Coffee Walnut Cake

Today we'll be going out to the farm to celebrate (with sour cream porridge) that this year's grass harvest is done, and my father-in-law's 61st birthday (with lots of cake!). Whereas in The Netherlands it is the tradition that the person celebrating his or her birthday provides cake to the guests, here in Norway it seems to me that the tradition is the other way around - that the guests bring cake for the one we celebrate. Anyway, a great occasion to test out a new recipe - so I made Coffee Walnut Cake!

The recipe was originally for one layer covered with buttercream frosting, but it look so tiny to me - not at all like a big birthday cake.... So I made another layer to stack on top with buttercream frosting in between. Well....after carving a pretty big piece of the cake and having a bite or two or three....I understood that one layer would have done appetite-wise...This cake is rich!!!

Coffee Walnut Cake
(makes 1 cake of Ø 24 cm, consisting of 2 layers)

Ingredients:
- for the cake layers:
340 gr butter, at room temperature
280 gr sugar
6 eggs
280 gr self-rising flour
160 gr walnuts, chopped
5 tsp of instant coffee, dissolved in 2 tbsp of boiling water

- for the buttercream frosting:
4 tsp of instant coffee, dissolved in 4 tbsp of warm milk
190 gr butter, at room temperature
250 gr confectioner's sugar/powdered sugar

1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Grease or line with baking parchment two springform pans of 24 cm in diameter.
3.) Start making the dough for the cake layers by mixing the butter with the sugar in a large bowl, until the mixture becomes light and creamy.
4.) Add the eggs one at a time.
5.) Sieve the self-rising flour and stir it into the butter/sugar mixture.
6.) Add the chopped walnuts and the coffee, and stir it into the mixture.
7. ) Divide the dough over the two springform pans.
8.) Bake the cakes 20 to 25 minutes on the middle rack of the oven.
9.) Leave on a rack to cool down.

10.) Make the frosting by mixing the butter, powdered sugar and coffee mixture.
11.) When the cakes have cooled down, spread a little frosting on top of one of the layers.
12.) Stack the other layer on top.
13.) Cover the rest of the cake with the remaining frosting.
14.) Decorate with walnuts (and chocolate).

Enjoy!