Moka Cake

History

The moka cake belongs to a family of French coffee pastries. Its name comes from moka coffee, which in turn takes its name from the port city of Mocha ("la ville de Mocha au Yémen"), an early center of the coffee trade. The gâteau moka took its recognizable form in mid-19th-century France. Recipes for cakes filled with coffee (moka) cream appear from the 1810s, but the dish's defining feature is its assembly — layers of sponge alternating with a coffee filling. French pastry historians credit it variously to Parisian pastry chefs, including Quillet on the rue de Buci, Rémondet — who took over Quillet's shop in 1847 — and Guignard at the carrefour de l'Odéon, with 1857 sometimes cited. The version in this Spanish home-cookery book follows that same layered logic in a no-bake form: cooled melted butter is beaten with sugar and egg yolks, strong moka coffee is folded in, and this coffee-butter paste is layered in a mold alternating with sponge biscuits (bizcochos), then used to coat the top and sides. The book itself, La Mejor Cocinera. Recetas de Cocina, was published by Editorial Saturnino Calleja in Madrid; the earliest firmly located edition is 1923. Its recipes are printed anonymously. Beyond this, the historical record does not document who first made this particular Spanish version, nor any social, class, or status association for this specific dish.

Ingredients

• 200 g butter
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 whole egg yolks
• 0.5 cup strong moka coffee
• 0.5 pound sponge biscuits (bizcochos)
• 25 g toasted sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Melt the butter and let it cool. Beat together the cooled butter and sugar thoroughly with a wooden spoon until well combined. Mix in the egg yolks and work the mixture vigorously again. Gradually fold in the strong moka coffee until fully incorporated.
2. Arrange the mixture in a mold in alternating layers: one layer of sponge biscuit (bizcochos), then one of the butter-coffee paste, continuing until the mold is full. Coat the top and sides generously with the remaining paste.
3. Decorate the top with four towers or other ornamental shapes as desired. Finally, sprinkle the entire surface with the toasted sliced almonds.