Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake, gluten-free, from author @DarylWoodGerber

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Blum's Coffee Crunch Cake, gluten-free, from author @DarylWoodGerber

As a girl, I ate at Blum’s Café with my grandmother and sisters. It was our day out, buying party dresses and then going for “tea.” The restaurant was pink and situated in the Stanford Shopping Center back when there were just a few shops and not a hard-to-navigate oversized mall! Man, is it big now!

I remember how good this cake was, and I made it years ago with a recipe passed on to me by my grandmother, but that recipe has vanished! Oh, my. So I browsed the Internet looking for the recipe when I stumbled on a Martha Stewart recipe.

Now, I didn’t make her cake. She made a bundt cake and I promise you, the Blum’s cake was not a bundt cake. It was layered. I recall 4 layers. I decided for 2 layers, and if I'd had more time, I would have made the cake itself from scratch.

Instead, I used a gluten-free Betty Crocker yellow cake mix.

The magic is in the whipped cream frosting and the candy that pops in your mouth.

So here are those recipes. So easy!

Make the candy first. It has to cool for 30 minutes, and you'll have lots left over for snacking.

Coffee Crunch Candy

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups sugar

¼ cup strong brewed coffee (I used espresso)

¼ cup light corn syrup

1 tablespoon baking soda, sifted

Directions:

Line a 15 x 9 pan with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a 4-quart saucepan, combine the sugar, coffee, and corn syrup. Bring to a boil. Cook over medium heat to just below the hard-crack stage (310 degrees on a candy thermometer.) NOTE: I put this mixture into too large a pot and had to hold the candy thermometer, so do use only a 4-quart saucepan! This takes about 10-12 minutes to get to 310 degrees. (I stirred often.)

Remove from heat for 10 seconds and then sprinkle the baking soda evenly over the sugar syrup. Whisk until combined. This will foam up and turn light brown. Pour immediately onto the parchment paper and spread out so it’s bubbly-flat.

In thirty minutes, tap the candy with a wooden spoon to crack into small bits.

COFFEE WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING

1 ½ cups heavy cream

¼ cup strong brewed coffee (I used espresso)

3 tablespoons refined sugar

In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Do NOT overwhip or it’ll turn into butter. Add coffee and sugar and beaet to combine. Use immediately.

[I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE!

BUT YOU ALL KNOW WHAT WHIPPED CREAM LOOKS LIKE!]

TO CONSTRUCT CAKE

I made one 8” layer (per gluten-free mix instructions) and sliced the yellow cake in half. I believe a regular mix using regular flower would yield 2 8”-inch rounds.

Mound half the whipped cream on the lower half (leaving an inch from the edge). Top with the other cake and frost with the rest of the frosting, on top only. Now mound about half of the candy on top.

If desired, you can put candy in the interior, as well. I think it would be delicious. I reserved some of the candy. I’m now going to try to make Blum’s Coffee Crunch ice cream. I’ll let you know how it turns out.