Baking With Harrison.

Well hello there, I hope you're all well. 

Today's post is all about a little baking. Now I'm no professional chef and baking is certainly not my strong suit, but it's my mums birthday so I thought I'd give it ago. 

I took the recipe from BBC Good Food as I always find their recipes so easy and simple. Mum loves coffee cake, so I threw caution to the wind and began baking. And as if baking isn't stressful enough, I decided to blog the experience as well. 

So, you're going to need: 

For the cake:

250g packed butter, softened 

250g light soft brown sugar plus 2-3 tbsp

300g self-raising flour

4 eggs, beaten

50g walnuts, toasted and finely chopped (a food processor is easiest), optional

200ml very strong coffee (made fresh or with instant), cooled. 

For the frosting: 

500g tub mascarpone

2 tbsp light soft brown sugar

cocoa powder or drinking chocolate to decorate (optional) 

The Cake

So to start with, you preheat your oven at gas mark 4 and grease and line some cake tins with greaseproof paper. 

You then beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Add the flour and eggs and beat again. (Tip, at this stage, it looks like cookie dough, it begins to look like cake mix once you add the coffee) 

You then add half of your coffee and mix until smooth like cake mix. 

Spoon the mixture to each of the tins and cook for around 30 - 40 minutes. 

Cook until golden brown or until you can put a knife in the sponge and it comes out dry. 

Leave in the baking trays for 5 minutes, then take out and put onto cooling rack. At this stage, spoon 4 tablespoons of coffee onto each of the sponges and leave to cool.

The Frosting

The frosting is really simple. All you need to do is put the mascarpone into a bowl, add the sugar and mix until smooth. Then at this stage you add coffee to the frosting. This is step is really down to you and your own taste. I added around 6 tablespoons of coffee as I wanted quite a strong taste, but it really depends on your own preference. 

Once you have perfected your frosting, spoon on one of the sponges and sandwich together. Then with the rest, spread on to the top of the cake. 

And there you have it, a quick and easy coffee cake. Perfect for any birthday, tea party or other special occasion. 

Like I said before, I'm no chef... not even close. But this recipe was really easy to follow and end result was great! 

Again, I hope you have enjoyed this post and I'll see you back here again soon.!

| Harrison |