Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake

Unfortunately the hectic university schedule has meant that I haven't been able to blog for a while, but when I popped home last weekend I managed to fit in a spot of baking. My grandad has been a bit under the weather recently so I thought I'd make him his favourite cake; coffee and walnut. However, instead of making the traditional type where everything is mixed into the same layer, I thought I'd separate the cake into three different layers of coffee, walnut and vanilla. As a result, when you cut through the cake you can see the defined layers in each slice, with each layer sandwiched with coffee buttercream.

Ingredients:

Coffee Layer

• 50g margarine
• 50g sugar 
• 1 egg 
• 70g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 tbsp hot water 
• 1 tsp instant coffee

Walnut Layer

• 70g walnuts (finely chopped) 
• 50g margarine
• 50g sugar 
• 1 egg 
• pinch of baking powder 
• pinch of salt 
• 1 tbsp milk 
• 70g self-raising flour 
• drop of vanilla essence

Plain Layer

• 50g margarine
• 50g sugar 
• 1 egg 
• pinch of salt 
• pinch of baking powder 
• 1 tbsp milk 
• 70g self-raising flour
• drop of vanilla essence

Icing

• 75g margarine
• 225g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp boiling water
• 1 tsp instant coffee 

Make the cakes separately. For each cake, cream the margarine and the sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the egg and beat the mixture.  

Sift in the flour, baking powder and add the salt and combine. 

Add the milk and vanilla essence for the cakes that require it. 

For the coffee cake, in a separate bowl or cup add the coffee and water until it forms a liquidy paste, then add this to the cake mixture and stir well.

For the walnut layer, add the finely chopped walnuts and stir well.  

Pour the mixtures into cake tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean. Each layer is quite shallow so you will not need a deep baking tin, and it will cook quicker than normal cakes. 

When the cakes are cooked and cooled, soften the margarine for the icing, then add the icing sugar bit by bit.   

Make up the coffee mixture as for the cake, and add to the icing. 

Spread the coffee buttercream icing between each layer and on top of the cake. I finished the cake by sprinkling some leftover chopped walnuts.

Happy Baking!