DALGONA COFFEE CAKE RECIPE

What’s Dalgona coffee cake, you’re asking? Well let me tell you all about it and then you can decide for yourself whether it’s a culinary adventure you want to embark on. 

Before I start telling you about my Dalgona coffee cake, let me tell you a bit about what I found in my research. Dalgona coffee is all over Instagram. It looks fun but I’ve been dubious about the taste, to be honest. It’s not a new concept. People have found before now, by shaking instant coffee, hot water, and sugar, you get a whipped cream if you do it for long enough. But in January 2020, a Korean actor called Jung Il-woo (known for appearances in Unstoppable High Kick, Cool Guys, and Hot Ramen, I kid you not) shared how to make Dalgona coffee on social media and his followers went crazy for it. Sure, why not! 

And if it’s good enough for a South Korean actor, it sure as heck good enough for me to mess with, in the kitchen. Also, let’s be real, if you can get your blog post up quickly enough and done around a popular keyword, you may just well have a bit of SEO gold on your hand. So here I am, telling you all about my Dalgona coffee cake. 

There are some things to consider before starting on with this recipe. 

First, you could and should ask, is Dalgona coffee even good? Does it taste or feel nice? Does it add anything to the cake? Should I bother with it at all?

Well, you need to enjoy instant coffee, you cannot expect the taste of good coffee when Dalgona coffee is not made with coffee beans. That said, I quite like instant coffee with milk and sugar. It has its place in my life. Not every day but the odd time, I quite fancy it with a few biscuits dunked in. Now that we’re clear on that, I’ll be honest and admit that I think Dalgona coffee is rank. It’s acrid as the concentrated taste of sugar and coffee powder would be. Even if you float it on hot milk, I don’t get the pleasure of it. It’s so strong and nearly put me off baking with it! But fear not, I’m a warrior and I brushed my teeth and baked that Dalgona coffee cake. 

I don’t think my Dalgona coffee cake was any nicer for having used the foam, to be honest, if you have coffee extract or a shot of espresso, you should use those ahead of the Dalgona coffee. It’s less time consuming and it makes less of a mess. Because I already whip the eggs for this recipe, the air in the foam didn’t make any difference to the texture. Basically, apart from the fact that I wanted to try it for myself, in the future, I will simply use my coffee extract and save myself the bother. 

To make Dalgona coffee you need equal amounts of instant coffee, white sugar, and hot water. Mix them with a spoon until the coffee and sugar are dissolved and then use an electric whip to get that into a mousse with a stiff peak. Same as a meringue basically. This could take you about 5 min or more.

The cake was delicious but coffee and chocolate are a well-known combination so nothing new here.  I based myself on a chocolate cake I make on a far too regular basis. If you do end up making this Dalgona coffee cake, I would love to hear what you make of it! 

Ingredients

• 200 g chocolate (I use half dark and half milk chocolate)
• 200 g butter
• 150 g sugar (plus the little bit extra if you’re making the dalgona coffee)
• 4 eggs
• 2 heaped tbsps of Dalgona coffee mousse (alternatively use one shot of espresso or 1 tbsp of coffee extract)
• 1 heaped tbsp of heaped flour (or almond grounds or GF flour if needs be)
• 1 shot of cognac or whiskey or rum or tequila
• Maldon sea salt to sprinkle on top

Method

• Make the Dalgona coffee as per above instructions, while the oven is pre-heating to 180C
• Break the chocolate into pieces and heat it gently with the cubed butter in the microwave. It should take no longer than two minutes. You can combine them together until you have a silky, shiny chocolate liquid. 
• In a large bowl, (I recommend using an electric whisk for this) mix the eggs, sugar, flour and chocolate mixture until the batter is fully combined and airy. You might see a bit of foam on top and that’s ok. Add your Dagona coffee and fold it in gently to avoid breaking the air bubbles in it. Finally, add your alcohol of choice. 
• Pour the batter into a buttered mould and sprinkle your salt on top.
• Cook for 30 to 45 min depending on your oven (the magic number is 39 min for my oven!).