Say hello to the most indulgent traybake in town. With a light and moist coffee and chocolate sponge and a rich ricotta cream topping, this is your favourite mocha in a cake.
You guys, this cake is a dream. It's as if a tiramisu and a mocha coffee made love and created this Mocha Sheet Cake. Plus, because it's a sheet cake, it feeds a crowd and went down sooooo well with all my colleagues. That's a winner right there in my book.
I had been wanting to make my nan's tiramisu for quite a while, but my boyfriend would take cake everyday rather than a pudding (though, don't worry, I will eventually make my nan's tiramisu and share it on here because it's the best tiramisu you will ever have). SO the conundrum started. I wanted a cake, and something I could share with others at work, now that we are back in the office a few days a week. But I also wanted something quite light and airy. It's definitely too hot for multi-layered, buttercream-covered cake. For this reason, I had that lightbulb moment when I decided to turn one of my favourite summer dessert (YES, We MaKe TiRaMisU iN sUmMeR, iT's NoT a HeAvY pUdDiNg Ok?!?!) and favourite drink, into a nice and easy cake. I knew I wanted to use ricotta in the frosting, as it is my favourite. So fresh and light, it doesn't even feel like frosting. For the sponge, I wanted something quick and not too dense. So I used cocoa powder rather than melting chocolate. Which also means I didn't have to use a double boiler, making this cake the ultimate easy, one-bowl sheet pan cake, aka the dream.
And here is how I did it.
Key Steps to Make This Easy Sheet Pan Cake:
Beat your eggs and sugar: mix well until you have a smooth, homogenous texture. That's one of the key passages that will give the sponge that light, melt-in-your-mouth texture.
Then add the wet ingredients: add your vanilla extract, double cream and cold coffee. At this point you will have a very liquid batter: don't panic, everything will be alright.
Now add the dry ingredients: whatever you do please, PLEASE, don't just dump your dry ingredients in the batter all at once. This will make the cake's texture dense and claggy. Instead sift all your dry ingredients (yes the cocoa powder and baking powder too - you can sift them all together or add one dry ingredient at a time) and add them to the batter a little at a time, making sure you have fully folded it into the cake mix, before you add more. I am telling you, this is a labour of love.
Bake: we are baking this cake on a relatively low temperature to make sure it doesn't get dry and burnt (sheet cakes are amazing at that) for about 25 to 28 mins.
Make your frosting: mix ricotta cheese and powdered sugar, until you have this light and fluffy frosting.
Final touches: let the cake completely cool down, then spread the ricotta in a thin layer with a spatula (I like brushing the spatula in different directions to create little uneven "waves"), then sprinkle with cocoa powder. Keep it in the fridge until ready to be enjoyed.
A Few Things To Consider/ Worth Noting:
Batter Texture: because of the high liquid content, this cake's batter will look more like pancake batter than that of your regular baked goods. But don't worry, the cake will bake and the texture will be amazing.
Frosting Quantity: be aware, since I am not the biggest fan of frosting and icing, this cake's fristing is quite minimal, creating quite a thin layer on top of the cake. If you happen to be a big frosting lover, please feel free to double the quantity of ricotta and icing sugar. It's also great eaten by the spoon. Just saying.
Coffee: when you first mix the instant coffee with the water, you'll be wondering whether you read the quantities right. This is indeed a lot of coffee powder for very little water.
Lack of Butter: no, you didn't read the ingredients list wrong. This cake really has no butter in it. The double cream is what gives it that smooth and buttery texture. Using other fats as opposed to butter is common in Italy and in Germany. Personally, I feel like the use of cream accentuates the idea of a hot, frothy drink, like mochas, whilst also making sure the cake doesn't become too dry in the oven.
Ingredients:
275 gr plain flour
250 gr caster sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1 1-2 tbsp coffee granules in 50 ml hot water
150 ml double cream
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
For the frosting:
250 gr ricotta
3 tbsp powder sugar
extra cocoa powder to dust
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs ad the sugar until fully incorporated and smooth.
Measure 50 ml of boiling water, add them to a cup or glass and mix in the coffee granules. Mix well until you get a dark brown/blackish dense liquid. Leave to cool.
To the bowl, add the vanilla extract and double cream. Mix well. Then add the cooled coffee. Your batter will be very liquid at this point.
To the bowl, add the sifted cocoa powder and baking powder and fold them in.
Finally, add the sifted flour a little at a time. (If you are not fussed about keeping the recipe one-bowl, you can mix the dry ingredients in another bowl and sift them together into the liquid batter, a little at a time).
Transfer the batter to sheet baking pan (mine was 32 x 21 cm but 30 x 23 cm would also work well) with baking paper and bake for 25 to 28 minutes. This depends largely on your baking tin's dimensions.
In the meantime, beat together the ricotta cheese and the icing sugar until smooth. Keep the frosting in the fridge until ready to use.
Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool completely.
Spread the frosting with a spatula (I like spreading in an uneaven layer but you do you) and dust with cocoa powder on top.
Store in the fridge until ready to be enjoyed.
This cake can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
Feedback is vital for blogs, so if you did try this recipe, please take the time to share your experience with a comment below. Every comment, no matter how small, is highly appreciated!
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