Coffee and walnut cake

With the days feeling blissfully longer, I suddenly felt like I needed a hit of coffee and sugar so I baked this cake one evening after work. I apologise in advance for the poor selection of pictures, this was a quick bake, but I trust your baking prowess now. Once again, it's super easy and produces great results, hats off to the BBC.

Potentially not its best angle.

Ingredients (recipe from BBC Food)

For the cake
225g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
50ml strong espresso coffee
225g self-raising flour
75g walnuts

For the buttercream topping
125g unsalted butter
200g icing sugar
50ml strong espresso coffee
12 walnut halves, to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until very light and pale.

3. Add the eggs one at a time to the butter and sugar mixture, beating well to completely incorporate each egg before adding the next egg.

I succeeded in not trapping my hair in the electric whisk this time, so all in all this was a great success.

4. Add the espresso to the mixture and stir well.

5. Add the flour and walnuts and stir well to completely combine.

6. Spoon the cake mixture into two lined and greased 20cm cake tins.

7. Transfer to the oven to bake 25-30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and the cake is golden-brown.

8. Remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

9. For the buttercream topping, beat the butter and icing sugar together in a small bowl until pale and light.

10. Add the espresso and mix well.

I had a perfect icing until I added the espresso all at once. I'd suggest gradually adding it, otherwise you might have to add a lot of extra sugar to regain the stiff consistency.

11. Spread the buttercream over the top of each cake, then place one cake on top of the other.

12. Decorate the top of the cake with the walnut halves and serve in generous slices.

Compared to your usual victoria sponge, this is more of an 'adult' cake. Be careful with how much sugar gets in the icing because you don't want to give your consumers diabetes. Enjoy!

Alice

P.S. I've added more songs to the baking playlist, check it out here!