Collection: Coffee and Walnut Cake

It was my turn for Wednesday bake! I always sort ideas for what to do as what is the most practical for getting into work with. A cake always wins out for me! It’s just so much easier and I want all the presentation work I do at home to still be okay when I get in to work the next morning I tried transporting cupcakes once and it was a massacre. Then I went with coffee and walnut because I’ve found it is a real crowd pleaser, it’s got the right balance of sweetness and it has nuts, everyone loves nuts!

This recipe from the bbc is really easy, another good one for after work baking. I’m not gonna lie after getting back, having dinner and showering this pretty much takes up the rest of your evening but you still get in bed for the normal time so every once in a while its fine to do.

So after I had got my ingredients ready I got started on lining the tins. I drew around the bottom of a tin with a pencil on to some greaseproof paper, mine is just Sainsburys own brand, then cut them out and slotted them into the three tins. Yep I’m going for the three layer again its just that little bit more impressive and it means you get more icing in!

I microwaved the butter for 30 seconds (20 secs then 10 secs) and creamed with the sugar.

Then I added my eggs one at a time and beat till it wouldn’t get any smoother.

I then added what is fast become my favourite and most frustrating thing, my favourite because I love seeing the little specks of vanilla and it smells so good and I get to use my birthday present 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon, my most frustrating because I can never get the damn lid open! It always cements itself shut no matter how much I wipe the top or not dribble the paste so I always have to go crawling to the strongest person in the house who is clearly not me!

Next up the coffee, I find the coffee taste disappears quite a bit once the cake has been cooked so I make mine really strong, as in three tablespoons strong. It smells so nasty I suggest you mix it in really quickly. It curdled pretty badly when you pour it in but don’t worry that flour saves it and after a little beating its back to what you would expect. Have faith! I also add a little bicarbonate of soda into mine to give it a slight rise and lightness.

Nut chopping time, this again is another of my favourite things its meant for chopping up herbs, which it is really good at, but I use it for pretty much anything I want roughly chopped and as you can see it works a treat on walnuts!

After all that I separated into three tins and baked in the oven at the recipe time and temperature.

For the icing never and I repeat NEVER follow the one Simon gives you he is completely leading you up the garden path you shouldn’t ever add that much liquid to your icing unless you would rather pour it on and have a thin lining of it, it will pretty much all slide off. Make up the coffee as strong as you would like it I went for just a normal coffee strength so the icing would still be sweet. Then add three teaspoons of the coffee to your creamed icing sugar and butter. If you want it a bit creamier and lighter add some more coffee or milk to your taste but add it gradually.