Coffee, Walnut, Hazelnut Cake

can you ever have too much coffee?  

I have been hunting around for a really good coffee and walnut cake recipe, and I think I may have found it.  This one is by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, the ladies of the River Cafe in London.  I love that this cake has a real coffee hit to it, unlike some wimpy versions you come across.  And it is full of walnuts and hazelnuts, so you have a bit of crunch as well.    

I am joining in with The Cookbook Guru Book Club, which this month is delving into The River Cafe Cookbook by the above mentioned ladies.  Sadly, Rose Gray died in 2010 so Ruth is at the helm solo.  It looks like there are many splendid recipes in this book, worth a good delving.:=)  


ingredients:

3 vanilla beans
240g. walnuts
240g. hazelnuts
5 tbs instant coffee + 2 tbs boiling water
380g. unsalted butter, softened at room temp.
380g. caster sugar - I used raw caster
5 large eggs - around 60g. each
100g. plain flour
1 tsp baking powder


Method:

Set your oven to 170C/325F

Grease a 25cm cake tin with butter and tip some plain flour around it to coat the tin (I only had a 23cm springform tin so I used that)

Shake out the excess flour; you may want to line the tin with baking paper but if using a springform tin, don't bother

Zap the vanilla beans in a small processor or chop finely

Zap the walnuts into small pieces (no need to clean the processor)

Roast the hazelnuts in the pre-heated oven for about 10 mins

Let them cool, then rub them to get rid of the skins (don't worry if you have some skin left on)

Now zap these in the processor to a fine meal/powder

Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water; stir and leave to cool

Grab a large mixing bowl, throw in the butter and sugar and beat till light and creamy

Fold in both nuts and the vanilla beans

Beat the eggs into the batter one at a time (or cheat and throw in 2 at a time)

Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder

Stir in the cooled coffee

Pour/spoon into the prepared tin

Bake for one and a quarter hours

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then onto a cake rack to cool right down

Sift on some icing sugar if you wish

Because this is a UK recipe, I used UK tablespoons which are 17.75mls according to Mr. Google, unlike Aussie ones of 20 mls. Well let's be honest, I got as close to that as I could without fussing around.  So basically I just chucked in a couple of extra teaspoons after using 15mls tablespoons which seem to be the only ones you can buy these days.  

ingredients ready to go  

just beat it, beat it  

luscious swirly coffee nutty batter   

yep I know - it looks a bit suss, like peanut butter or worse:=)   

   beaauuutiful nutty batter ready for the oven     

(Guess what my doodles are this time!)