COFFEE AND WALNUT WORLD CUP CAKE

The World Cup is nearly over and done with for another four years. Wasn't one to remember for us English folk this time around but one good thing that did come from it was the spotlight on Brazil and all the fantastic food stuff they have on offer. One thing that Brazil is famous for is its coffee and it inspired me to whip up an old classic, Coffee and Walnut cake slathered with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. It'll make a perfect dessert to tuck into whilst you watch the final this weekend.

Ive taken inspiration from my guilt free chocolate fudge cake and used yogurt, ground almond and oil for the cake sponge. Of course its still not the most low cal food you'll ever eat but its certainly less sin full than the traditional creamed sugar and butter based sponges. If you wish to reduce the cals of this recipe further then you can leave the outside layer of frosting off your cake and just make half the amount for a thin filling and/or topping for the two sponges. A great little treat for all the dieters out their who still want to take part in the celebrations.

The coffee you use is entirely your choice but you do want to use something quite strong so that the coffee flavour really come through in the sponge. You could use a coffee essence such as Camp Coffee but they can be super strong so only add in a tbsp or two otherwise you might completely overwhelm your cake. I cheated a bit with the frosting too. I used chocolate flavoured Philadelphia. I'm not guilty about it. Buying good quality chocolate and cream cheese can be pricey if your on a budget so if you can afford by all means make it yourself but when you can get such a good ready made product for less then fill your boots. You don't have to worry about chocolate splitting or the cream cheese curdling either. I think its an excellent way to save time, money and its less mess too!

No walnuts? Do not fear! As you can see I use some Brazil nuts to decorate the top too and they will well inside the cake mix too, they just require a bit more work to break up than walnuts do. You might need to whip your rolling pin out and give them a good bashing. You can even just experiment with whatever nuts you have in the kitchen, that's the joy of baking.

Lets kick off with the recipe, ready just in time for the final!

Coffee and Walnut Cake

225g Self Raising Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

50g Ground Almonds

80g Golden Caster Sugar

25g Chopped Walnuts

2 Eggs

250g Greek Yogurt

75ml Sunflower Oil

5 Tbsp Instant Coffee

400g Chocolate Philadelphia

1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

4 Tbsp Icing Sugar

Some Extra Walnuts And  Brazil Nuts To Decorate

1. Ovens on! 190 degrees (180 fan) for this beauty.
2. Sift the flour in a large bowl and add the baking powder, almonds, sugar and walnuts. Give everything a good mix until well combined.
3. Add in the eggs, yogurt and oil and give everything a good mix until all the dry ingredients are incorporated into the wet.
4. Dissolve the coffee in as little water as possible. Add half the coffee into the cake batter and leave the other half to the sidefor the filling. Mix the coffee into the cake batter everything is evenly combined.
5. Line and grease a deep 20cm cake tin and pour the cake batter into the tin. Level out the mix and then place in the oven for around 40 minutes or until that inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before transferring onto a wire rack.
6. Once the cake has completely cool start to prepare the frosting. Add the rest of the coffee mix into a bowl with the Philadelphia, vanilla and icing sugar and gently combineeverything together until you get a nice spreadable frosting. Don't over mix or the mix will go runny, if it does then add a little bit of icing sugar to thicken it up.
7. Slice your cake into two and spread the top of the bottom half of the cake with a nice thick layer of the frosting. Place the top half of the cake on top of the iced base and then spread your remaining frosting evenly over the top and sides of the cake.
8. Decorate the top of the cake with your additional walnuts and Brazil nuts.

Serve this up with some single cream as the centre piece of your World Cup Final party and I'm sure everyone will be salsa-ing back and forth to the table to grab some more. 

But then again, who says it needs to be the World Cup to enjoy this cake. You never need a reason to make a delicious chocolate frosted cake so if your not a footy fan why not make one anyway! Go On!

"Desfrutar Do Seu Bolo"