Coffee and Walnut Cake

As requested I baked this for the Birthday cake.  It is full of coffee flavour and very moist. 
Butter cream is tricky to make as it almost split.... but I just managed to hold it together to make a soft creamy texture. The key points for making perfect buttercream is NEVER use butter straight from the fridge.  Be patient to make sure the butter is soft. It's also important to mix the icing sugar little by little. This apply to adding the coffee as well. Fat and water do not merge together unless you do this carefully.
Anyway, this is a great cake for any occasion. It's one of my favourites.

Ingredients

For the cake            

• 225g (8oz) unsalted butter            
• 225g (8oz) caster sugar
• 225g (8oz) self-raising flour
• 4 free-range eggs 
• 50ml (1¾fl oz) strong espresso coffee
• 75g (2½oz) walnuts

For the buttercream topping 

• 125g (4½oz) unsalted butter
• 200g (7oz) icing sugar
• 50ml (2fl oz) strong espresso coffee
• 12 walnut halves, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
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.
4. Add the espresso to the mixture and stir well.
5. Add the flour and chopped walnuts and stir well to completely combine.
6. Spoon the cake mixture into two lined and greased 20cm/8in 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.
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.

  

Just like mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce, buttercream is an emulsion of fat and liquid that can break into its component ingredients if not handled properly. You'll know when it happens because your buttercream will suddenly look like cottage cheese.

Cream together the butter/margarine until it turns light and fluffy.

Beat in the icing sugar powder gradually. Keep beating until the resulting mixture becomes smooth.

Add the coffee liquid. Only add small amounts until the icing becomes of a spreadable consistency. It is always better to add less than too much.

For the busy baker, you can use instant coffee instead. That's what I normally do anyway.
                 

Coffee Buttercream

100g/3½oz unsalted butter

200g/7oz icing sugar

2 tsp coffee granules

1 Tbsp boiling water

Walnut bread

I love walnut bread. I used to run to my favourite bakery in Japan at the time when the walnut bread came out of the oven.  This has a very crusty crust with flaky and slightly bitter walnuts.
As you munch, the walnuts crumble away. I'm more than happy with this freshly baked and still warm walnut bread with some chunky slices of gorgonzola cheese. :)
To make a rustic texture and flavour, I used wholemeal and rye flour in my bread mixture.
You can add as many walnuts as you like as long as the dough can hold them, but I used about 60g of walnuts for this loaf.

Ingredients 

• 200g strong white + 200g strong wholemeal + 100g rye flour 
• 7g sachet fast-action dried yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• up to 350ml lukewarm water
• a little sunflower oil for greasing
• 50-100g crushed walnuts

Method

1. Make the dough by tipping the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and making a well in the middle. Pour in most of the water and use your fingers or a wooden spoon to mix the flour and water together until combined to a slightly wet, pillowy, workable dough - add a splash more water if necessary. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for at least 10 mins until smooth and elastic. This can also be done in a tabletop mixer with a dough hook. Place the dough in a clean oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.
2. Heat oven to 220C/ fan 200C/ gas 7. Knock back the dough by tipping it back onto a floured surface and pushing the air out. Knead crushed walnuts into the dough until the walnuts have integrated into the dough evenly. Mould the dough into a rugby ball shape and place it on a baking tray. Cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 30 mins. Dust the top of the loaf with a little more flour and slash the top with a sharp knife if you want.
3. Pour hot water onto the bottom of the oven or into a dish at the bottom of the oven to create steam. 
4. Bake the bread for 15 mins, then reduce the heat to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5 and continue to bake for 30 mins until the loaf sounds hollow when removed from the oven and tapped on the base. Leave the bread on a wire rack to cool completely.

Revised: Coffee and Walnut Cake

I posted coffee and walnut cake before but this is a revised version.  Classic coffee and walnut cake is a must-have item in the proper afternoon tea menu.  It can be elevated by decorating with coffee butter cream and even made in 2 to 3 layers.  But my recipe is a very simple home-eating version. I made simple coffee icing by mixing strong coffee and icing sugar.  You can make this with instant coffee powder, icing sugar and water.   Sometimes, I find the simple way is the best. :) 

Ingredients

• 6oz (175g) self-raising flour  
  
• 1 level teaspoon baking powder
•  6oz (175g) low-fat spread (or butter)
•  2 large eggs
•  6oz (175g) light brown muscovado sugar
•  2-3 rounded tablespoons instant espresso coffee powder 
•  3 Tbsp milk or water
•  50g walnuts, finely chopped 

For topping

• icing sugar
• espresso coffee 
• 8-10 walnut halves

 Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC, gas mark 3
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a roomy mixing bowl. Then add the low-fat spread, eggs, sugar and coffee powder. Mix them by using an electric hand whisk for about 1 minute. You may need up to 3 Tbsp milk or water to make the mixture into a smooth, creamy and dropping consistency.
3. Fold the chopped nuts into the mixture.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and cool down.
5. While the cake is cooling, make up the topping. In a small bowl combine the icing sugar, coffee powder and some water.
6. When the cake is cool, decorate the cake with the coffee icing. 

Vegan Chocolate and Walnut Cupcakes

Here are my very chocolatey vegan chocolate cupcakes with walnuts.
You can make them without walnuts if you prefer a smooth texture.

This cake mixture also works for a round cake tin for a birthday cake base. You will need a longer baking time of 40-45 minutes for one big round cake.  I made the round cake version with orange flavour by adding zest of one orange to the cake mixture.  I also spread a good orange marmalade in in the middle when the cake become cool enough to slice.
To add more indulgent chocolate flavour, you can decorate the cake with melted plain chocolate (don't use milk chocolate! It's a vegan cake after all. )

My vegan friend approved so I must have done the right thing. :)

Ingredients (12 cupcakes)

• 200g (7 oz) self-raising flour 
• 200g (7 oz) caster sugar
• 50g cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (or baking powder)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons (74ml) vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice (or white vinegar)
• 250ml (8 fl oz) water
• 70g chopped walnuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4. 
2. Sieve together the flour, sugar, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the oil, vanilla, lemon juice and water.  Mix together until smooth. Add walnuts.
3.  Pour into prepared muffin tin and bake at 180 C for 20-25 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
5. Decorate with cocoa icing (cocoa + icing sugar +water) and crushed walnuts. 

Apple and Walnut Muffins

Ideally, muffins should be eaten or frozen on the same day that they are baked. Otherwise they become a bit dry.  However, I found out that if I put grated apple in the batter, the muffins stay moist. When I added apple to ginger cupcakes the other day, they stayed moist for a couple of days. :)  So, I added 1 grated apple to these muffins. These muffins are extra moist but very fluffy. 

Ingredients 

• 200g plain flour
• 100g sugar (50g soft brown + 50g white caster) 
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• 100ml milk
• 50ml vegetable oil  
• 1 egg
• 1 apple grated
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 50g walnut chopped 

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6 and add paper cases to a muffin tray.
2. Measure out dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
3. Measure milk and oil in a large measuring jug. Add egg and whisk well.
4. Add the wet mixture (3) into the dry mixture (2).  Stir until just combined. The mixture will be lumpy. Do NOT over mix.     Then, gently fold in grated apple and walnuts.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown on top. 

Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread & Butter Pudding

Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread was a hit. Really tasty, but I left some slices for this. Yes, great leftover desert, good old bread and butter pudding. I had some slices of Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread that I baked yesterday and I needed the eggy mixture.
I googled it and found an interesting article. "How to make perfect bread and butter pudding" hmmm. I suppose everybody has an opinion of how they like their bread and butter pudding.
However, it's always safe to go back to Delia if you're not sure.
Her eggy mixture contains 3 eggs, 275ml milk, 60ml double cream and 50g sugar for 8 slices of bread. I had small slices of Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread, so I made the mixture with 2 eggs, 220ml milk and 30g sugar. I didn't add double cream because I didn't have it in my fridge.

Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread

Fancy a slice of sweet bread? 

How about Chocolate and Walnut Swirl Bread?

I noticed a large jar of chocolate spread hanging around in the cupboard when I was waiting for my bread dough to be proven. I thought to myself, why not use half of the bread dough for sweet bread.  I normally make 2 loaves with my basic bread recipe. 

So, I left one half for normal bread and I had fun with the other half. I made the second half of the dough flat and spread 3 generous spoonfuls of  chocolate spread on the dough. Then I sprinkled chopped walnuts and rolled the dough as if making Swiss roll. I put both the normal loaf and this sweet loaf in the oven, then baked as usual.
A great weekend lunch with home-baked bread, ham and cheese, then this sweet bread for desert.
Why not? It's the weekend after all. :) :)

Cinnamon Nutella Cake

Nutella on toast is my comfort food.
The lovely nutty and chocolatey flavour is one of my childhood memories. I loved to munch Nutella in a soft bread roll and drink very sweet coffee flavoured milk when I was a little girl. I thought that was the best combo when I was starving after a swimming lesson. :)
I was wondering if there was a cake recipe using Nutella, and found quite a few. This recipe is based on the one I found in BBC Good Food. It worked very well with low-fat spread producing a very moist and fluffy sponge. I tried to make a marble effect with the Nutella, but as you see all the Nutella sank to the bottom. As a result, there was slightly crunchy chocolate stuff in the bottom which I quite enjoyed.

Ingredients

• 175g (6 oz) softened butter ( I used Low-Fat spread)
• 175g (6 oz) golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 200g (7 oz) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 tbsp milk
• 4 rounded tbsp Nutella or own-brand chocolate hazelnut spread
• 50g hazelnuts (I used walnuts), roughly chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/ fan 160C. Butter and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin.
2. Put the butter (or low-fat spread), sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, cinnamon and milk into a bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer for 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy.
3. Tip three quarters of the mixture into the tin, spread it level, then spoon the Nutella on in four blobs. Top with the remaining mixture, swirl a few times with a skewer, then smooth to cover the Nutell
4. Sprinkle with the nuts. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until risen, nicely browned, feels firm to touch and springs back when lightly pressed (cover with foil if it starts to brown too quickly). Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. Wrap tightly in double thick foil to keep fresh for up to a week.

Gâteau aux noix et au café

Here is a cake to impress. Well.. I'm more of a rustic baker, but I have tried to do more intricate work this time.
This is basically a classic coffee and walnut loaf cake, but when I was decorating it with coffee icing, I thought to myself, I could give this cake a classier name - French, perhaps? Sounds better, doesn't it? So, I checked Google Translate and got "Gâteau noyer" which, apparently means "Walnut Tree Cake". Without knowing this silly mistake I published this title on my Redbubble site. But a trusted Twitter friend corrected my mistake soon after she visited my site. Phew - So now it is officially "Gâteau aux noix et au café" (coffee and walnut cake).
Believe it or not, it is actually a low-fat cake. I use low-fat spread instead of butter. I ignore the statement on the low-fat spread tub, "not suitable for baking", because it works well. However, I have to reduce the amount of liquid in the mixture as the low-fat spread contains more water than normal spread.  The result is lovely, moist and guilt free....(I didn't mean gluten free).
This is a coffee version of  my Low-Fat Lemon Cake. I use soft brown sugar instead of caster sugar to give a rich and deep flavour. I also add very strong cofffee which is made with two tablespoons of warm water and espresso coffee powder instead of milk. Chopped walnuts are added instead of lemon zest.