I had a woman call me tonight asking for a coffee flavored cake. I've heard of adding instant coffee to icing to get a coffee flavor but I have never made or heard of a coffee flavored cake.

Anyone have any ideas???

I've heard of "coffee cake" but not a coffee flavored cake.

If it were me I'd tell her that it's not one of the flavors I offer.

Reason being, what if you make it and then you don't like how it tastes?

I only sell flavors that I've perfected over the years, since they represent my business I want to be sure they're delicious.

A Kahlua cake with coffee added as the liquid would be great. I baked a chocolate cake a little too dry once, so I used a simple syrup made with leftover coffee instead of water - Oh My! Filled with a coffee flavored BC!

Do you use mix or are you a from scratch person? I'm wondering if you could swap out strong coffee for water. I have a honey cake recipe that calls for strong coffee in it, but there are so many other spices that it is more like a spice cake, so the coffee is not really pronounced. It's also a scratch cake. The amount of water needed for cake mixes might lend itself well to the coffee. I think a test will be necessary. Try it 2 ways: use a mix and sub one w/ 1/2 water, 1/2 coffee and the other subbing all coffee. If you do this, it would be great to hear the results. Good luck!

Of course Kahlua! It's actually one that I offer The name "coffee" threw me

I make a coffee flavored cake with coffee flavored SMBC with chopped chocolate covered espresso beans in it. Yummo.

I replace some of the water with strong espresso, about 1/2 c. I also add 1 tsp of coffee flavoring. Sometimes I add Kahlua, sometimes I dont, depends on what they want.

For the BC I use Kahlua (its best), or you can use more strong espresso and flavoring.

Its very good as a mocha cake too. Think light chocolate flavor with coffee. Delish with fudgey ganache filling.

We usually use mixes. I am capable of making a cake from scratch but this was just thrown at me last minute. Its a bride's mother. She just realized she wants a shower cake for this saturday. She said she tasted a coffee flavored cake at a bridal show and thought it would be gross for a wedding but good for a shower. She is talking about having it with choc icing (BC). It sounds just awful to me. If you have recipes I'd appreciate it.

I didn't mean to knock cake mixes at all-I use them too! I'm sorry if it came across that way-please accept my apology. I was just thinking that since mixes have you add water, it might be easier to sub the water for coffee.

LOL I didnt take it that way. I honestly dont even know what flavor mix to start with. Being that my husband and I are not coffee drinkers I dont even know what would taste appealing. Coffee and choc...coffee and yellow...No idea. Then the idea of the coffee with butter cream sounds even worse to me.

We arent professionals. Our cakes are very basic, its my husband's decorating that people come to us for. the cakes and icing are usually very very basic.

WHEW! Anyway, I would think that a chocolate cake mix would be good and then you could have mocha. Otherwise a white or yellow cake mix would be my guess. I'm going to the omnipotent google now. If I find anything I'll post it for you.

If you normally use mixes, just sub espresso (or strong coffee) for the water. For the filling I'd do something mocha... chocolate and coffee (you could add some kahlua as well). It's very good.

When adding coffee to chocolate cake you usually won't taste it in the end. The chocolate cake I make has a good amount of strong coffee (2 cups to be exact and it makes two round 10" layers) in it and you can't taste it when it's baked. To taste the coffee I'd start with a vanilla base cake.

Hazelnut is also good with coffee flavored cake. Just mix some nutella in with your buttercream and there you go.

Thank for the suggestions. She is coming tomorrow to drop off a sample of the invitation so the scroll work can be put on the cake. I'm going to make a small one tonight with the coffee so she can sample the flavor.

If you want the coffee flavor to come through most, use a strong coffee and replace the water in a white cake mix (I don't scratch bake so I don't know how to do the subbing there). If you don't drink coffee or have any on hand then you can always stop by a local coffee shop and buy a cup then put it in the fridge.

If you want a mocha taste I'd go for a mild chocolate cake, like the german chcolate mix and add the coffee to that.

You can also replace some of the liquid with a coffee liquor. Kalua and Starbucks are two brands. I'd replace about 1/3 of the water in the mix with the liqour and then use coffee for the rest of the water.

You can also make a simple syrup using coffee, liquor and sugar to brush on the cakes. This is what I did when I made a Tiramisu cake and Cake roll.

And if your recipe doesn't use water but uses milk or buttercream, you can use instant espresso or coffee mixed into the milk. That's what I do for my yellow cake recipe to make it a coffee flavor (I also use some Kahlua sometimes if make a White Russian cake). I use a few tablespoons stirred into the milk. It gives a nice strong coffee flavor to the cake.

Coffee cake with chocolate icing would be delicious - a mocha cake.

Thank you, you guys are making me feel much better. I'm going to try the white cake with the coffee substitute with the choc icing. Her main reason for wanting choc icing is because one of the colors is dk brown and she doesnt understand that we can achieve that with food coloring lol. But the choc and coff may be good.