Beautiful Coffee and Walnut Cake Recipe........

On Tuesday I decided to bake my favourite cake recipe. Nigella Lawson's 'Coffee and Walnut' Cake.
I've made this quite a few times now......and apart from messing this up once (I'm not the best baker to be fair) it is pretty straight forward and very delicious.

Ingredients

• FOR THE SPONGE CAKE 
• 50 grams walnut pieces
• 225 grams caster sugar
• 225 grams soft unsalted butter 
• 200 grams plain flour
• 4 teaspoons instant espresso powder... i used NORMAL COFFEE DOUBLED UP AS i'D RUN OUT OF ESPRESSO,
• 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 4 large eggs
• 1 - 2 tablespoons milk

BUTTERCREAM INGREDIENTS 

• 350 grams icing sugar
• 175 grams soft unsalted butter
• 2 ½ teaspoons instant espresso powder (dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water)
• approx. 10 walnut halves (to decorate)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4/350°C 

2. Grease two round cake tins. I prefer the ones where the bottom drops out. Use butter and grease proof paper.

3. blend the walnuts and the caster sugar together in a food processor until fully mixed.

4. Add the nutty sugar powder to a mixing bowl......then add: the butter, flour, espresso powder (or coffee granules), baking powder, bicarb and finally the eggs. Mix into a smooth batter. 

5. At this point, slowly add the milk.........

6. divide the batter between the 2 cake tins and bake in the centre of the oven for around 25 mins.....until nicely brown, firmly spongy. Insert a sharp knife into the centre of each cake to ensure cooking is complete. (the knife should come out clean, with no wet mixture)

7. Leave cakes to cool for around 20 minutes.

8. To make the butter cream, add the icing sugar to a mixing bowl, ensuring it is lump free. 

9. Add the espresso/coffee liquid and stir with a spoon. (it is very messy trying to do this with an electric whisk.......and will require you to clean the whole kitchen after - trust me, I know)

10. Once the Icing sugar and Espresso liquid have been mixed, add the butter. At this point, you can use an electric whisk if you wish.

11. Once you have a smooth, dry-ish buttercream, you can add it to your cake. In between the cake layers and on top. 

12. Sprinkle with walnut pieces and dust with icing sugar if you like.

13. Transfer to a vintage cake stand and make a pot of tea :)

Grease and line tins.....

Blitz the Caster Sugar and Walnut Pieces.....

Add a whole bunch of ingredients together.......

Mix it up.....

......into a smooth batter.

You might think that this is the same picture as above. I'm not cheating, I promise.......this is actually the butter cream - it tastes so good!

Smoothly does it.......

On the table for eager mouths......