Microwave Coffee House Gâteau Recipe

For those of you who think that you can't really bake with a microwave, here is a traditional coffee-shop cake that's been adapted to be cooked in a microwave.

Yes, that's right, a Genoese-style sponge cake prepared with just a microwave!!

Microwave Coffee House Gâteau

Serves: 6–8

Ingredients:

4 eggs
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
100g (1 cup, scant) plain flour
50g (1/4 cup) butter
pinch of salt

For the Filling and Topping:

40g (1/3 cup) cornflour (cornstarch)
150ml (3/5 cup) milk
215g (1 cup, heaped) light brown sugar
350g (1 3/4 cups) butter
65g (1/2 cup) walnuts, finely chopped
thin chocolate wafers, to decorate

Method:

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl, add the sugar and whisk with the eggs until the mixture is pale and creamy and has trebled in volume.

Place the butter in a microwave-safe bowl and cook in your microwave at FULL power for about 60 seconds, or until just melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour and salt then sprinkle over the egg mixture. Whilst folding gently with a metal spoon add the melted butter in a slow, steady, stream. Continue folding the mixture together until evenly combined, but take care not to over-mix.

Line a 20cm (8 in) diameter soufflé dish (or silicone cake mould) with clingfilm (plastic wrap) and sit a circle of greaseproof (waxed) paper in the base. Turn your batter into this mould then transfer to your microwave. Cook on FULL power for between 3.5 and 4 minutes, depending on your microwave's power,.

Allow the cake to stand for 8 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before slicing and decorating.

For the filling and topping, blend the cornflour (cornstarch) with 8 tbsp of the milk to form a smooth slurry. Mix together the remaining milk in a microwave-proof jug and stir in the coffee and sugar.

Place in your microwave and cook on FULL power for 80 seconds. Add the cornflour and milk blend, whisking to combine, then return to the microwave and cook for 2 minutes at a time, stirring at the end of every 2 minutes, until the mixture is thick. Remove from the microwave and set aside to cool completely.

Cream the butter, then gradually work in the cold coffee mixture, beating well until smooth.

Take 1/3 of this mixture and fold in just under half the walnuts. Slice the cake horizontally into three equal-sized layers and use the coffee-walnut mixture to sandwich the layers together.

Use half the remaining coffee mixture to spread over the top and sides of the cake. Press the remaining walnuts into the sides of the cake, then decorate the sides with the chocolate wafers.

Place the remaining coffee mixture in a piping bag fitted with a star-shaped nozzle and pipe swirls on top of the cake.

Slice into wedges and serve.

For hundreds more classic recipes to be cooked in the microwave (all kinds of surprising recipes!) why not visit the Celtnet Microwave Recipes and Microwave cooking pages?