For most Colombians, no day begins without coffee (cafecito), while no meal ends without it, and it’s offered to guests any time of the day. We drink it black or with milk, the latter we call ‘café con leche’. I can’t imagine starting a day without coffee! I love just about any food and drink with coffee flavor. In Colombia, we often use coffee to make traditional desserts, cocktails and savory dishes.
This Torta de Café, was one of a variety of regular desserts that were served at my grandma’s house on Sunday afternoons and holidays. You could usually count on one of the following desserts: arroz con leche, plátanos calados, brevas caladas, or torta negra, or this Torta de Café, among a few others. Considering how much I love coffee, I’m surprised that I’ve not posted a recipe for this cake until now. Finally, I’ve made my own version of Mamita’s Torta de Café and it is absolutely delicious!
I topped and filled it with a frosting made with cream, instant coffee and shaved chocolate, which worked out very well. If you adore coffee as much as I do, then you’re going to love this cake!
This is one of those feel-good desserts that makes you feel warm and cozy inside, proving that food doesn’t have to be fancy to be good. I hope you enjoy my grandmother’s Torta de Café!
Buen provecho!
Ingredients
(Serves 8)
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup of whole milk
- 8 oz (2 sticks) of butter
- 3 eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup of VERY strong coffee
- 2 cups very cold heavy cream
- 6 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons Instant Coffee
- 1 cup grated or shave sweet chocolate, divided
Cake
Frosting
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Grease and lightly flour 2 (9-inch) round cake dishes.
- In a bowl whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder.
- In a small pot heat the milk and butter, remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large bowl beat the eggs with an electric mixer on high speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and continue mixing for 5 minutes more. Reduce the speed to low. Add the flour mixture, butter mixture, coffee and vanilla extract and mix for 1 more minute.
- Pour the batter into two baking dishes and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans for 10 min. Invert cakes onto wire racks, gently remove pans. Cool the cakes completely.
- In a large bowl the heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla, instant coffee and 6 tablespoons of shaved chocolate. Beat until the cream holds soft peaks.
- Place one cake layer on a serving plate, spreading 1/2 of the frosting on top, place the other cake layer on top and spread the top with remaining frosting.
- Add the remaining shaved chocolate on top of the cake. Eat immediately or keep frosted cake refrigerated until ready to eat.
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grace says
your cake looks so moist and its crumb is so perfect that it probably doesn’t even need frosting! glad it’s there though .:)
Evelyne@cheapethniceatz says
Wow look really good Erica!
Lili says
I made it yesterday and it was very good!
Phil says
Mine turned out delicious, but HEAVY and sort of wet…
Mandy says
I have just made this. It is such an easy recipe that I wasn’t expecting it to be as nice as it was. In fact, My husband claims it is the best cake I have ever made. This recipe is a keeper…thank you for posting.
Tonya says
I made this today for my mothers birthday. Tiramisu is one of her favorite desserts and this was a great replacement. Much easier to make then tiramisu. Both elements are great on their own but the deeply layered favors of the frosting together with this moist cake, it was delicious!
Mary says
My son wanted a coffee flavored cake for his birthday but I couldn’t find what I wanted; most recipes were too chocolatey. Then I happened upon your site and this cake. It was exactly what I was looking for and it came out great. This is a beautiful, elegant cake and the flavors are just wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing!
Anonymous says
Is it hot coffee? Or room temp?
Erica Dinho says
Room temp.
June says
Hi! I would like to make this today. Is the coffee at room temperature? Or hot? What about the butter and milk mixture? Cool temp? Or hot? Sorry lots of questions.
June says
I made the cake and turned out sooo good! The cake is so moist and rich in coffee flavor. This would be my go to coffee flavored cake from now on. Thank you so much!
SheMo says
JUST WHAT I’VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR!!
I lost a recipe for a cake similar to this one & have been trying to find another one ever since!! It’s been Years!! This cake is Absolutely Delicious & maybe even better than my lost recipe!!
I made a few minor changes. I added 1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans to the cake batter after dividing the batter up into the 2 pans. Additionally, I didn’t have 7 oz of Chocolate, so I used 3 oz. Since I was after a more coffee- flavored cake than a chocolate- flavored one, I thought it was Great the way it turned out!!
Both my husband & I LOVE this cake even if it Is so Rich!! I’ll have to refrain from indulging in it too often!!
Jeanie says
Do we use black coffee or coffee with milk and sugar?
Erica Dinho says
Black coffee
a says
did u use raw coffee or coffee and water
LeCase COFFEE says
Looks sounds good. Thank you for sharing the recipe on how to do the torta de cafe coffee flavored cake. This is great.
Mo says
Just had the Last piece of one I made last night & it was Wonderful! I plan to make another for the Holidays. BTW, I added some ground pecans to the batter & cut back some on the chocolate in the topping….
chickrandi says
Wow! Great cake and easy to make! Thanks so much for the recipe.
SOUMI BANDYOPADHYAY says
Hi!
I like your recipe as it is so simple.
However, I have a question. You said 1 cup coffee. Is it one cup of coffee powder or a cup or brewed coffee?
Looking forward to your reply.
chickrandi says
I’m not the expert here but I used one cup of strongly brewed coffee in the cake and a coffee powder for the icing. It turned out perfect! I’m making this for the third time now. My husband keeps requesting it 🙂
Soumi Bandyopadhyay says
Thanks a ton! It worked beautifully
Britni says
I never write reviews, but I must say, I come back to this recipe every single year. My partner calls this his “birthday cake” and always requests it. Now that we have a kid running around, it can be a lot of work, but I will continue to make this for every one of his birthdays and other special occasions throughout the years. I am not much of a baker, but this recipe is easy to follow as well!
I use bustelo in the percolator for the extra strong coffee and instant vanilla coffee for the icing. I also think I put way more chocolate than called for into the icing haha. But this cake has a really great and rich coffee flavor. yum!
Lani says
Hi ! I just want to ask if I can turn this wonderful cake of yours into cupcakes? Any suggestions for the oven temperature and baking time? Thanks in advance.
Angela says
Hola Erica!
I’m so happy I finally found a real recipe for a torta de café Colombiana. My husband loved it!!!
I followed your recipe, but changed the Coffee frosting, and used a vanilla flavored instead, and topped it off with walnuts to add that crunchiness.
Thanks so much for posting this recipe. I hope you keep posting more!
Karen says
I just took it out of the oven and haven’t tried it yet, but it smells wonderful! I was concerned that the batter was very thin and runny though.
Rebecca says
Oh my gosh!!! Really good cake. This recipe needs to be all over the internet. Thank you for sharing