Caramel, Coffee and Walnut Cake

When my friend made the request for a birthday cake with one thing 'texture!' you can imagine I pondered over the idea for a while. I think this cake was the perfect answer to my dilemma, with smooth caramel, crunchy caramelised walnuts and rich coffee and walnut cake. Plus its an adaption of my Grandma's delicious coffee cake, which always tastes fantastic so it couldn't go wrong! For the recipe skip to the bottom of the page.

For this cake I used Carnation Caramel in the cake, icing and as decoration. However I think any caramel sauce of a similar thickness would work (it is a similar texture to Greek yoghurt when cold (it will hold its shape), but melts easily to a runny pourable texture). For the coffee powder I used Nescafe Azera Espresso, however any other coffee powder will work though with some weaker coffee powders you may want to use 2tsp, instead of 1.5.

It is important to crumb coat this cake and chill it before adding the finishing layer of butter cream as it is a very light fluffy cake and you will be unable to ice it without it falling apart and mixing into the icing, which would not give a neat finish.

If you are not covering the sides of the cake use 150g butter, 300g icing sugar and 2 tsp of the coffee caramel mix to taste. Otherwise the balance of the layers will be off!

For those who haven't made caramel before a sugar thermometer can be helpful, although the most important thing is not to use it if it burns (you'll be able to smell it if it burns: it tastes even worse than it smells trust me!). Also after you've made your caramel, you need to soak everything you used to make it in warm soapy water: its the only way you'll get the caramel off!

Overall, this cake was a great success receiving positive reviews from all who tried it (except those who hate coffee cake!). If you do try it, I'd love to know what you think in the comments where I will also be answering any questions about the recipe.

The amazing pictures were taken be @riminyphotography on Instagram and you should go check out her pictures, it was her birthday after all!

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Recipe

Ingredients:

Cake:

170g Self-Raising Flour

170g Butter

170g Dark Soft Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tin (397g) Carnation Caramel

100g Walnut Halves

1½ tsp Strong Coffee Powder

Decoration:

1½ tsp Strong Coffee Powder

150g Caster Sugar

450g Icing Sugar

225g Butter

Instructions:

Cake:

1. Set the oven to 160°C and line two 18cm tins with grease proof paper.

2. Take 11 complete walnut halves out of the 100g (these will be caramelised then put on the top for decoration). Roughly chop the remaining walnut halves.

3. Dissolve 1½tsp coffee powder in 2 tbsp of boiling water, then add a heaped teaspoon of carnation caramel (as heaped as possible! literally) and whisk to dissolve (it will go lumpy at first but it will go smooth). Put the rest of the caramel in the fridge for later.

4. Cream together the butter and dark brown sugar with the coffee caramel mixture until light in colour and well combined.

5. Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold to combine. Then add the chopped walnuts and fold to incorporate.

6. Split the mixture between the two tins and cook for 25-30mins until it springs back up when gently poked (it cooked perfectly in 27min in my oven).

7. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin.

Decoration

1. While the cake is cooling add the caster sugar to a pan with a tbsp of cold water and gently heat till all the sugar has dissolved. Then increase the temperature till the molten sugar goes a caramel colour.

2. Use the molten sugar to coat 10 of the walnut halves you reserved earlier (I found dipping and rolling them with a fork worked quite well) and place them on a sheet of greased proof paper on a metal tray. When they are finished pop in the fridge until they are needed.

3. Make a coffee caramel mix again: 2tbsp boiling water, 1½ tsp strong coffee powder and a heaped tsp of carnation caramel.

4. To make the buttercream mix together the butter, icing sugar and 3tsp of the coffee caramel mix (subject to taste).

5. To ice the cake place the first layer face down on a plate and add a generous layer of buttercream and then a thinner layer of caramel (about 130g) and place the next layer face up on top and crumb coat the whole cake with the buttercream. Chill for 30min.

6. Coat the whole cake buttercream as a smooth final layer (be careful not to add too much remember you already have one layer of icing) and chill for 30mins again.

7. Gently melt around 180g of caramel in the microwave to a pourable texture and gently pour over the cake, encourage it over the edge of the top of the cake into drips with a knife or small palette knife.

8. Evenly space the caramelised walnuts around the edge of the cake, chop of the last walnut half and sprinkle it round the cake in the gaps between the caramelised walnuts.

9. Enjoy!