Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake

I know most of you know this already...but I love coffee!

I've talked about it when I made the chocolate teacakes with Earl Grey Icing and Monica talked about my obsession with her guest post of coffee chocolate chip muffins. (By the way, I made these muffins last weekend and they were amazingly delicious!!)

I love coffee so much that my mother even bought me a Keurig for Christmas (score!!).

So you can probably imagine how broken hearted I am by the fact that this baby doesn't really care for coffee.

When I was pregnant with Little Butt, I tried so hard to stop drinking coffee, but couldn't. This baby?? I don't crave it at all.

Sadly, I had to dust off my Keurig the other day.

So you're probably wondering what I'm doing posting about a coffee Heath Bar crunch cake.

Well, one: this was last month's Cake Slice Bakers cake of choice for February (yes, I realize it's March and that I'm late. What of it??)

Two: since I can't enjoy my beloved coffee in it's liquid form, I can enjoy the taste in baked goods.

And three: The Hubble's favorite candy bar of all time is toffee and chocolate.

I sent The Hubble to the store to grab some Heath bars for me to chop up at first. He brought home Skor bars. Since I procrastinated so long, he ended up eating all 5 of the bars he brought home for me to bake with.

Therefore, I moved to chips! LOL!

What's neat about this recipe is that you can tailor it to your families tastes. If you don't like coffee...leave it out. If you like coffee but have small kids, use decaf espresso (that's what I did)! There are different ways you can prepare this cake.

Any way you make it, prepare yourself for a treat. The brown sugar and butter in the fluffy, moist cake provide the perfect compliment to the buttery taste of the toffee topping.

What I especially loved about this cake was the texture. The contrast of the chewy cake with the crunchy toffee bits was heaven in my mouth.

This cake is definitely a winner and sure to liven up any brunch, lunch, dinner or midnight snack (hopefully you used decaf for that one!).

So let's hop in the kitchen and get to baking!

Ingredients: unbleached all purpose flour, granulated sugar (there's no granulated sugar in this recipe. I don't know why it's in this picture. It must be habit to pull it out), light brown sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla extract, egg, egg yolk, milk, Heath toffee chips, butter and espresso powder.

In a medium bowl, toss in the Heath chips, 2 Tablespoons of the brown sugar, 2 Tablespoons of flour and 1 Tablespoon softened butter. Mix together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles large crumbs. Kind of like a streusel topping. Put that bad boy in the refrigerator until ready to use.

In another medium mixing bowl, whisk in the rest of the flour, the salt, baking powder and espresso powder. Mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream together the butter and remaining brown sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.

Turn the mixer to low and toss in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Scrape sides of bowl as necessary.

Now it's time to do that oh so loved alternating thing. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition and keep the mixer on low. Alternating with the flour and milk mixture, dump in 1/3 of the flour mixture...

Then half the milk. Alternate with the rest of the flour and milk, ending with the flour mixture.

Evenly spread the batter into a greased 9 inch springform pan.

Grab that toffee topping out of the fridge and evenly sprinkle it over the top of the batter in the pan.

Bake the cake in a preheated 350 degree F oven until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 55-60 minutes.

When the cake is done baking, cool on a wire rack in the pan for 5 minutes. Release the sides of the pan and use a spatula to transfer the cake from the bottom of the springform pan to the cooling rack. Cool completely.

Serve and enjoy!!

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Coffee Heath Bar Crunch Cake
Retrieved from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

Printer Friendly Version

Ingredients:

For the Streusel

• 1 cup Heath bar toffee chips
• 2 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon butter, softened

For the Cake

• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon instant espresso powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk

Directions:

For the Streusel

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch round springform pan.
2. Combine Heath chip, brown sugar, flour and butter in medium mixing bowl. Work mixture with fingers until it resembles large crumbs.
3. Refrigerate until ready to use.

For the Cake

1. Combine the flour, espresso powder, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. 
2. Cream together the butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium high speed until fluff, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
3. With the mixer on low, add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, 1/2 of the milk; scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Repeat, alternating flour and milk, ending with flour.
5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth into an even layer with a spatula.
6. Evenly distribute the streusel
7. Bake the cake in the preheated oven until it is golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. 
8. Let the cake cool 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 the wire rack. Cool completely.
9. Cut into wedges and serve!
10. Enjoy!!!