Coffee & Walnut Cake

I’m practically drooling just typing this post up! This is the first post in a series for ‘The Great Blogger Bake Off’ – the brainchild of Shannon. The idea is that each Wednesday myself and lots of other bloggers will post a bake in line with the weeks Great British Bake Off theme, and of course share each other’s posts. You can keep up with everybody’s posts on Facebook or by checking out #TheGreatBloggerBakeOff on Twitter.

This week’s theme is ‘Cake’ so I decided to keep it relatively simple with a firm favourite of mine. You can vary the amount of coffee based on your preference – personally I enjoy a strong coffee kick but feel free to dial it down if you prefer a more subtle taste. As always, let me know if you decide to bake this – I’d love to hear how you got on!

Yield: 8 slices

Coffee & Walnut Cake

Ingredients

For the sponge:

50g walnuts
200g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
200g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 tsp coffee, dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
4 large eggs

For the frosting:

150g butter, softened
250g icing sugar
2 tsp coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water
walnut halves to decorate

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease two 8 inch cake tins. Blitz the walnuts in a food processor or crush by hand, and mix with the sugar. Cream the butter and sugar/walnuts together until light and fluffy.
Beat the eggs and gently fold into the butter/sugar mix, along with the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and coffee. Divide the mixture equally between the two cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes. Once baked, remove and allow to cool on a rack.
Once the cakes have cooled, cream the butter and icing sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the coffee and mix. If the icing is too thick, add a little milk, 1 tbsp at a time, making sure not to let the icing get too runny.
Place one sponge upside down and spread a little less than half of the icing on the flat side. Place the other sponge on top (so that the two flat sides meet) then spread the remaining icing on top. Decorate with walnut halves and some piped icing if you’re feeling fancy!

https://www.adashofginger.co.uk/2014/08/the-great-blogger-bake-off-coffee-walnut-cake.html