Coffee Cake with Chocolate/Cinnamon
2/3 cup 2% milk
2 tbsp instant coffee
2 2/3 cups cake flour
4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp dark cocoa powder
2-3 Tbsp cinnamon powder
Extra shortening for greasing pan
Batter: In a small pot, heat the milk until almost steaming and then
transfer into a measuring cup. Stir in the instant coffee until dissolved
and then set it aside to cool.
Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together twice and then set
flour mixture aside.
Position an oven rack on the second to lower level and then preheat oven to
350’. Grease Bundt pan with extra shortening.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar on high speed until frothy,
occasionally scraping bowl. Add in the shortening and oil; mix until
incorporated and smooth. Add in the vanilla and coffee milk mixture, and mix
well; the cake mixture will thin out and look curdled.
Gradually blend in the flour mixture and then mix on high speed for 2
minutes, occasionally scraping the bowl; the batter should be smooth and
creamy.
Chocolate/Cinnamon Streams: Plop tablespoonfuls of batter to cover 1" of the bottom of the Bundt pan; don’t smooth out the plops of batter. Dust the
plops with cocoas and cinnamon; you don’t have to completely cover the
batter. Plop a few more tablespoonfuls of batter, but this time, space the
plops about 1-1/2 inches apart (leaving gaps between them). Dust the plops
with cocoa and cinnamon powder. For the last plops, don’t dust them (the
powders will burn). Simply smooth out the tops evenly to conceal cocoa and
cinnamon, and then gently tap the bottom of the pan to break up any air
bubbles.
Bake cake in preheated oven for 38-40 minutes; don’t over bake. Cool the
cake in its pan for 7-8 minutes, invert onto a wire rack and then cool
completely in an upside down position.
Dust the cake with a bit of icing sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon powder.
Store the cake in a tightly sealed plastic container.