After a somewhat long working week, I’m pleased to be entertaining for a few friends this weekend! As much as I love cooking though, I don’t want to spend the entire time in the kitchen, so want an easy dessert that would last the few days. What else but cake?

First visit is this evening from my friend and colleague Steph, and my girlfriend Charlotte- both huge lovers of coffee! I’ve no doubt that Cappuccino Cake will go down very well indeed, and with any luck enough will be left for when Scott and Simon visit tomorrow!

Ingredients

• 125g of Self Raising Flour
• 125g of unsalted butter
• 125g of Caster Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 40 grams of Instant Coffee (Nescafe Gold Blend would be best!)

NOTE: The are ingredients per tier. I expect you to do at least two tiers. One tiered cakes are a pointless waste of space.

For icing two tiers:

• One vanilla pod or a teaspoon of vanilla concentrate
• 500g of Icing Sugar
• 250g of Unsalted Butter

And finally:

• A handful of Cocoa Powder

 

Cakebucks

 

1. Preheat the oven to 180

2. Throw the coffee into a food processor and blitz it into a powder. You can also achieve this with a patience and a pestle and mortar.

3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar

 4. Add the eggs and beat these in.

5. Now seize in the flour and mix everything until lumpless and divine.

6. Finally, add your blitzed up coffee power and stir in. You will see little tiny non-dissolved speckles in the mix but don’t worry, these will dissolve in the cook.

 7. Grease a cake tin, or line with grease proof paper, and pour your cake mix in. Then stick it in the over and bake.

For a fan assisted oven it will need about 20 minutes, for non-fan assisted 30 minutes.

8. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

9. Once the cake it cool, it’s time to ice that puppy! In your large mixing bowl (I hope you’ve cleaned it by now) put your icing sugar, butter and about a table spoon of water and cream together until smooth. Add you vanilla and stir it in.

10. Now just get it all over your cake. Sandwich a bit in the middle and the rest smear all over. There’s not need to be neat- it’s a foamy cappuccino after all!

11. How else to finish a cappuccino?? Sprinkle with cocoa powder.

Job done.

Bring on the weekend.