Spanish Bombón Coffee Cake with Condensed Milk Buttercream

For my birthday this year, I made this wonderful coffee cake, inspired by the delicious 'bombón' condensed milk coffee of Valencia, Spain.

Coffee and condensed are a match made in heaven, with various interpretations around the world, from Mexico to Vietnam. A style I recently encountered was the ‘bombón’ coffee, which comes from Valencia, Spain. This Spanish style coffee is a 1:1 mixture of condensed milk and hot espresso coffee, layered in a glass and stirred up by the drinker. It makes a wonderfully creamy, milky coffee, perhaps the milkiest one you’ll ever try. As I always do for my birthday each year, I make my own birthday cake for everybody to enjoy, and I dream up a new one each year. This year, I made a cake inspired by a glass of ‘bombón’, with a clean-cut coffee-flavour sponge and a decadent condensed milk buttercream. The buttercream is sometimes referred to as ‘Russian buttercream’, and involves just two ingredients: butter and condensed milk. The original Russian buttercream actually used margarine, which was more available in Soviet Russia, but I prefer real butter. Despite a simple appearance, I urge that both the butter and condensed milk are at room temperature, as a difference in temperatures can cause this buttercream to curdle. Should that happen, you can rescue it by melting the mixture in the microwave, chilling it and then beating it back together. Not to worry, let’s not be pessimistic, we’ll get this wonderful coffee cake on your kitchen counter unharmed. Let’s go!