until it forms a sandy consistency.
Add a splash of milk - a little at a time - and beat with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together to a thick, smooth buttercream. Cover and set aside until you're ready to use it.
For the crème au beurre moka, measure the sugar and 2 tablespoons water into a small heavy-based pan. Heat very gently until the sugar has dissolved - remember to let it dissolve on its own: don't feel the need to keep staring the sugar. Bring to the boil then boil steadily for 2-3 minutes or until the syrup is clear and forms a slim thread when pulled apart between 2 teaspoons. (CAUTION: melted sugar is very hot. Take care not to burn yourself).
Put the egg yolk into a small bowl and give it a quick whisk to break it up. The original recipe had the plurals in that sentence despite only requiring 1 egg yolk in the ingredients. EUGH. Do yourself a favour and double up on all the quantities for the crème au beurre moka: the original doesn't produce enough in the end.
Add the syrup in a thin stream over the yolks, whisking all the time until all the syrup is incorporated and the mixture is thick and cold (it’s easiest to do this in a freestanding mixer).
In another bowl, cream the butter until very soft and gradually beat in the egg yolk mixture. Stir in the coffee essence to flavour. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a number 7 star nozzle.
To assemble, cut the cold cake in half horizontally, trim the sides and cut into 9 equal squares.
Sandwich the slices together with the coffee icing. Given how delicate the genoise is, it's a lot easier to pipe the icing onto the squares rather than potentially ruin the sponge trying to spread it with a palette knife.
From this stage onwards I was so panicky and stressed my camera lay forgotten about on the kitchen table, sorry! Heat the apricot jam in a pan, then pass through a sieve into a small bowl. Brush the sides of the cakes with apricot jam (I found the back of a spoon the best way to spread it) and press the chopped almonds around the sides.
Pipe tiny rosettes of crème au beurre moka very close together around the top edge of the cakes (they should create a solid outline that can be filled with icing). Using the original quantities I only managed to complete 8 of the mokatines. What an absolute joke! Luckily, I had some of the coffee icing left over so finished off the last one with that. If you'd doubled the quantities then I'm sure you'd be able to finished the tops and pipe tiny rosettes of crème au beurre moka around bottom edge of the cakes too, as instructed.
For the fondant icing, knead the fondant icing until soft (if it’s really hard heat it in a microwave for a few seconds). Using a food processor (beating it with a wooden spoon until smooth just doesn't work properly) blitz the fondant icing with 2 tablespoons of water. Add a little more if needed, but the full 4 tablespoons really isn't required. I stopped at 3 and even then my fondant was ridiculously runny. Carefully spoon the glaze into the centre of the top of the cakes and leave to set in the fridge.
Enjoy!
If it's not already clear, I hated this recipe! Like Nadiya on the show, I'd seen these before in Mary Berry's book and immediately dismissed them as they looked too fiddly! Having now made them, I can confirm that they are indeed unnecessarily fiddly, but I imagine if you start with a better recipe and the correct quantities they're actually not that bad. I just find it very difficult to make sense of a recipe when I've followed it to the letter and it doesn't work. I often spend too long trying to work out the minutia of what went wrong rather than focussing on what I could adapt to make it work the next time and getting on with a second (or third) attempt! Maybe making Mokatines won't be such a car crash if I try them again, as long as I tread a little more carefully and remember not to panic!
Personally, I think they look a little untidy, but given the circumstances I'm not going to complain... The crème au beurre moka was an absolute pain to pipe, and my fondant was way too runny. I photographed these after they'd been in the fridge for half an hour, but even 6 hours of chilling later they were still in the same state which is annoying!
That being said, they did taste pretty good indeed... I'd only have them if you like coffee as it's a little overwhelming, but the lightness of the sponge and the crunchy almonds offset the coffee perfectly so it's not too bad even if you're not a fan!
So, what do you think of these Mokatines? Will you be giving them a go or passing on this one? Do let me know in the comments below!
They look fabulous!
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