Cake With A Crunch

I know I've been MIA lately, but I'm hoping this cake will more than make up for it. If you like cake, and coffee, and chocolate covered Heath toffee bits, then you'll love this cake. These are all some of my favorite baking flavors so this cake was delicious to me. It doesn't look like much, but it's packed full of flavor with an espresso laced cake, and a buttery toffee crumble on top. It's very simple and ready in less than an hour, from start to finish.

I do have some good news in that I'm finally feeling better. I still have a little congestion and I managed to get my brother and husband sick in the process but we are finally back in the game and doing much better. Although my brother does not admit to being sick. He says sickness is all a state of mind, yet he was asking for cough syrup and his throat was hurting and he was congested like the rest of us. Yeah okay, if you say so. I'm mentioning my brother because his birthday was Thursday when I made this cake. He was staying with us for about a week and left right before I made this so he didn't get to taste it. But I did think of him while I ate it :-). Happy 30th birthday Joe!

This cake had a great contrast of textures. The cake base was moist and tender but the crumbly streusel topping was crunchy and sweet. I really like coffee flavored things, but if you're not a fan, the instant espresso could easily be omitted and you'll be left with a vanilla batter that would still be delicious with the chocolate and toffee. Lauren Chattman (the author of this book) says this cake was developed because of a love for an ice cream with similar flavors. I don't know what ice cream flavor that would be, but I want some! To check out all the other Cake Slice Bakers, click the link.

Coffee Heath Bar Cake from Cake Keeper Cakes

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For the Cake:

• 1½ cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp instant espresso powder (optional, see note)
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1½ tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

For the Streusel:

• 4 Heath bars (1.4 oz. each) chopped, or 1 cup prechopped Heath bits
• 2 tbsp light brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp butter, softened

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch round springform pan.

For the Streusel: Combine the Heath toffee bits, brown sugar, flour and butter in a medium mixing bowl. Work the mixture with your fingers until it resembles large crumbs. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Cake: Combine the flour, espresso powder, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

Combine the butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

With the mixer on low speed, add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.With the mixer on low speed, add a third of the flour mixture and then half the milk, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Repeat, alternating the flour and milk, ending with the flour.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer with a spatula. Scatter the streusel onto the batter, distributing it evenly over the cake.

Bake the cake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes (Mine was done in 50 minutes). Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and use a large spatula to slide the cake from the pan bottom to onto a wire rack.

Cool completely, cut into wedges and serve. Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

NOTE: If you don't enjoy the coffee flavoring, it can be omitted from the recipe.

Some Call It Crack

For my 100th post (2 years ago) I shared a recipe for Graham Break-Aways. It's a layered snack of graham crackers, buttery toffee, chocolate with a sprinkling of nuts on top. It's a decadent treat that my husband adores. I like them too, but I saw this recipe for saltine toffee and thought I'd give it a try. It's basically the same concept with salty crackers on the bottom instead of the grahams. And since we bought a case of Saltines from Sam's Club, I thought this was a good idea!

I did make a boo-boo when it came to the recipe though. It calls for 1 cup one butter, and I mistook that as 1 stick even though I read the recipe about 3 times as I was making it. I didn't realize my mistake until after I had taken them out of the oven- my bad! The saltine toffee was good but I'm sure it could have been better with the extra stick of butter...that's a no brainer! I liked these but still prefer the the ones made with grahams simply because of the texture of the cracker. Definitely super sweet and addicting though- some have even refereed to it as crack. Try it and decide for yourself!

Saltine Toffee from All Recipes

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• 35 saltine crackers (4 ounces)
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spread out saltine crackers in single layer.

In a saucepan combine the sugar and the butter. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. Immediately pour over saltines and spread to cover crackers completely.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Spread melted chocolate and top with chopped nuts.

Cool completely and break into pieces.

Cookies For A Friend

Over the holidays, I met one of my favorite blogger friends- Maranda of Jolts & Jollies. She emailed me awhile back and we chatted back and forth. In our conversations I found out that she was also living in Texas, but was about to relocate to another state, following her army husband. I also learned that her mom and I lived in the same town and she was coming to visit for Christmas. That also meant that I was going to meet her too! yay!

Maranda and I at her friends' house.

She and her family were staying with friends in a neighboring town, so I offered to pick her up for a girls lunch. We went to a cute little English cafe for toasties, french press coffee and homemade shortbread. Maranda was a doll and far more beautiful than I ever expected. Upon meeting her, I wanted to give her a gift of homemade cookies (in fact, they're the only cookies I made this Christmas.) I knew she liked white chocolate, toffee and coconut so these cookies were the perfect fit. I never heard back whether or not she liked them, but I'm hoping that she did.

These cookies are adapted from one that my boss gave me ages ago. Her mom used to bake them and share with us during the holidays. I changed them up a bit and made them with dark chocolate last year, but this year I stuck to the original recipe but decided to add a handful of shredded and sweetened coconut for chew factor. You can omit the coconut if you like because they're just as good without it. They're buttery, crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle and addicting!

White Chocolate, Toffee & Coconut Cookies

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• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup toffee bits
• 1 pkg. (12 oz.) white chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup shredded coconut, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter and both sugars together, then add egg and vanilla, stir.

Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt just til combined. Stir in toffee bits, white chocolate and coconut, if using.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

Makes 6 dozen

Day 5- Dark Chocolate Toffee Cookies

This recipe was given to me by my ex-boss' mother several years ago. Only, the original recipe dubbed- Yummy White Chocolate Toffee Cookies- called for white chocolate chunks. I fell in love with this cookie the first time I had it. They were so sweet and buttery.

I decided since I was already making a couple other cookies this Christmas using white chocolate, I'd use intense dark chocolate (70 % cocoa) bars from Lindt instead. I chopped up a couple of bars, then added enough semi-sweet chips to make 12 ounces. Both versions are wonderfully delicious. They're buttery, chewy on the inside, crisp on the outside, caramelly from the toffee and rich from the dark chocolate. These are good! My husband had 4 total as I was baking them. He kept walking through the kitchen to eat them. He liked these better than the white chocolate version because they weren't as sweet. Use whatever chocolate you like!

Dark Chocolate Toffee Cookies

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup toffee bits
• 1 pkg. (12 oz.) dark chocolate chips or chunks

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter and both sugars together, then add egg and vanilla, stir. Mix in flour, baking soda, and salt just til combined. Stir in toffee bits and chocolate.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool for a couple minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely.

**makes 6 dozen**

NOTE: This recipe was originally made with white chocolate chunks. They're really good that way, but a little too sweet. I subbed dark chocolate for the white and added a little vanilla and they were perfect!

I don't have a small ice cream scoop (hopefully there wil be one in my stocking this year!) so I rolled the dough into one-inch balls so they were uniform sizes, but you can use two spoons to drop the cookie dough on the cookie sheet.