Starbucks Inspired: Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake

As far as baking is concerned, it can often be risky relying on sheer imagination, creativity and motivation...there can be something missing...something from deep within. Inspiration. The success of a baked product is fuelled by inspiration. Without that hint of something special your cakes won't rise to the occasion, they'll fall flat and go stale. So go out and be inspired, look around you, look at the world and everything within it. Explore!
My spark for this cake from a very simple occurrence. A coffee shop, a cup and an icy lava flow of cream and coffee. It could only be one thing. Starbucks Frappuccino; Mocha Cookie Crumble. The bitter, smoky coffee, the milky, creamy chocolate and the crumbly, crunchy cookie were all it took for my mind clogs to turn and make my creative juices flow. I was to make a Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake! It would have a chocolate coffee sponge cake filled and topped with a coffee hinted, sweet cream with cookie crumbles running all the way through it.
Now, after receiving a cook book for my birthday, full of Mary Berry's (my one and only true role model) beautiful cakes and bakes, I came across a recipe for a Cappuccino Cake. This would be the main recipe for my cake of which I would adapt and work around to turn it into my own creation. I feel a hint of guilt for feeling the need to change one of Mary Berry's recipes, but at the same time I feel that if you're going to experiment, do it using a recipe base by someone who you can truly trust to give you outstanding results. If this was to be a success, I wanted it to be down to Mary. Who could you trust more?
This cake is one of the easiest show stoppers you could come across. A simple recipe and simple, easy to find ingredients hide behind it's show stopping name. She appears to be a rich, sophisticated creature, when in fact she's always been good at drama. She's perfect for an afternoon tea event, a celebration party, a sophisticated dessert, a midday snack...her versatility goes on and on. You could look at her and almost see her say 'Try me'. She's up for anything. See what she's made of using this recipe and method:
Recipe (for the cake)
50g cocoa powder
2tbsp granulated instant coffee
6tbsp boiling water
3 eggs
60ml milk
100g unsalted butter
275g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
6 Oreo cookies (with the cream removed from the inside but kept)
1tsp baking powder


Recipe (for the cream)
300ml double cream
1tsp granulated instant coffee
2tsp hot water
4tbsp icing sugar
Dusting of cocoa powder
4 Oreo cookies (with the cream removed from the inside but kept)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line two 20cm round cake tins using butter and non stick baking paper.
Begin making the cake mixture by dissolving the cocoa powder and coffee in the boiling water to make a paste consistency. Simply add all of the other ingredients other than the flour and Oreos. Using an electric mixer combine the ingredients to make a very wet batter. Don't panic!
In another bowl add the flour and crushed Oreos with the cream filling removed. Make sure the Oreos are crushed so that there are still some large bits among the smaller bits and fine sand-like bits. Using a wooden spoon stir these until every bit of Oreo is covered in flour. This helps them stay suspended in the mixture and prevents them from falling to the bottom of the cake when baking.
Add the flour and Oreos to the mixture and fold in. It may be easier for you to add the flour in thirds so that you can fold it in much more easily. Once all of the flour is fully combined and the Oreo pieces are evenly distributed spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tins and bake for 20-25minutes or until fully cooked and coming away from the side of the tins.
Leave the cakes to cool out of their tins on a cooing rack while you make the cream filling and topping. Simply whip the double cream using and electric mixer until it just holds it's shape before quickly whipping in the coffee dissolved in the hot water. Then fold in the icing sugar until fully combined.
Once the cakes are cooled, spoon one third of the cream mixture onto the cake that is to be your bottom half of the sandwich-like structure and spread almost to the edges using a pallet knife. You should have kept the cream filling of the Oreos that you used earlier and the Oreos that will be used to decorate the top of the cake. Use these to create a layer on top of the cream before placing the second cake on top. Spoon the remainder of the cream on top of the cake and use the pallet knife to spread out evenly. Lightly dust with icing sugar and then pile some larger pieces of cookie crumble in the middle before dropping the occasional large piece around further towards the edge and sprinkling some of the fine Oreo dustings over the cream (idea given by Ciaran Day). And with that, you are finished. One Mocha Cookie Crumble Cake ready to be enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. Eat up!