I asked my friend what to bake next and she gave me a few suggestions. I decided to bake coffee and walnut cake which I had not baked before. After a few searches on Google, I found Nigella’s recipe and I made it last week. It was very successful. It is a typical English style cake with thick icing. So I decided to modify the recipe slightly to make the cake nuttier!
To make this cake, you need:
- 100g walnut pieces
- 225g caster sugar
- 225g butter, softened
- 200g plain flour
- 5 teaspoons instant roast coffee powder
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- 4 large eggs
- 4 tablespoons milk
For convenience, you could use self-raising flour if you prefer. However, in Nigella’s recipe, she chose not to use self-raising flour because the raising agent in it expires quickly once you open it. Hence she is used baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in her recipe which I have followed in mine.
I didn’t have any espresso coffee powder, so I used instant roast coffee granules and sieved it to make it into a fine powder.
To make the coffee buttercream frosting, you would need:
- 350g icing sugar
- 175g butter, softened
- 4 teaspoons instant roast coffee powder (dissolved in 3 tablespoons boiling water)
Method:
- Put the walnut and castor sugar into a food processor and blend for a few seconds.
- Then add butter, flour, coffee powder, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and eggs and process to a smooth batter.
- Add the milk until the mixture has a soft consistency
- Divide the mixture between the 2 sandwich lined tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes with the oven set to 160°C.
- To make the buttercream, mix the icing sugar, butter and hot coffee mix for a couple of minutes.
- Spread the buttercream around your cake and decorate with crushed walnuts.
This cake should serve around 8 – 10 people. It went down very well with adults and some children at our Chinese club and friends. I have decorated the cakes in two different ways and of course, you can decorate however you want!
