Cappuccino Cake

I was channelling a bit of Mary Berry on Saturday.  Apparently this cake is best eaten fresh, which wasn't really an issue here.

Measure 2oz cocoa powder with 6tblsp boiling water.  Add 3 large eggs, 50ml milk, 6 oz self raising flour, 1tsp baking powder, 4oz butter and 10oz caster sugar.

Beat until combined - the mixture will be like a fairly thick batter.

Divide mixture between two cake tinned (greased and lined bases) then bake for 25-30 mins at 180c until well risen and beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin.

Cool on a wire rack.

For the filling, dissolve 1tsp coffee in 2tsp hot water.  Whip 300ml double cream until it just holds its shape then stir in the dissolved coffee.

Sandwich the cake together with half of the cream and spread the rest on top.

Dust with sifted cocoa powder or drinking chocolate.

Brendan's coffee and walnut cake

I'm going to start this post with a warning.

This cake is delicious and addictive!

The first attempt to make a coffee cake was a total disaster. So I turned to the master...the lovely Brendan from The Great British Bakeoff.

I followed the recipe with no ad libbing and it turned out brilliantly. The only changes I made were to use a different tin size and a simple coffee buttercream.  Visit Brendan's website.

Cream together 175g butter with 175g sugar. Beat in three eggs. Add 175g self raising flour plus 1tsp baking powder.

Dissolve 3tsps coffee granules in 1. tbsp boiling water and add. Finally, add 65g chopped walnuts.

Bake until done at 180c. It took about 35 minutes using my tin.

To make the buttercream, use a ratio of half butter to icing sugar. Eg for 100g butter use 200g icing sugar. Add 3tsps coffee granules dissolved in 1tbsp boiling water to the buttercream.

Cover the cake with buttercream and decorate with walnuts.

Apparently the cake will keep for several days in a tin. Mine didn't last that long!