My big little brother turned 13 earlier on in the month (yes another bloody January birthday). With 21 years between us, I take my big sister duties seriously and last year we did a bowling AND Nandos party followed by a giant Chocolate Muffin Cake at home. However, this year all sorts of family fireworks went off in the New Year. Not the fun kind, unfortunately, and at some point during the prolonged re-enactment of a shouty Eastenders episode big little brother had his birthday.
Once the dust had settled, Aunty Ga took it upon herself to take the new manboy for a belated birthday trip ‘down Westfield, it’s what he wants’. It seems not much has changed in twenty years, the youth of today still like to hang out in shopping centres.
Now officially a teenager, complete with a fuzzy top lip and an obsession with men’s fragrance, it only seemed fitting to provide a more grown up cake for his birthday. Hello Coffee & Walnut Cake. It’s just a coincidence that I’d been craving a slice of this for the last two weeks.
Big little brother is a fan of coffee. Our father drinks an entire moka pot’s worth of coffee for breakfast (that’s four single espressos), and so the tradition must continue. He has started off as we all did, a very milky coffee with at least two sugars. Over the years he’ll increase the coffee and decrease the milk till he’s drinking neat espressos. Then he’ll be a man.
This recipe is from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery, which I don’t bake from anywhere near as much as number one son would like me to. Incidentally, the four year old LOVED this cake.
Coffee & Walnut Cake
Ingredients
For the sponge:
175g unsalted butter
175g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
175g self-raising flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
75g walnuts plus 10-12 walnut halves for decorating
1 ½ tablespoons instant coffee (I used instant espresso powder) mixed with 2 tablespoons boiling water
For the syrup (which we left out as I didn’t want to go overboard on the caffeine):
1 tablespoon intant coffee
50g Demerara sugar
55ml boiling water
Coffee Buttercream Icing:
150g unsalted butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon semi-skimmed milk at room temperature
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder dissolved in a small amount of hot water
350g icing sugar, sifted
(the book says make 1.5 batches of the above amounts but when we did this the icing was so thick I think in hindsight we would have been ok with just one batch)
Pre-heat oven to 170C. Grease and baseline two 20cm cake tins (we were fine with 22cm).
In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth – this will take 3-5 minutes using an electric hand mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition. Add the flour and baking powder and beat well.
Grind the walnuts in a food processor for about 30 seconds, not too fine. Gently fold in the coffee and ground walnuts to the batter. The mixture should have a marbled effect.
Divide the mixture evenly between the tins, bake for 25 minutes until raised and golden brown. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
Let the cakes cool in the tins. At this point, if you’re using it, make up the syrup by combining ingredients in a jug and stirring till the sugar has dissolved. Prick the sponges with a fork and brush the syrup on and leave to soak in.
If not using syrup, take the cakes out of their tins after 10 minutes and leave to cool on a rack. Make up the icing in a large mixing bowl. Put all the ingredients except half the sugar into the bowl and cream gently by hand, once combined add the rest of the sugar and combine by hand. Then beat with an electric hand mixer for at least 5 minutes till its whipped, light and fluffy.
Spread half the icing on one sponge, sandwich the other sponge on top and spread the rest of the icing on the second layer. Decorate with the walnut halves.
Serve the Kids First 