Coffee & Walnut Cake (easy, all in one recipe)

I really enjoy making a cake for the weekend… pottering about in the kitchen on a Saturday morning while Husband and Son are outside blowing leaves or chopping logs for the burner. Not least because I am inside in the warm sheltering from the torrential rain and Amber warning gales, but there’s something about the warm fragrance of a cake in the oven that makes a weekend a really good weekend. Husband made a request for a Coffee & Walnut Cake to have with his hot cup of reviving afternoon tea – here is the recipe I used. However, instead of the traditional buttercream filling, I used double cream and marscapone, which I think was a great improvement.

Coffee & Walnut Cake (easy, all in one recipe)

Ingredients
6oz (150g) self raising flour
6oz (150g) caster sugar
6oz (150g) butter (at room temperature)
3 eggs
4oz (100g) walnuts, chopped & 8 whole
Freshly made espresso, left to cool (60ml approx)

300ml double cream, whipped
350ml mascarpone, at room temperature

How to prepare

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C / 360°F / Gas Mark 4

Lightly grease 2 x 7″ round loose bottomed cake tins

Place all the cake ingredients (flour, caster sugar, butter, eggs, chopped walnuts and 30ml espresso) into a bowl and mix together with an electric whisk / food processor until well combined

Divide the mixture into the two tins

Cook for approx 25 mins (or until golden brown and an inserted knife/ skewer comes out clean)

Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack

Whisk together the cream, mascarpone and remaining espresso coffee. If you like your cream sweeter, add a tbspn of caster sugar.

Spread around a third of the coffee cream over the top of one cake and top with the other. Spread the remaining coffee cream over the top of the cake and decorate with the whole walnuts. Tuck in.