Coffee and Walnut Cake - The Recipe

 

A classic coffee and walnut cake recipe with a buttery yet light sponge and a rich coffee flavoured icing...

I am not usually one to indulge in a coffee cake, I would rather have a chocolate fudge cake any day but whilst looking for something to bake yesterday I laid my eyes on this wonderful recipe in the Great British Bake Off cookery book. It just looked so damn tasty! And if I am honest it was one of the few recipes I actually had the ingredients for, lazy I know, anyway I wanted to share this with you as it is easy to follow and really quick to make.

For the sponge you will need -

175g unsalted soft butter

175g caster sugar

3 medium eggs

75g chopped walnuts

175g self raising flour

1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1 tablespoon of instant coffee dissolved into 1 tablespoon of hot water

For the filling and topping you will need -

125g unsalted butter

300g icing sugar

3 tablespoons of instant coffee dissolved into 2 tablespoons of hot water

4 tablespoons of double cream

25g chopped walnuts for decoration

First start by pre-heating the oven to 180 C and line two eight inch cakes tins. Put the softened butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until light and creamy, gradually add in the eggs one at a time beating well after each one is added. Add the nuts, sifted flour and baking powder followed by the disolved coffee, carefully fold all ingrediants together until thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture between the two tins and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25mins until golden and the sponge springs back when lightly pressed. Once out of the oven run a round bladed knife around the egde of the cake to loosen and then turn out onto a wire cooling rack, leave cakes to cool completely.

To make the filling and topping heat the butter in a small non stick metal pan until it starts to bubble, sift the icing sugar into a large heatproof bowl and pour over the butter followed by the disolved coffee and cream, beat well using a large wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth, leave until thick enough to spead. You may need to chill the mixture in the fridge for ten minutes or so. Once almost set spread onto the bottom layer of the cake and then place the second sponge layer on top, put the rest of the mixture onto the top of the cake and spread using a spatula, run a knife around the top to create a swirled pattern and then decorate with the chopped walnuts.

The recipe says the cake should last four days so it is a  great one to prepare one or two days before having guests round, although it didn't even last a day in my house! Let me know if you try this!

Afternoon Tea at South Lodge

A Little Update...

Hello lovely readers! I know it has been a while since my last blog post, I went on holiday at the end of June to Spain for two weeks and have literally not been able to pull myself out of holiday blogging mode, I also started my new job at The Body Shop so life has been pretty busy recently. But I am back with a photo heavy lifestyle post - lets face it these are the best type...

Last weekend Luca and I went to South Lodge Hotel for Afternoon Tea, we had vouchers from our Wedding Anniversary and as the weather was so nice we decided to use them, the building itself is a gorgeous country house with beautiful grounds in Horsham, West Sussex. We went for full Afternoon Tea with sandwiches, scones, pastries, cakes and of course tea! The food and service were both wonderful. After our tea we took a stroll around the lake to walk off our scones. I had such a nice afternoon I can't wait to go back.

So back to my blogging fail, hopefully now I have a little more time off during the week my blog will be busier than ever, I have lots of posts planned and I have also been doing a little writing on the side for beauty website 'Latest In Beauty' which is great writing experience. Don't forget to follow my blog on Bloglovin for regular updates of new posts.

Hope you all have a fabulous week.

Afternoon Tea in Petworth

Spring has well and truly arrived, despite the rain currently pouring down outside while I type away it has actually been rather sunny in old blighty these past few days. The daffodils are out and the English country side is looking beautiful. I love going to different villages and market towns, there are so many independent, unique shops to be found as well as proper homemade tea rooms and restaurants. This week Luca and I visited Petworth, a lovely town in Sussex, we also walked around the gardens of Petworth House, it is such a grand building, and the grounds are so well maintained, it really is a great place to go for the day.
We stopped for lunch at Tiffins, where we ordered the traditional cream tea, the scones were absolutely massive, and tasted delicious I might add, so good in fact that we were inspired to bake some when we arrived home.

Have you discovered a new favourite place recently? Are you more of a city gal or a country gal?
 

This Time Last Week #2

Last Sunday Luca and I decided to go to Arundel, a sweet historical village bursting with quaint vintage shops and busy tea rooms, It is such a nice place to go for a wander and it is literally a few miles away from where we live, we ventured into our favourite treasure troves to see what bargains were to be had, we found some great original adverts from the 1950's and lots of beautifully distressed antique furniture. We found a lovely cafe to have tea and hot chocolate and then we headed to our favourite sweet shop which I happened to blog about on Friday, I also snapped a quick outfit of the day whilst shopping, I wore my Pull and Bear jacket to keep me nice and warm, black tights from New Look,  black lace pumps from H&M, a bargain of a dress from George at Asda, it's a speckled grey smock dress and the fit is just perfect, my parquet courts tote bag from their recent gig in Brighton, and my jewellery consists of a mint green necklace from New Look and a beautiful Amethyst stone bullet pendant from Snoopers Attic in Brighton Lanes. 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend, thanks for reading.

Brick Lane

I have heard so many amazing things about Brick Lane so when we were recently in London we thought we would see what all the fuss was about, we did go on a week day and I am told the weekend is what it is all about but anyhow we had a lovely time. We looked through the racks of countless vintage shops then had tea and cake in an adorable cafe. After which we headed to Rough Trade, Luca was pretty excited about this part! They had a photo booth too which was really fun.

What's your favourite spot or shop in London?

Pick Your Own Farming

A little while ago I decided a day in the sunshine was needed, working in an office five days a week can give you slight cabin fever so a jaunt into the big outdoors was more than welcome. I had never been fruit picking before, so when we drove past a 'Pick Your Own' farm near where I live I was pretty excited. The idea of being self sufficient is something that really interests me, I have always wanted a vegetable patch at the bottom of my garden, to be able to wonder into the garden mid bolognese to grab some fresh herbs is something I can only dream of at the moment since I don't have a garden of my own yet. Any way where was I? ..

When we arrived at the farm we noticed the little Tea Room where we had breakfast, tea and cake.

Afterwards we headed into the wide open fields to find some fruity treats. The first things we came across were the raspberries, now I know you are not meant to eat them until you have washed them and paid of course but they just looked too good! We also got some sweetcorn, carrots, and broccoli. I was slightly apprehensive about it being a lot more expensive than Tesco's as it is all local produce but it actually worked out much cheaper! Our little box came to a tiny total of £2 something.

 Have you ever been to a Pick Your Own farm?