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Weekend bake: Coffee and walnut cake

About once a month I volunteer at the Heart for Abbots Langley coffee morning. My coffee and walnut sponge has become a great favourite amongst the mainly elderly clientele and I am now asked to make it every time. The secret for a moist cake is to make it really thick and for a well-risen cake to fight the curiosity to peek into the oven before the time is up!

• 4 eggs any size, weighed
• equal amounts:
  • caster sugar
  • butter or margarine (full fat) at room temperature
  • self-raising flour
• 100g walnuts chopped as finely as you like
• 3  tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2tbsp hot water

For the icing

• 120g unsalted butter
• 350g icing sugar
• 2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbs hot water
• 16-20 walnut halves

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C / Gas 4.
2. Grease the sides and line the bottom of two 8″/20cm cake tins. I use springform tins with loose bottoms – a good investment.
3. Weigh the eggs with their shells on. Remember the weight.
4. Put the weight of the eggs in both caster sugar and butter/margarine into a bowl and beat until pale and creamy.
5. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
6. Stir in the self-raising flour gently, making sure that you dont lose the air. The add the coffee mixture and the walnuts. The mixture should fall off a spoon/spatula easily when held over a bowl. If not, add a spoonful of milk.
7. Divide between the two prepared cake tins, place on the middle shelf and bake for 20-25 minutes. When ready, the cakes will be firm but flexible to the touch and a skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean.
8. Leave in the tins until cool, then turn out.
9. Beat the butter until soft, then beat in the coffee mix and the icing sugar until smooth.
10. When the cake is completely cold, sandwich the cakes toegther with about half the icing, then cover the top of the cake with the ramainer and decorate with the walnut halves around the outside.