Hello, welcome to newsletter no. 10. Thank you for taking the time to be here again this week, and if it’s your first time here, welcome!
If you’re the kind of soul that loves good commentary, ideas and inspiration concerning the world of baking, including its more esoteric bits and pieces, then you’re in the right place. Here we explore such things with a resourceful approach that aims to champion flavour and wholesome, seasonal ingredients.
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Continuing the theme of convalescence this week with a look at one of the most comforting cakes in the canon of home baking, the inimitable Coffee and Walnut Cake. Even if I can not smell and have no intention of inviting company around, I still want the house filled with the scent of cake. An intangible, inaudible cushion of ethereal cosmic activity that softens, soothes and rounds off the edges. Baking this feeling of comfort into reality is a luxury when the world conspires to overload our senses with light and sound, nudges, prompts, notifications and reminders. So for a couple of hours, I invite you to embrace nostalgia and witness the magic of cake chemistry as you indulge in this week's recipe.
If nostalgia had a flavour, it would be coffee and walnut cake. It is a flavour in and of itself, resulting from the complex masking and muting of coffee aromas and flavours, namely the bitter, sulphurous ones. Sugar and butter simultaneously augment a sweet and creamy coffee flavour, with walnuts adding the underlying bitter note.
The version featured here this week is a nod to the classic that was always baked throughout my childhood according to the rules and laws of Mary Berry. Mary Berry’s Ultimate Cake Book was (along with Delia) the battered baking book in constant use. Most, if not all, of the recipes call for the all-in-one method for mixing batters, which no doubt contributed to the accessibility and ease of the recipes. This is partly made possible using a vegetable-based baking spread such as Stork et al., which is soft and ready to use straight from the fridge. This butter-coloured faux fat made feather-light, reliably moist cakes with a tender crumb without the hassle of creaming and all in one bowl.
But if you’re willing to beat for what you believe in, you can achieve the same result with a combination of real butter and a little neutral vegetable oil. Oil is 100% fat and liquid at room temperature; in comparison, butter is commonly 82%, the rest being milk solids and water, and presents itself as solid at room temperature. Butter-based cakes tend to have a denser, firmer texture (less fat, more water) which is desirable in some but not all cakes and for me, a cut-and-come-again snacking cake for nostalgia warrants an unmistakably moist crumb. Combining the two offers the best of both worlds, a rich flavour from the butter and a moist and tender crumb contributed by the oil.
In another departure, this version uses wholemeal flour, which adds depth of flavour, but it does have the potential to create a stiffer, thicker batter. We mitigate this by adding double cream, offering extra hydration and restoring the batter to a supple and spreadable consistency.
Now when it comes to the coffee, I have tried to offer up alternatives to suit personal preference and availability. I firmly believe non-coffee drinkers are still partial to a slice of coffee walnut cake and other ‘coffee-flavoured’ baked goods, so in that sense, a shelf-stable instant coffee or espresso powder may be what you reach for.
The absolute coffee purists, however, might want to go down the fresh-brewed coffee or espresso route. Either will work but adjust your expectations of the final strength of coffee flavour and crumb structure accordingly. The nuances and overall character of speciality coffee are sadly lost, so keep that in mind when choosing your beans. It’s also worth remembering the acidity of brewed coffee can vary widely; this can alter the overall final crumb of the cake. I opted to add a teaspoon of natural cocoa powder (not dutch process) to bring back some of the fruitier notes lost in brewed coffee and found that replacing the cream with a strong coffee infusion was a good opportunity to bolster the coffee flavour.
Whilst coffee and walnut is a tried and tested combination, there are other directions that you can take to create a similarly harmonious flavour; just use this recipe as a jumping-off point. Walnuts can be substituted with pecans, almonds or hazelnuts. You can push beyond teatime and turn this into a celebratory layer cake, ditching the glace icing and filling it with Swiss meringue buttercream peppered with praline and separating thin layers of cake with layers of apricot jam and chocolate ganache moves it toward a more refined Gerbeaud inspired cake. Whilst exploring these ideas, I hit upon a Toasted Sesame variation, finished with a not-too-sweet tahini Swiss meringue buttercream, which I’ll share with subscribers in this week’s Extra Credit portion.
Coffee & Walnut Cake
The quantities are small, so whilst you can do this in a stand mixer (with diligent scraping down), you might find it easier to use a hand mixer. It’ll produce a cake that I’d consider ‘teatime’ depth, great for finger slices. If you want a deeper cake, consider downsizing the tin or using an 8-inch round pan. The ingredients can be scaled up for larger cakes with multiple layers.
Ingredients
Makes 1 x 8-inch square
For the Cake
100g unsalted butter (room temp)
25g neutral vegetable oil
105g soft light brown sugar
140g wholemeal stoneground flour
7g baking powder
1/4tsp flaky sea salt
120g whole eggs (approx 2 large), cracked into a jug and lightly beaten
70ml double cream*
4tsp (approx 4g) espresso powder or fresh ground espresso
1tsp natural cocoa powder (optional)
20ml hot water to bloom the espresso and cocoa powder
55g walnut, roughly crushed into pieces
*if using freshly brewed coffee, make it strong and use 50ml instead of 70ml of cream; omit the dry espresso powder and water to bloom, and add the cocoa powder to the brewed coffee.
For the Glaze
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp double cream
1 tsp espresso powder or fresh ground espresso bloomed in 1-2 tbsp hot water
Or use 1-2 tbsp strong brewed coffee or espresso and omit the powderAdditional walnut pieces to decorate
Method
Prepare your 8x8 tin with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 175 degrees C (Fan)
Place the butter in a bowl of a stand mixer and beat to soften; add the vegetable oil and beat again briefly to incorporate. Add the brown sugar and beat until it is pale in colour, light and fluffy in texture.
Combine the flour, baking powder and sea salt in a bowl.
In a small bowl, bloom the espresso powder and natural cocoa powder in 20ml hot water.
If using freshly brewed coffee, brew and allow to cool.
Add the egg a little at a time to the creamed ingredients, beating until incorporated before adding more.
Add the dry ingredients in two additions, beating to only just incorporated. Next, add the bloomed espresso and cocoa powder, followed by the double cream or the freshly brewed coffee if that’s what you’re using.
Finally, fold in the chopped walnuts.
Spread the batter evenly into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for approximately 25 minutes, rotating after 15-20 minutes to ensure even baking. When it is baked, I should feel firm to the touch across the entire surface and be pulling away from the edges of the tin slightly.
Allow to cool completely.
Mix the glaze by combining the icing sugar with the cream and enough coffee (bloomed espresso powder and water or freshly brewed) to create a smooth, spreadable consistency.
Once the cake is cool, glaze it with the icing and finish with walnut pieces.