Coffee & Walnut Cake

  

It is Fathers' Day tomorrow (FYI if it had slipped your mind!) ... time for fathers to generally have a day dedicated to them. Its as if when you become a parent, you essentially become like the Queen; you get two days celebrating you! You have your actually birthday and then your official birthday i.e. Fathers' Day & Mothers' Day. In all honestly I think it is a well deserved day, the countless times my daddy' has been there to watch school plays and matches, attend prize givings and parents' evenings, be at my bedside in hospital, be my taxi driver (although this one I blame on choosing to live nearer to livestock than being remotely near to any form of public transport), fix anything that is broken, bail me out when I'm penniless, support me in my decisions, put up with me when I return home after living independently at university and generally just be there for me...it's dedication to the cause in its purest form!

Over the many years I have bought into Fathers' Day from making the card and topical gift when in prep school to the world of consumerism when I could afford to do so; ties, shirts, wash bag, sporting equipment, aftershave, handkerchiefs etc. More recently I have opted out of consumerism and into baking for my daddy. I think it is a far more personal way of giving a thank you; to bake something that he wouldn't usually buy and that is a treat! Coffee and walnut Cake is my daddy's favourite so clearly the bake of choice today...

Serves 10-12

depending on how big of a slice your dad considers the norm

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 20-22 minutes

You will need the following:

Cake

200g Butter

200g Golden Caster Sugar

200g Self Raising Flour

4 Eggs
2Tsp Baking Powder

2Tsp Istant Ground Coffee Powder (dissolved in 2Tbsp water) 

100g Walnuts

Icing

300g Cream Cheese

60g Soft Brown Sugar
60g Icing Sugar

100g Walnuts

1Tsp Camp Coffee Essence for artistic drizzling

Icing Sugar for dusting

Method:

Remember the Golden Rules of Baking before starting ...

Put all of the walnuts on a baking sheet and roast in the oven at 180°C for 6 minutes

Cream together the butter and sugar

Add in the eggs one at a time...

Ensuring each one is combined before adding the next

Sift in the flour & baking powder

In a separate bowl mix the ground coffee with water


Then pour into cake mixture

Roughly chop the walnuts onto a board 

Into small pieces

Combine into mixture

Pour the mixture into two greased tins & bake to perfection for 20 minutes.
Check your cake at 20 minutes with a skewer, if it comes out clean your cake is done. If there is still cake mixture on it give it another 2 minutes

Whilst the cakes are cooling make the icing by simply combining the brown sugar & cream cheese


Then add in the icing sugar

Until you have a smooth ribbon like mix

Spread a thin layer of icing or fig jam between the two layers of cake

Then spread the rest of the icing on the top of the cake, pile on the walnuts on top of the cake 

Drizzle the camp essence over the walnuts then dust with icing sugar

Offer to your Father as a thank you for everything he does & enjoy a piece or two yourself ...