[Urbane Guerrilla]

It's been twenty years now since I made this, but oh boy... from the Coach House Restaurant in Aurora, Colorado.

Coffee Kahlua Cake

First: 1 8-inch [20cm] layer white cake, as follows:

3 1/2 cups [823ml] cake flour
2 tsp [10ml] double-acting baking powder
1/2 tsp [2.5ml] salt
2 cups [473ml] sugar
1 cup [236.6ml] butter
1 cup [236.6ml] milk
1 tsp [5ml] vanilla extract
7 or 8 egg whites

Equip: flour sifter, 3 8" cake pans, greased; mixing bowls.

Have everything at about room temperature. Sift Cake Flour before measuring, then resift twice with Baking Powder and Salt. Sift Sugar and cream Butter well; add the sifted sugar gradually to the creamed butter and continue creaming until very light. Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter in 3 parts, alternately with thirds of the cup of Milk. Stir the cake batter until smooth after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and if desired, 1/4 tsp [1.3ml] Almond Extract. Whip Egg Whites until stiff but not dry. Fold egg whites lightly into cake batter. Bake at 350 F in greased pans for about 25 minutes. Makes 3 8" rounds.

Next, the Kahlua Cream Filling:

1 8-inch layer white cake as above
1 1/2 cup [359.5ml] powdered sugar
2 fl oz [59ml] Kahlua
6 serving packages Sanka, dissolved in teaspoon [5ml] warm water; or like quantity of other instant coffee
2 1/2 cups [591.5ml] whipping cream

Equip: mixer, mixing bowls, spatula.

Whip Cream and add in Powdered Sugar. Fold in Kahlua and Coffee. Slice cake layer in half and fill with this cream, if you're going for six layer cake, or else just keep it at three.

Then, the Kahlua Butter Frosting:

1 lb butter [454g]
4 cups [946.5ml] powdered sugar
2 eggs [English or Metric]
1/2 tsp [2.5ml] vanilla extract
2 fl oz [59ml] Kahlua, again
6 serving packages Sanka or other instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tsp [5ml] warm water

Combine all in mixer, frost cake's outside and top. This is a quite stiff frosting; take care not to break your rubber spatula in it getting it out of the bowl. A metal spatula stands up better to this stuff.

I ran into this eating at the Coach House; Mom later got me the recipe book -- The Best of Colorado's Gourmet Gold.