Is there any rescuing this coffee cake?

April 11, 2013 8:39 AM

[Baking idiot-filter] My cake mix is mostly made - butter, sugar and eggs all accounted for. The recipe then calls for the flour and instant coffee to be mixed in. For reasons that now escape me, I added coffee granules >_< Is there any way back from here, or am I doomed to either start again or make a cake full of exciting little bitter surprises?
posted by Otto the Magnificent to Food & Drink (25 answers total)

I think you're doomed. Those coffee granules (which I am taking to mean ground coffee beans) are gritty and aren't going to go away with cooking. Gritty cake sounds pretty awful.

Sorry. I'd start again.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 8:41 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I should have made that clearer, sorry - it's granules of instant coffee (as opposed to powder), so I don't *think* it would be gritty, just intermittently bitter and not a uniform coffee taste.
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 8:44 AM on April 11, 2013

You could try mashing the batter through a very fine sieve and see if that gets the coffee bits out, but doing so may mess with the texture of the cake.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:44 AM on April 11, 2013

Are the coffee granules actually the kind of instant coffee that dissolves in water? If so, do you have any other wet ingredients to add? You may be able to get them to dissolve with some effort.

If not, then, yeah, I think you're doomed to start over.
posted by blurker at 8:44 AM on April 11, 2013

Oh, it's bits of instant coffee? That'll probably be fine?????
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:44 AM on April 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

Oh, it's granules of instant coffee instead of powdered instant coffee?

You're fine.
posted by jeather at 8:46 AM on April 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

Bake it. The worst that happens is you have to throw it away. You'll probably find that your accident resulted in unintended deliciousness and you'll have to make a note to your recipe to do that thing again!
posted by cooker girl at 8:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [5 favorites]

If it is instant coffee then you're totally fine. They will dissolve in the cooking process.
posted by PuppetMcSockerson at 8:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yeah, if it's instant coffee, you're fine.
posted by Kitteh at 8:47 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

Undissolved instant coffee granules? I'd give it a shot, maybe let the batter sit for a few extra minutes before putting it in the oven, then give it another stir.
posted by usonian at 8:48 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I have a recollection of making this mistake when I was a judge. I think this will not work out I'm afraid. It did tickle me though so there is a net positive for humanity.
posted by biffa at 8:54 AM on April 11, 2013

I'd let it sit for a bit and then beat it with an electric beater. This may give the granules a chance to dissolve.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:56 AM on April 11, 2013 [9 favorites]

If the mixture contains some liquid ingredients, the coffee should dissolve reasonably well. I think you'll be fine if you stir it properly. What did you actually do wrong - were you supposed to make it into liquid coffee before adding it to the mix?
posted by altolinguistic at 8:57 AM on April 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

I agree. Give it a shot. They may dissolve.
posted by amanda at 8:57 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

It might be speckly if it's not dissolving evenly but it'll taste fine.

Once, a friend--a friend who, by her own admission, ruins recipes by riding roughshod over the instructions--and I were baking a chocolate cheesecake which called for instant espresso powder (like Medaglio D'Oro, which may be what your recipe wanted). She didn't have any, and before I noticed what was happening she dumped in the same volume of coffee grounds.

I was sure it would be a disaster, and the finished cheesecake had kind of a spotty appearance, but by god if I had been blindfolded I couldn't have told you there was anything wrong with it. It didn't taste much like coffee, but in general coffee powder is only there to deepen the chocolate flavor anyway. So, I would have told you to bake it even if you had added coffee grounds.
posted by pullayup at 9:00 AM on April 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've also done the coffee grounds thing, and though it fails in the "impart overall flavour" sense, it doesn't actually destroy a cake.
posted by jeather at 9:06 AM on April 11, 2013

I think if it's instant coffee you're good. Just lt it sit for a few minutes to let the coffee powder "dissolve" then stir it up really well. The very worst thing that could happen is that it's on the dry side but only a bit.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:08 AM on April 11, 2013

I think it'll be fine. Just let it sit for a while and give it a nice good mix in an hour or two before pouring it into pans.
posted by phunniemee at 9:13 AM on April 11, 2013

I'd be careful stirring it too much, it will increase the gluten strands in the batter and appreciably change the texture of the cake. I think the granules will be just fine.
posted by Specklet at 9:14 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I can think of at least one reasonably high profile cake recipe that specifically calls for instant coffee granules to be added straight to the frosting (no dissolving, no nothing), so I think having them in the cake will be totally fine.
posted by Diagonalize at 9:14 AM on April 11, 2013

I think it should be fine! Add the water you would have used to dissolve the coffee to the batter to have the right ratio of liquid for the recipe.
posted by Swisstine at 9:21 AM on April 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm an idiot - what's the difference between instant coffee and coffee granules? I've never heard of "powdered" coffee before. I would assume you've just made it exactly as the recipe instructs!
posted by peep at 9:50 AM on April 11, 2013

Seconding Specklet: if you haven't added the flour yet, stirring is fine. If you have, don't stir any more than it takes to just fully combine the flour with the wet ingredients.

I also suspect you'll be fine with the instant coffee. The existing moisture in the batter should be enough to dissolve the granules, and I think the worst that you'll have to deal with is possibly more intense little spots of coffee flavor. If you're going to be icing the cake, I would think you'd have more than enough sweetness to counter any bitterness.
posted by EvaDestruction at 10:02 AM on April 11, 2013

Best answer: Take out a bit of batter and bake it separately from the rest of the cake (a cupcake for you!)

As the big cake cools, eat your cupcake to determine if it's okay. If it is, YAY! If not, start over.

You haven't lost anything and you have a nice snack.

I don't think it will be an issue. I think instant coffee with moisten with the baking process, just as that no bake lagana noodle does.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:25 AM on April 11, 2013 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks very much all! In the end I left it to stand for a while then went ahead and baked it (sadly before seeing Ruthless Bunny's cupcake suggestion, which I will hold in reserve for next time I do something similarly dense). The granules didn’t dissolve much at all so it looks like biffa was right – taste test still to come, but it looks a bit ominous. However, its replacement is now cooling and looks pretty edible, happily (boyfriend’s birthday cake!).

As for how it happened, the recipe is 40 years old and apparently (this I didn’t know) instant coffee only came in powder at that point, around these parts anyway, so there was no need to specify.
posted by Otto the Magnificent at 1:10 PM on April 11, 2013