9/11 part 2 - Coffee Walnut Cake and Bournville and M&M Chocolate Cupcakes

September 13, 2011

9/11 part 2 - Coffee Walnut Cake and Bournville and M&M Chocolate Cupcakes

After our lovely meal at the White Lion I was so full I could hardly breathe, so obviously want I really wanted waiting for me at home was a large cake and 12 cupcakes! We decided to call time out and watch a film "Tron" (the new one), before daring to attempt dessert.
I surprised myself by really enjoying Tron, I hadn't expected to, I followed it too, another surprise as I've never seen the original and apparently you should have! The effects were amazing on the telly, the kind of film HD was made for.
Tony didn't enjoy it so much and with the help of another tot of his whisky he was soon in a merry slumber on the settee.

Everyone wakes for cake though....

Coffee and Walnut Cake

A teeny tiny picture
of a huge cake!

I was going to make my normal Victoria sponge and adapt the recipe with some coffee and walnut, but after a bit of internet research I came up with the following. I'll just include a link to the recipe and then give you some advice rather than going through the whole thing. It's a Nigella recipe http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/COFFEE-AND-WALNUT-LAYER-CAKE-5307 and it sounded like a real coffee lovers cake. It was a beautifully textured cake with the nicest butter cream I've ever had, but the coffee just over powered the sponge. The centre was OK but the edges were unbelievably bitter.
Luckily for you I can easily remedy this for you and in fact Nigella herself says if you are not a coffee fiend then replace the 4 teaspoons of espresso powder in the sponge with 2 of your favourite coffee granules, I'm sure just 1teaspoon of espresso would have done. I will definitely bake a tamer version of it again, in fact the perfectionist in me wants to do it again this weekend, luckily we have a wedding and monster trucks to contend with so that won't be happening. To his credit Tony liked the cake and has demolished over half of it, which is all that matters.
As I said the butter cream was amazing, this time the espresso worked lovely it was so subtle even Lauren liked it, I used Lurpack lighter and added an extra couple of tablespoons of icing sugar and I'm sure that helped with the texture.

Chocolate Cup Cakes with Bournville Topping and M&M's
I have to say these were some of the easiest and nicest cakes we've made.

Another teeny picture!

Take 2 eggs, weigh them and then measure out equal measurements of butter, caster sugar and flour (replace about 20g of flour with good cocoa powder). Using electric beaters or a food processor (or a spoon and a strong arm) mix all the ingredients thoroughly, use to fill 12 cup cake cases and bake at GM4/180C for 20-25 minutes until they are firm to the touch and in no way wobbly.
Put on a rack to cool.
Then melt 2 thirds of a large bar of Bournville in a bowl over a pan of water, coat the cupcakes with the melted chocolate and decorate with M&M's - easy peasy..

A cautionary tale 1.......sparklers are bad...for your socks and kitchen floor!