Coffee and Walnut Cake

One day, my mum comes up to me and says, "let's make a coffee cake". Now I know whenever she says 'we', 'us' or even 'I', she means me. "We should make a pavlova" - I made it. "I want to make cupcakes" - I made them. So you can imagine the shock-horror I felt when she suggested we make a coffee and walnut cake together. My mum had gotten the recipe off of BBC Good Food and sent it to me, and the cake looked too delicious to not bake. The best way to describe it, is as a tiramisu in cake form: you have a light sponge flavoured with coffee that is sandwiched together with a sweet, smooth mascarpone and cream mix, also flavoured with coffee. The filling itself is so creamy and moreish, that I plan to make it on its own one day and eat it like a mousse or yoghurt. Only thing I would change are the walnuts on the top. I would add more because their crunch got lost as you ate the cake and you really want some texture to cut through the soft cake and filling. Other than that, I had a lot of fun making this cake with my mummy...

This recipe is very easy, so I just used an electric hand whisk for it. So in a large bowl I put a block of very soft butter and golden caster sugar and creamed them together until they had merged together to create a pale and soft mix.

Then to this, I added in all the rest of the ingredients (except the walnuts) for the cake. The flour, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and half the coffee, bar one tablespoon. For the coffee, I just had to mix 100ml of water with two tablespoons of coffee and take out a tablespoon for the filling. The coffee you drink in the morning is fine for this recipe.

So this was whisked together very well until the eggs had disappeared and the flour was fully incorporated. 

Now don't think I've forgotten about the walnuts! I decided to give my full attention to them away from the batter because I had to divide the 85g into two groups and give them separate treatment. Not much, but two tablespoons had to be roughly chopped and the rest had to be finely chopped. Next time I will add a few more tablespoons to this rough chop, but still keep the walnuts going inside the cake the same, as changing this will mess up the science of the bake. I chopped up everything with my mezzaluna.

And put the finely chopped walnuts into the cake batter and folded them in.

The last thing to do was to divide the batter equally into two sandwich tins that I had buttered and lined with parchment paper. Then taking the roughly chopped walnuts, I scattered them over one of the unbaked cakes. 

These were baked in a 180 degree oven for 30 minutes. To check if they were ready, I pricked the middle with a toothpick and it came out clean. 

As soon as the cakes were out the oven, I took the layer without the walnut topping and poured the other half of the coffee all over. This way as it cools, it soaks up all the delicious coffee flavour and leaves a very moist cake. 

I then left the cakes to cool completely in their tins. 

When it was time for cake, I quickly prepared the filling. In a bowl I put in the icing sugar, double cream and mascarpone and whisked them together until it was smooth.

Then to this, I dropped in the one tablespoon of coffee I had reserved since the beginning of this recipe. 

I folded this in with a spatula and it transformed from white to ecru.

Now to assemble the cake. The layer that had been soaked in coffee sat on a plate.

And then on top of this, I spooned out the delicious coffee cream (even though I really wanted it all for myself) and spread it out with the spatula.

I took the walnut topped cake and this got nice and comfy on top of the coffee cream. 

Finally, a sprinkling of icing sugar went on top of this and the cake was looking fabulous.

I have made quite a few coffee cakes in my time, but the coffee flavour has never come through like it did with this one. And I think the secret here is soaking the sponge in strong coffee as the coffee in the batter alone would have mellowed out during baking. So by using the raw coffee in the baked sponge and cream filling, the flavour stays alive. My dad couldn't taste the coffee, but he's a special case. The important thing is I tasted it and I had at least four slices - not on the same day of course. Even though this is a cake that can enjoyed with a cup of tea, I enjoyed it as a dessert on some nights because of the luxurious filling. This is the coffee cake to make.

Serves: 8-10 people 

Prep Time: 20 minutes 

Baking Time: 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

    For the Cake:

• 250g Unsalted Butter, softened 
• 250g Golden Caster Sugar
• 280g Self Raising Flour
• 1/2tsp Baking Powder
• 4 Eggs
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• 100ml Water
• 2tbsp Coffee Granules 
• 85g Walnuts - 2tbsp roughly chopped, the rest finely chopped

    For the Filling:

• 100g Icing Sugar, sifted
• 150ml Double Cream 
• 100g Mascarpone 
• 1tbsp Reserved Coffee

Method:

1. Start off by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees. Take two sandwich tins and butter them with a little of the softened butter and line the bases with parchment paper. 
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and golden caster sugar together until pale and creamy. Then add in the self raising flour, baking powder, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix this together until it's fully incorporated. 
3. To make the coffee, add the two tablespoons of coffee granules with the water. Stir this until all the coffee has fully dissolved. From this, take out one tablespoon and leave to the side while you get on with the rest of the cake. 
4. With the remaining coffee, pour in half of it into the cake batter and mix this in. 
5. From the 85g of walnuts, take out two tablespoons, roughly chop them and place them to the side. Then with the remaining walnuts, finely chop them, pour them in to the cake batter and fold them in. 
6. Divide the cake batter equally between the sandwich tins. Then over one of them, scatter the two tablespoons of roughly chopped walnuts and slide the tins into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Check to see if they are ready by poking with a toothpick or skewer. If it comes out clean, they are ready. 
7. As soon as the cakes come out the oven, pour over the other half of the coffee over the layer without the walnut topping. Leave the cakes to cool completely. 
8. To make the filling, combine the icing sugar, double cream and mascarpone in a bowl and whisk them together until smooth. Then taking the one tablespoon of reserved coffee, pour this into the mascarpone cream mix and fold in. 
9. When you're ready to assemble, place the coffee soaked cake layer on a plate or stand. Then scoop out the mascarpone cream mix and spread it all over. Sit the walnut topped layer on top of this and sprinkle with icing sugar.