Walnut Chocolate Muffins with Mocha Frosting

After coming home from our hike up Skoften on Sunday, I felt like baking....The result: these delicious muffins!

Walnut Chocolate Muffins with Mocha Frosting
(makes about 18)

Ingredients:
- for the muffins:
230 gr butter, room temperature
230 gr sugar
230 gr selfraising flour
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 gr dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
80 gr walnuts, coarsely chopped

- for the frosting:
230 gr butter, room temperature
600 gr confectioner's sugar
1 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp warm coffee
1 tsp Kahlua
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preparation - muffins:
1.) Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius, and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.
2.) Put the butter and sugar into a medium sized bowl, and mix until white and creamy.
3.) Add the eggs, one at a time, and then mix in the vanilla extract.
4.) Add the selfraising flour and fold into into the mixture until the batter is smooth.
5.) Add the walnuts and chocolate, and stir until evenly mixed.
6.) Divide the batter between the paper muffin cases, filling them up to two-thirds. Any remaining batter can be used to fill up to four more cases in a second muffin tin.
7.) Place in the oven on the middle rack and bak for 20 to 25 minutes.
8.) Leave to cool slightly (about 5 minutes) before removing them from the tin, then place on a wire rack to cool down fully before adding the frosting.

Preparation - frosting:
1.) To make the frosting, use a electric whisk to slowly whisk the confectioner's sugar with the butter until smooth in texture and no lumps of butter remain.
2.) Add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until evenly mixed.
3.) Fill a piping bag with the frosting, and make a swirl on top of each muffin.
4.) Decorate with chocolate morsels and/or walnuts.

Hubby rating: 5+

Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Cake

With a couple of brown bananas in our fruit bowl, it was about time to make some cake!

Banana Walnut Cake
(Ø 20cm)

Ingredients:
2 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1,75 dl olive oil
3 tbsp milk
300 gr sugar
150 gr all-purpose flour
10 gr baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0,5 tsp ground ginger
100 gr walnuts, coarsely chopped

Preparation:
1.) Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2.) Mash the bananas in a medium sized bowl.
3.) Add the eggs, oil and milk and stir.
4.) Add the sugar and stir.
5.) Add the flour and spices and stir.
6.) Add the walnuts and stir.
7.) Transfer the dough into a springform lined with baking parchment.
8.) Bake the cake on the lower rack of the oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake needle comes out clean.
9.) Set aside on a rack to cool down.

Enjoy!

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!