Coffee and Walnut Cake

For his birthday this year my brother asked for a coffee and walnut cake. I had a busy week last week with cakes so this was the most simple of them all. The aim was just to make a nice simple cake that tasted good. 

To make the coffee cake I used a standard sponge cake recipe and added in some coffee and chopped almonds. I then baked it and left to cool. 

I filled the cake in coffee butter icing and also coated the whole cake. I decided, since I had plenty of grated chocolate left, to put chocolate around the rim on the cake. I then used walnuts to decorate the top of the cake. 

Finished Coffee and Walnut Cake

I have no idea what this cake tasted like, as I don't like coffee or walnuts, but he said it was very good. I was pleased with the finished effect of the cake and thought it had a good appearance. 

Chocolate and Coffee Flan

This recipe is an old favourite of mine, one that I've revisited over the years, that I love. It's from an old book that my mum used at school, I really enjoy browsing through it and finding all the changes she made to the recipes. My favourite is instead of Chelsea buns, my mum has changed them to Palace buns!! Always makes me smile!! 

Anyway, last week while my mum visited we purchased some baking beans so I've been pondering what recipe to use for their first outing to the oven. I then had the brainwave whilst at my parents over the weekend, I dug out this book and there was the recipe, Chocolate and Coffee flan. What I also like about this recipe is it uses ingredients that I always have so I can make it whenever it takes my fancy!!

The first step is to make the pastry base, this just involves mixing flour and butter to breadcrumbs and then adding a little water so it makes a dough. I placed this in the fridge for around 30 minutes and then rolled it out and placed it in the flan dish. Covered it with greaseproof paper and then filled with my new beans and baked for 20 minutes. 

Pastry case ready to go in the oven

Once that was done I prepared the mixture for inside the tart. Cornflour, cocoa and coffee are added to a small quantity of milk and mixed to a paste. Meanwhile the remaining milk is heating to boiling, take off the heat and mix in the paste, back on the heat till boiling and the mixture will start to thicken. At this point add some sugar to the mixture and stir it in, the mixture will continue to thicken and turn glossy. 

Chocolate and coffee mixture, thickening up nicely

Then pour this mixture into the flan dish and leave to cool. As it cools it will continue to thicken up and then it's ready. 

Mixture poured in and cooling down

The recipe states that you can decorate the top with nuts or chocolate but I personally find this unnecessary, it gets eaten pretty quickly anyway, so just leave it looking lovely and rich dark chocolate. Yummy!!

Me and my husband are not great fans of coffee, in fact neither of us like it, but adding it to this recipe adds a nice bitterness to the sweet chocolate. I don't find the flavour too strong and I like the balance. If I was making it purely for him I would omit the coffee all together.