Cake for Coffee Lovers

Right now, I am craving a little comfort food...cake to be exact.  

There's nothing more comforting than a piece of really good cake.  This cake takes the prize for me. While living in England, I had many versions of this cake as it's a popular teatime cake in many cafes across the country.
If you love coffee, you'll love this cake.  It doesn't have a strong overpowering coffee flavor and the walnuts give the cake great flavor and a little crunch to the texture.  

Coffee Walnut Cake

For the cake:

225g (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

225g (1 cup) sugar

4 eggs, room temperature

30ml (2 TBSP) strong espresso coffee, cooled

1/2 tsp espresso powder

225g (2 cups) self-rising flour

50g (1/3 cup) finely chopped walnuts

For the buttercream:

145g (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

pinch of salt

500g (4 1/2 cups) confectioner's sugar

75ml (4 TBSP) strong espresso coffee, cooled

To decorate:

12 walnut halves for the top arranged in a neat circle

Prepare 2 8" cake pans by greasing and flouring, set aside.

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)

Using a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add an egg and blend.  Add about a 1/4 of the flour and mix.  Repeat with remaining eggs and flour until all are in and blended.

Add the walnuts.  Stir the espresso powder into the liquid espresso and add to the batter.  Blend well.

Divide batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 28-30 minutes or until cake tester is clean.  Allow cakes to cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the pans.  Cool completely on a rack.

Make the buttercream by blending all the ingredients as stated above until creamy and smooth.

Decorate the cake by piping rosettes of buttercream in a circle and placing a walnut in the center of the rosettes.  Chill before serving to make slicing easier.  Store completely covered.  

Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee!  

Quilts for April

 Easter is on its way! I can't believe it.  It seems like we just put all the Christmas decorations away.  Are the holidays coming faster than they used to?  The stores are sure quick to put out the next holiday merchandise in the line-up.  I'm already seeing Memorial Day flags and July 4th items.  Really?  I am actually thinking backwards....or way way in the future, as I would like to make some St. Patrick's day placemats.  Also on my list of things I want to make, is a fall theme wool stitched table mat.  About 15 years ago I saw a pattern for it in a magazine and kept it along with some wool I've picked up.  

  But, on the top of my to do list is finishing my Art Deco quilt.  This quilt, for some reason, has been more than I can handle.  It measures 90"X90" and quilting it on my Bernina B740 has been difficult due to all the geometric lines and shapes as turning the quilt while sewing is a challenge.  It is now in the binding stage, so I'll be happy when it's finished completely.  I think this will be the last large quilt I do in my lifetime.  They are just too taxing and I will never purchase a longarm and frame to do them.