The secret ingredient that transforms banoffee pie

I have been labouring under a misapprehension for some time, perhaps my whole life. I thought that the ‘offe’ in ‘banoffee pie’ was a reference to the thick, gooey toffee layer that sits between the biscuit base and the cream. But no, the ‘offe’ has nothing to do with what is, in any event, really a caramel, but the coffee flavour that should be folded through the cream topping. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a banoffee pie that features the sort-of-eponymous coffee, and I am relieved to discover that wide swathes of the internet (including the fallible wikipedia) has made the same mistake. But as I experiment with the recipe, it’s clear that the coffee is an important counterpoint: the cream, barely sweetened, with bitter hints from the coffee, prevents the rest of the pudding from being overbearingly sweet (although, let’s be real, this is not a pudding for someone who lacks a sweet tooth).