Walnut and Coffee Cake

Two months. I can’t believe I am blogging after two months!! Feels like I am coming back from hibernation. It’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me these couple of months. Usually we get happiness and the sorrow in our life in a periodic manner but well spread out so you get enough time to recover from both. This time that wasn’t the case for me.   

It's way past midnight now and this is the only time I got to pen down something. When my parents were here with me, I had hardly cooked anything. My mom was in the driving seat cooking, taking care of the house and I was in the backseat, relaxed and pampered like anything. Now when I am back in to my old usual routine life, it feels as if I was floating on the cute little clouds in the sky and suddenly fell down on hard rock and broke all my bones and trust me it hurts like hell!! 

One of the few things I made during my parents stay was this cake. It was my better half’s birthday and this is the only thing I made for him. The dinner was a treat from my parents.

Ingredients:

150 gm butter

150 gm brown sugar

150 gm all purpose flour

3 eggs

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in water (1-2 tsp)

1 tsp of Almond essence

100 gm chopped walnuts

For Icing:

200gm butter

200 gm sugar

1tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp water

few walnut halves

50 gm melted dark chocolate

Method:

Beat the eggs first until light and fluffy, to that add the melted butter and sugar and continue beating. Once you have a well combined homogeneous mixture add the flour slowly, little by little to the mixture while continuing to beat. Add the coffee dissolved in water, the almond essence and the baking powder.  Give the whole mixture a good mix again with the electric mixer. Add the chopped walnuts in to the light brown cake mixture and mix them with a wooden spatula and keep it aside.

Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper. Pre heat the oven at 180 degree C. Pour the cake mix in the baking tray and bake it for 25-30 minutes or until it passes the  skewer’s test (poke a skewer in the cake and it should come out clean).  Let it cool.

Now make the icing. Beat the butter and sugar together with the coffee for the icing. You can add more sugar if you feel the mixture is bit soft. Now spread the icing on the cake. It’s better to do the icing as soon as it is ready as the icing will become harder to spread later. Once the spreading is done, place the cake in the fridge to set. I took it out after few hours and decorated with the melted chocolate sauce and the remaining walnut halves.