The Book People visited us today.........and that can only mean one thing: I bought yet another book. I had to try it straight away, so my first recipe from the Teatime Collection book is Coffee Cake. I love coffee and I always wanted to bake one of these....Yumm
Coffee Cake
For the sponge
175 g butter, softened
175 g light brown soft sugar
2 tbsp strong coffee
3 eggs lightly beaten
175 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
For the butter cream
110 g butter, softened
200 g icing sugar
2-3 tbsp strong coffee
80 g walnut chopped
To decorate
icing sugar
8 walnut halves
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease two 20 cm sandwich tins and base line with non stick baking parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar together, add the coffee and beat in the eggs little by little, keeping the mixture stiff. Sift the flour and baking powder together then fold in.
Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.
Allow to cool in the tins for a few minutes then turn out, peel away the paper and cool on a wire rack.
Make the butter cream by blending the butter, icing sugar and coffee together until smooth.
Take one cake and arrange wooden skewers/toothpicks over the top to mark out eight portions. Sieve icing sugar over the top and then remove the skewers. Pipe on eight butter cream rosettes and top each with a walnut piece.
Add the chopped walnuts to the remaining butter cream and spread over the second cake. Put the first cake on top of this.
