Cake on Friday: Coffee and Walnut Traybake

September's heat appears to be changing slowly towards Autumn so for this month's Cake on Friday, I thought I'd bring in a good solid autumn traybake.

Ingredients

The Cake

  • 200g Butter
  • 200g Caster Sugar
  • 4 Large Eggs
  • 200g Self Raising Flour
  • 1 Tsp Baking Powder
  • 100g Chopped Walnuts
  • 1 Tbsp Coffee Essence

Topping

  • 75g Butter
  • 225g Icing Sugar
  • 2 Tsp Milk
  • 2 Tsp Coffee Essence
  • Some walnut halves to make it look pretty.

Laziness note: The butter needs to be taken out the night before so it is at room temperature and soft (or just use baking margarine which is usually already soft). If you didn't take the butter out because you were too busy dry brushing the armour on your latest Cats and Catacombs mini, then dice up the butter and microwave it for a few seconds. The idea is the butter is soft not runny.

No coffee essence? Then just put 2 heaped teaspoons of your favourite instant coffee (just not Mellow Birds because that is not coffee) in a mug with 50ml of boiling water and mix. Use this as the essence substitute.

Equipment

• 25.5cm (10 inch) x 20.5cm (8 inch) Deep Tin
• Baking parchment
• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoons
• Spatula
• Blender/Food Processor (Optional)

Method

  1. Preheat the Oven to 180C, Gas Mark Google or Fahrenheit Bing. 
  2. Put the butter and Caster Sugar in a mixing bowl and mix it up until it is fluffy and creamy.
  3. Add in the Eggs and Coffee Essence and keep beating (it may end up looking lick sick, not to worry — curdling was an 80s problem it's fixable). 
  4. Add in the Flour and Baking Powder and mix it all up until it is smooth and looking a uniform colour.
  5. Mix in the Walnuts and mix until evenly distributed.
  6. Line your tin with baking parchment (YouTube can show you how) then pour in all the cake mix. Put it in the oven until cooked. Between 20-40 mins. It is cooked when it is nicely risen, doesn't wobble, is firm but spongy. If it is black, you have burnt it. Don't worry — use a breadknife and trim off the burn.
  7. Turn it out to cool on a wire rack. Once it is cool, you can ice it.
  8. To make the icing, mix the sugar, butter, milk and coffee essence in a bowl and mix until smooth and even. Stir slowly at first, otherwise it will look like an explosion in a white powder factory (hmm hmm). 
  9. When all is mixed, smear it over the top and decorate with walnuts. Chop up and serve it to your mates during game night.
  10. Enjoy!
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