Coffee Walnut Cake

Anon (see below)

A coffee and walnut cake made in a kitchen in the village of Trimingham, Norfolk, United Kingdom 🔗

I needed a cake for the office charity coffee morning and I wanted to do one I hadn't done before. Teresina had used this one from an ancient Country Living but I have substituted butter for the marg and real coffee for the instant.

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Makes 1. Serves 16. Heat your (fan) oven to 180°C. Prep time: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 25 minutes.

This makes 16 slices. If your office has more people, bake more cakes!

Ingredients

Cake

  • 8 oz caster sugar
  • 8 oz unsalted butter
  • 4 large eggs
  • 8 oz self-raising flour
  • 3 tbsp very strong black coffee [eg an espresso]
  • 2 oz broken walnuts

Icing

  • 12 oz icing sugar
  • 3 oz salted butter
  • 3 tbsp very strong black coffee [another espresso]
  • 16 halved walnuts

Method

Cake

  1. Cream the caster sugar with the unsalted butter until pale and light.

  2. Add the eggs and beat them in well.

  3. Fold in the flour with a metal spoon, making sure it is thoroughly mixed.

  4. Mix in the coffee and broken walnuts.

  5. Thinly butter two 8 ″ loose-bottom cake tins.

  6. Split the mixture between the tins, levelling it out with the back of a spoon.

  7. Bake for 20–25 minutes.

  8. Turn out onto a wire baking rack and remove the bottoms.

  9. Leave to cool completely.

Icing

  1. Beat the icing sugar and salted butter together.

  2. Add almost all the coffee and mix well: the icing must be soft but not runny (add more coffee if it is too stiff).

  3. Use one third of the icing to stick the cakes together: put the one with the smoothest and least-domed top on the top. Don't spread the icing all the way to the edge, so that when you put the top on and press down, it will squidge the icing just to the edge and no further.

  4. Spread the other two thirds of the icing over top and sides, finally smoothing it with a wetted spatula to get an even finish.

  5. Put eight of the halved walnuts equally around the top, close to the edge; put the other eight in-between them, slightly closer to the centre. This lets you cut the cake into 16 and everyone gets a nut.

Best made the night before.

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