As requested here
is my very easy fool-proof recipe:
Sponge
8 oz Soft Butter
8 oz Caster Sugar
8 oz Self Raising
Flour
4 Eggs
2 teaspoons Baking
Powder
1 teaspoon Instant Coffee
(enough boiling water to dissolve – leave to cool)
½ packet (approx. 4
oz Chopped Walnuts)- keep aside some to add in the middle of the sponge and large
pieces or halves to decorate
Coffee and walnut
butter icing (amount to individual
taste) for middle
1 teaspoon dissolved
Instant Coffee
Butter
Walnut pieces
Coffee icing for top and side
1 teaspoon
dissolved Instant Coffee
Water
Turn oven on to 170
degrees.
Make coffee for the
sponge (if you don’t mind the extra washing up, make 3 coffee mixtures ready to
use).
Line 2 sponge tins
with non-stick baking paper (or grease the tins well).
If the butter is
still a bit hard, put it in the microwave just above defrost temperature for
about 30 seconds until just soft as it makes it easier to mix.
Put all the
ingredients (apart from the walnuts) into a large bowl and stir well (you can
cream the sugar into the soft butter first if you want, but I find it isn’t
essential).
When it is all
mixed in you can stir in the walnut pieces (I break mine up quite small – each half
into about 6 pieces).
Divide the mixture into
the 2 sponge tins.
Pop in the oven for
about 30 minutes (until they feel springy on top – but don’t test until about
the 30 minutes or they will sink in the middle).
Take them out and
cool on a rack (tip - keep the one with the best rounded top upwards and the
other one with the top downwards on the rack, so the 2 flat parts are in the
middle of the cake to ice).
Make another coffee
mixture with as little hot water as possible and when cool add it to butter and
icing sugar – make as much as you like for the middle of the cake.
Make and cool the
last coffee mixture so it is cool to make the setting icing for the top.
When the sponges
are cool, put the bottom sponge on the serving dish and spread with the butter
icing and push some walnut pieces into the icing (or you can add them to the
butter icing before spreading it if you prefer).
Put the other
sponge on top.
Make up the icing
with the last coffee mixture and add the icing sugar, adding a little bit more
water to get the amount of icing you want.
Spread it over the top
of the cake (and round the sides if you want).
In my photo I made
the icing a little thinner plus more than normal and let it run down the sides
and on to the serving plate (spoon up over the bits it missed on the sides
until all covered).
Decorate the cake
with the walnut pieces (tip – don’t put them too close to the edge if the icing
is still runny as they will fall off).
If you want just the
basic reminder instructions, here they are:
Put all sponge ingredients
in a bowl, stir, divide into 2 tins.
Pop in the oven 170
for 30 mins, then cool.
Butter ice the
middle, setting icing the top. Walnuts
to decorate.
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