Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

Coffee and Hazelnut Cake

Makes a 23 – 25cm round cake or a 35cm by 18cm (or similar) tin, which you can cut into squares.

Cake mixture
250g butter + 25g butter
180g caster sugar
70g soft brown sugar
4 large eggs
100g hazelnuts
1 generous tbs golden syrup
150ml very strong coffee
350g self raising flour
Icing
275g icing sugar
50g butter
75ml very strong coffee
Hazelnuts

• Grease and line the bottom of 2 round 23 – 25cm cake tins or 1 oblong tin.
• Preheat the oven to 170F / 350C / Gas 4.
• Roughly chop the hazelnuts and saute in 25g of the butter. Stir continuously until golden in colour with lovely toasting aroma. Set aside to cool.
• Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.
• Add a tablespoon of the flour, coffee, hazelnuts and the golden syrup to the mixture, beat together.
• Carefully fold in the rest of the flour.
• Divide the mixture into the baking tins and place in oven for approx. 1 hour. The cake is cooked when light and springy to touch.
• Cool, if possible remove from tin when slightly cooled to cool fully (only if you are not going to break sponge!)
• Cream all the icing ingredients together, not the nuts.
• When cold, place 1/3 of the icing on one cake layer and sandwich together. You can ice the top. If used very sparingly you can cover the sides too. If you have made a loaf cake, then the amount of icing may be over generous. Decorate with hazelnuts.

This cake keeps well for 4 – 5 days. You can also freeze it. It is better to ice it after defrosting.
You can substitute walnuts instead of hazelnuts, do not saute them first.