Vegan Coffee Crunch Cake

Blum’s Coffee Crunch Cake might be one of my favourite cakes of all time so I absolutely had to make a vegan version! It is a combination of light sponge cake layers smothered in coffee-infused whipped cream frosting and topped off with shards of coffee honeycomb.

This vintage American cake is a great lesson in the power of great texture. Despite the bounteous amounts of sugar and no real solace from the sweet flavours, there is something quite special about the juxtaposition of fluffy and crisp textures.

A short history of this cake:

The origins of this cake come from a quaint confectionery shop called “Blum’s” in San Francisco back in 1892. One fateful afternoon at the Blum’s confectionery, an employee overboiled some soft coffee sweets and accidentally produced coffee honeycomb. The Cordon Bleu-trained pastry chef judiciously repurposed the failed sweets by smashing them into pieces and placing them onto a lemon-vanilla sponge with whipped cream.

This cake went onto become the confectionery’s beloved Coffee Crunch Cake, which unfortunately closed in the 70s. However, you’ll still be able to find this delicious cake in San Francisco at the Sweet Stop in the Bay area.

I could go on and on about how delicious this cake is but this recipe is a long one so let’s dive straight in! One quick word of warning – this is a very serve immediately kind of gig! Just like meringue, honeycomb is porous and absorbs moisture VERY quickly so you’ll only have a few hours before the honeycomb starts to become wet and melt.

Like many bakes, we have to overcome some hurdles as vegans to make this non-vegan recipe completely plant-based@

Three challenges:

• the vanilla cake, typically with eggs and whipped egg whites folded in
• the heavy, whipped cream frosting
• coffee honeycomb

For the vanilla cake I’ll be adapting my easy foolproof vanilla cake recipe here! I could have produced a vegan cake that has a “beaten egg whites” element to it (using aquafaba) to get an identical texture but it requires a lot of extra work and ingredients you wouldn’t typically find in a home kitchen. Please see my vanilla cake recipe post for all the tips and tricks for a good, basic vegan cake! The only element I’ve changed is to add a some lemon juice and zest.

Next element, the whipped cream frosting. Now this is the most precarious element for us vegans. This is because you can’t just “make” heavy cream from kitchen ingredients. You can either purchase one from a store that’s been fortified and stabilised to emulate heavy cream effectively or use a substitute. Possible substitutes include coconut cream frosting, white bean frosting or even buttercream!

I will be using a shop-bought plant-based cream that we have here in the UK called Elmlea Plant Double Cream. This cream whips up beautifully just like the dairy equivalent and it’s what I’ve used in the recipe photos. Another great product to use as a replacement here is Oatly’s vegan creme fraiche.

I appreciate that as this is a new product and not everyone will have access to it so here’s a recipe for a coconut whipped cream if you need it:

Coconut whipped cream:

Ingredients:

• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 25 – 75g of icing sugar (depending on preferred sweetness)
• optional: 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 pinch of salt

Chill the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight or if possible for 48 hours (this guarantees the cream will stick to the top of the can).

Using a chilled mixing bowl, scoop out the coconut cream from the top of the can (avoiding the liquid) and add in the other ingredients.

Place on medium speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Serve immediately. Coconut cream is not room-temperature stable so you must keep this chilled at all times!

If you’re not a huge fan of whipped coconut cream you can also make your own soy-based double cream. You’ll need a soy cream base (these are widely accessible) and you would need to fortify the cream with stabilisers such as xanthan gum and some acids to make it whippable. Sara Kidd has a vegan whipped cream recipe in her Swedish Princess cake that you can find here! 

The honeycomb, or toffee sponge, is somewhat tricky but as long as you use a candy thermometer and a heavy duty saucepan you should be fine! Golden syrup (popular in the UK) can be substituted with corn syrup or glucose syrup if necessary!

For this recipe you’ll need:

• kitchen scale
• candy thermometer
• 2 x 8-inch cake tins
• silicone mat/parchment paper 

Enjoy!!

5 from 2 reviews

Vegan Coffee Crunch Cake

September 24, 2020

Servings: 16

Prep: 1 hr

Cook: 1 hr

Total: 3 hr

Difficulty: Hard

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Fluffy vegan vanilla sponges smothered in silky whipped cream, topped with shards of crunchy coffee honeycomb. All plant-based!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Cake:
• 500g plain flour
• 350g caster sugar
• 420ml soy milk (organic, room temperature)
• 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• 75g neutral oil (olive, vegetable, canola, etc.)
• 75g melted vegan butter
• 2 tbsp vanilla paste/extract
• Coffee Honeycomb:
• 450g sugar
• 90ml strong coffee
• 180g golden syrup
• 2 tsp baking soda, sifted
• pinch of salt
• Cream Frosting:
• 270ml Elmlea plant-based double cream
• 2 tbsp espresso powder
• 50g icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Directions

• Step 1 Cake: Pre-heat the oven to 180C (350F).
• Step 2 Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the lemon zest.
• Step 3 Add the apple cider vinegar to the plant milk and set aside to curdle for 5 minutes.
• Step 4 Grease two 8-inch round cake tins with vegan butter/oil. Cut circular discs of parchment to place at the bottom of the tins.
• Step 5 Add the vegetable oil, melted butter and vanilla paste, lemon juice to the curdled milk. Whisk together and then pour into the dry ingredients.
• Step 6 Mix the dry and wet ingredients together for less than 45 seconds and immediately divide between the two pans.
• Step 7 Bake for 40 minutes. Use a toothpick at the 35-minute mark to check they are cooked. If you’re using 6-inch cake plans then bake for 25 minutes.
• Step 8 Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack. After 1 hour of cooling. Place in the fridge to chill while you work on the honeycomb.
• Step 9 Coffee Honeycomb: Place a sheet of baking parchment (or silicone mat) on a flat surface and grease with oil.
• Step 10 Place the sugar, coffee, golden syrup and salt in a large heave-duty pan. Stir together these ingredients with a heat-proof silicon spatula and turn the heat up to medium. Place a sugar thermometer in the pan and bring up to 130C.
• Step 11 Once you reach 130C, turn the heat up to high and raise the temperature to 150C. Do not stir the mixture while it is heating up as you may incorporate sugar crystals from the edge of the pan into the mix and ruin the whole batch.
• Step 12 Turn off the heat and quickly add the baking soda. Stir rapidly until it is fully incorporated. The honeycomb will triple in size and be very volatile so handle with care. Quickly pour the honeycomb onto the greased mat in one swift motion. Do not touch the honeycomb once it is placed on the mat as this will break the structure and it is extremely hot.
• Step 13 Wait 1 hour and then smash into pieces with the back of a heavy spoon.
• Step 14 Whipped Cream Frosting: Using a chilled mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients on medium speed for 5 minutes until the cream has whipped up to soft peaks. Place in the fridge to chill while you assemble.
• Step 15 Assembly: Trim the domes off the cake layers if you want perfectly flat layers.
• Step 16 Remove the parchment paper from the first cake and place on a cake board/stand. Add a thin layer of whipped cream (or another flavour via a jam or curd).
• Step 17 Place the second layer of cake on top and then pipe a thin layer of cream all around the cake, using an offset spatula to create rustic swirl patterns.
• Step 18 Add shards of honeycomb to the cake in any pattern you like. Serve immediately!