Coffee and Walnut Cake

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. If you have espresso coffee powder, you might want to get a proper gadget to brew the coffee. Read my review on Stellar Hob Top Espresso Maker review here.

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:

1. Put the walnut and castor sugar into a food processor and blend for a few seconds.
2. Then add butter, flour, coffee powder, baking powder, bicarbonate soda and eggs and process to a smooth batter.
3. Add the milk until the mixture has a soft consistency
4. Divide the mixture between the 2 sandwich lined tins and bake in the oven for 25 minutes with the oven set to 160°C.
5. To make the buttercream, mix the icing sugar, butter and hot coffee mix for a couple of minutes.
6. 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!