Coffee-walnut cake

This post along with another one is probably the last in my drafts. I am staring at my Picasa album to realize I don't have any more food pics (blogworthy) in it. So I think it would be safe to say it will be a while till my next post. Unless otherwise I get all enthu over the weekend and cook up a storm and then style it and take pics. By the looks of it, I don't think I will be..well for one, its supposed to be an over cast weekend with rains on and off and two, I have so much frozen food, I need to eat it some time or else my freezer would remain full and i wont be able to fill it with more junk.

I blame myself for running around the Indian grocery store like I'm crazy (and Ro for not stopping me). I picked up mooli paratha, peas paratha (I don't even like peas) and paneer paratha by the truck loads and ignoring Ro's eye rolling I even picked up canned pavakka theeyal..really, canned theeyal...who does that you might wonder. Oh well, here's living proof of the fact that I can buy the most bizarre of things. And like that's not enough, both of us hate bitter gourd with a vengeance. I will just have to say a little prayer and open it and pretend to like it, so Ro cant say 'I told you so'

While we are on the 'buying' topic, I have gone ahead and picked up a shelf to keep all my blog stuff. Although it is not as droolworthy as Soma's and Aran's gorgeous collection, I am so proud of it that each time I pass by I exclaim how amazing it looks (with dramatic sighs and oohs and aah's. Now that its all out in the open (before it all used to be in a cardboard box), the not-so-fun part is Ro shooting questions at me like, where did you buy this from, how much did that cost and so on. Of course I understand that he wanted to know what I was gonna do with the Christmas decorations, when we didn't even plan on buying a Christmas tree (Here's the answer...it was because I was doing a post for a magazine with Christmas as the theme and without candles, baubles and holly, it wouldn't have been a 'merry' Christmas would it?). Obviously I didn't say that and distracted him with a tea pot I picked up because Ro is a sucker for anything tea related. (Note to self: first find a place to hide the huge cake stand before I buy it.)

Anyhoo, coming to the cake, its not a fancy schmancy cake, but I loved it. Its a simple coffee cake that pairs well with, err..coffee perhaps? Also, the best part- its a one bowl cake. No cleaning up tonnes of vessels and all that which usually puts me off making a cake altogether. I whipped it up quite a while back to serve with tea for some unexpected guests and strangely had all the ingredients it required. The original recipe calls for a mascarpone frosting which I didn't do, because for one its a painstaking job and two, I somehow have this notion that tea cakes are supposed to be plain. Click on the link for the filling and frosting recipe if you are going all out. I am a sucker for anything coffee flavoured and this cake just made me fall in love with it all over again.

Recipe adapted from Delia online

Plain flour- 110 gms

Baking powder- 2 tsp

Salt- 1/4 tsp

Caster sugar- 110 gms

Unsalted butter- 110 gms, at room temperature

Eggs- 2 large

Vanilla extract- 1/2 tsp

Instant espresso coffee- 1 tbsp

Boiling water- 1 1/2 tbsp

Finely chopped walnuts- 50 gms

Dissolve the instant espresso in boiling water. Keep aside.

Into a large mixing bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together.

Add all the remaining ingredients except the coffee and walnuts and combine well either using an electric beater or if you are lazy like me, use the whisk or a wooden spoon and get the job done.

Mix till you get a smooth consistency.

Pour in the coffee, add walnuts and fold it in, making sure you have a well combined mixture.

Transfer the batter into a greased 9 inch cake pan, even it out, tap a couple of times to release the air bubbles and bake in an oven pre-heated at 170C for 30 minutes or till the skewer comes out clean.

Cool for about 5 minutes after which you can transfer it from the cake pan on to a wire rack and cool completely.

The cake stays in an air tight container for about 4 or 5 days at room temperature. Mine lasted just one evening :)

Notes: The original recipe calls for self-raising flour, so if you have that, reduce the baking powder to 1 tsp and omit the salt.

For caster sugar, just pulse normal granulated sugar in a blender once or twice for a finer version. Don't over do it or else you will end up with icing sugar
Replace espresso powder with normal instant coffee if espresso is not available. You might have to increase the quantity a tad bit to get strong coffee flavour in the cake though

If you don't like biting into the walnuts, then pulse it in a blender, along with a couple of tbsp of sugar, (from the measurements given) to a fine powder and then add it along with the flour.

Hazelnuts or almonds can also be used instead of walnuts.