Coffee and Walnut Cake

Mmmm....cake.

The basic formula here can be used for any sponge cake. I love coffee cake and we had some espresso left over from breakfast and a spare 45 minutes so I thought why not?

I added some walnuts and sultanas that I found in the cupboard (I thought afterwards the sultanas might have been better soaked in rum or brandy but as I had neither of those anyway...nevermind). We only had one egg so this was going to be a small cake.

Ingredients:
1 egg
self-raising flour
butter
sugar
icing sugar
fresh(ish) made coffee or freeze dried granules
a handful of sultanas (soaked overnight in alcohol of choice)
a handful of walnuts

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Turn it to non-fan if you have a fan oven and the option, but it's not essential.

Weigh the egg then weigh out the same in flour, butter and sugar. Add to a mixing bowl and whisk. I did it by hand but you can used a blender, you just need to make sure you get enough air in.

If you are using coffee granules; put two spoons in a mug and add a little water (75ml max) or add one shot of espresso coffee. Whisk more.

Add the sultanas and half the walnuts and mix in by hand.

Grease a cake tin and add the mixture. Put in the oven and leave to cook until the cake has risen fully and the top is a little bit crispy, should be about 30 minutes. You can check if the cake is cooked properly by inserting a knife into the middle - if it comes out clean the cake is cooked.

In the meantime, make the icing.

Sift some icing sugar into a bowl, estimate how much you need, you can always make more if you don't have enough. Add some more coffee a little at a time and blend until the all the icing sugar is dissolved and you have a nice thick consistency.

Take the cake out of the oven, press out of the dish and leave to cool. Spread the icing evenly over the cake and sprinkle some more walnuts on top.

Sorry, no picture with this one, we ate it too quickly!