(My) Cakes

[Sundae]

Here is the link to the Coffee and Walnut cake recipe I used.
It's a BBC website so it's reliable and SFW.

Shown below too.
I read through most of the comments and made amendments.

Ingredients
125g butter, at room temperature
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 heaped tbsp coffee, dissolved in 100ml water
100g walnut halves

ICING
200g butter
2-300g icing sugar


1. Heat the oven to 170C/fan 150C/fan 3. Line a deep 18cm loose-based or springform cake tin. Beat the butter and sugar together with electric beaters and then beat in the eggs, flour and baking powder.

2. Beat in 1 tbsp of the coffee mixture and then add up to another tbsp little by little until the mixture drops easily off the spoon. Keep the rest of the coffee mixture for the icing.

3. Stir in half the walnuts, snapping them in half as you drop them into the bowl. Spoon into the tin, level the top and bake for 40 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool.

4. To make the icing, beat the butter until soft and then beat in 200g icing sugar followed by the remaining coffee mixture, little by little. Stop when you have a depth of colour and flavour that you like. If the icing looks a little soft, beat in extra icing sugar.

5. Cut the cake into 3 slices horizontally and then sandwich the layers together with some of the icing, you need a reasonably thick layer. Ice the top of the cake with the rest of the icing and decorate with the rest of the walnuts.

Amendments.
I upped the 125g butter, flour and sugar to 200g.
I then split into three 18cm pans, so that I could assemble more easily.

I smashed up the walnuts in the cake - they were there, but just not in big bites.
I kept the ones for decoration as halves of course.

I added the coffee to the cake as recommended, but added an extra teaspoon to the icing. I wanted a good coffee taste.

The cake was a little crumbly.
But easily held together with icing.
It's an impressive cake while still looking home-baked, so I didn't worry too much about appearance.

[Sundae]

Having thought this through, I understand that the above may be inaccessible to the majority of American readers.

I found this online - Brie Barton's blog on a wing and a prayer
She references the Hummingbird Bakery, of whom I am also a fan.
So this recipe is different, untested by me, but will probably be easier to follow.

2 tbsp instant coffee granules (espresso powder makes a great rich taste!)
450 g (2 cups) unsalted butter at room temperature
450 g (2 1/4 cups) caster sugar (white sugar)
6 large eggs
450 g (3 1/2 cups) plain flour (all-purpose or cake flour)
2 tbsp baking powder
2 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 cup of walnuts crumbled, plus half walnuts to decorate (optional)

1 quantity frosting

250 g (2 1/4 cups) icing sugar, sifted
80 g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
25 ml (2 tbsp) heavy cream
a few drops of vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant espresso mixed with 2 tbsp boiling water


25 cm ring mould (known as a bundt pan in north america)

to make cake:

to make 'coffee essence' put instant coffee and 170 ml (3/4 cup) of water in a small sauce pan, bring to a boil and reduce by half. set aside to cool completely.

preheat oven to 170 C (325 F)

beat together butter, sugar and coffee essence. add eggs one by one, mixing well and scraping the bowl down as you go. beat in flour, baking powder and cocoa powder, mix until batter is light and fluffy. fold in crumbled walnuts.

pour mixture into prepared mould and even with spatula. bake for 40 minutes in preheated oven or until the sponge feels firm to the touch. (do not open oven door during early cooking or you will collapse the the cake). cool slightly in mould before turning out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

to make frosting:

beat icing sugar and butter until mixture comes together. in a small bowl combine cream, vanilla and instant espresso. add wet ingredients to sugar and beat until light and fluffy (5 minutes).

cover top of cooled cake with frosting, decorate with walnut halves

[wolf]

We call ring moulds a tube pan. A bundt pan here has shapes formed into it. A ring mold is something that you use for Jello. There is always room for Jello. Actually a ring mold would be used for fancy jello with fruit in it, and some sort of whipped topping or frothy parfait would get spooned in the middle. Parfait is extra-fancy frothy Jello, usually with some regular Jello pieces in it of the same or complimentary flavor.

[monster]

OK that's pretty much exactly how I make coffee cake/any sponge, except I weigh the eggs then use the same weight of the other ingredients. And I don't bother with baking powder/whatever, i just use self-rising/raising flour. And I beat in the eggs then fold in the flour.

[Trilby]

You know how I make my cakes? I go to Kroger and buy them.
very sluttish of me, I know. All you Martha's put me to shame.
Now Bruce will never love me!

[DanaC]

He will if you show him your norks.

[Trilby]

hope!

[limey]

Originally Posted by Brianna

hope!

For him? Or for you?

[Trilby]

For me!

[monster]

You ladies cheer me up. I got 4 hours sleep tops and have to drive to Ohio today. And I haven't even started packing. I'm grumpy. I needed that smirk/almost giggle. Norks.

[Aliantha]

There's no shame in buying cakes. Or having them brought home from the bakery for free by your son who happens to be on a close shift on a saturday.

Usually it means there'll also be pies and sausage rolls for the freezer. Vanilla slices (my personal fav), hedgehog slices, cherry ripe slices, apple charlottes, caramel slices. Pretty much anything they sell in a bakery, you will find on my kitchen bench by about 4.30pm this arvy, and the only effort it will have taken me is to go pick the big brat up from work.

[Lola Bunny]

Thanks, Sundae!

I agree with you, Ali. There is no shame in buying baked goods. I buy them all the time. Just that sometimes what you make at home (if you have the time) tastes better and cheaper too.

[Sundae]

I have no snobbery about bought cakes I promise.
But it's great to enjoy making them, and have them appreciated in the staffroom.

If I bought them a cake every Monday, I would be seen as a toadying creep.
Making them however is acceptable

[Aliantha]

Talking about buying things being cheaper.

I have been thinking about going into the cookie making business, but when I sat down and actually worked out how much each cookie costs me to make, I started to realise that it would actually be cheaper to just buy cookies instead of making them.

The choc chip ones I make are pretty special and they have lots of choc chips and nuts etc, but still, at over $1/pc, that's going to make it hard to get buyers if I want to add a profit margin in there somewhere.

I'm still thinking on it. Sourcing bulk ingredients to cut costs etc, but the idea has hit a stumble right from the start.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by Aliantha

The choc chip ones I make are pretty special and they have lots of choc chips and nuts etc, but still, at over $1/pc, that's going to make it hard to get buyers if I want to add a profit margin in there somewhere.

Large, high end cookies go for a couple of dollars apiece here.

If they're that good, people will buy them.

Don't know about kitchen industry in Oz, but over here it's very difficult to maintain the food safety standards in a family kitchen. You really need a commercial kitchen.