Are you craving for a coffee cake? Sonia’s recipe is an impressive dessert with a perfect balance of coffee and hazelnuts, that will amaze both you and your guests! *** The coffee cake we’ll be making is a pretty rich cake: it’s not difficult, but it will take some time, so be patient and it will be totally worth it. The first thing to do is preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C), after that dice the butter and let it soften; once soft, place in the bowl of a stand mixer with ½ cup (100 g) of sugar and beat until you have a fluffy, frothy mixture. Now dissolve 1 tbsp (10 g) of instant coffee in a couple of tablespoons of hot water, and let it cool; separate the egg whites from the egg yolks and, after beating the butter and sugar mixture for about 10 minutes, add the egg yolks one at a time, beating constantly, as well as the coffee in a thin stream. The mixture is smooth, creamy and with no lumps, that’s because all the ingredients were at room temperature, including the eggs. Now fold in the toasted hazelnut meal, which has a strong taste and aroma: if you want something milder you can replace it with almond flour. So, incorporate the hazelnut meal, then add the sifted cornstarch, all-purpose flour and baking powder. After adding all the flours, beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until soft peaks form, you don’t need stiff peaks otherwise it will go lumpy when stirring. Now fold in only a couple of spoonfuls, and stir vigorously to soften the mixture, then add the …
