All those who know me well (and even those who don't) know that I am a bit of a baker. Cupcakes are a way for me to de-stress and do something creative while also making the people around me happy (and fat hahaha)! Luckily I work in an office at the moment where they appreciate my baking efforts. My beloved housemates N and S had started to complain that I was baking too much (have you ever heard such a thing?) before I started working for Octopus. Now that I landed myself a shiny new job and I will be leaving my current job, friends and boss it has been my mission to bake as much as I possibly can until my last day on the 14th. Currently I am frantically planning my master piece for my last day of work but more on that later.
My boss Alexia requested walnut and coffee cake from me ages ago and last night I decided to finally make them.
And here is what you need:
- 120g soft butter
- 60g caster sugar
- 60g light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 120g sifted self raising flour
- Cold coffee - about a cup but depends on your taste entirely
- 50g chopped walnuts
- 120g softened butter
- 260g icing sugar, sifted if very lumpy
- Edible glitter
- Coffee beans
And here is what you do:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper cases. Choose pretty ones, with cupcakes it is all about the presentation.
- Cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. You can do that with a spoon, an electric mixer or do it my way and get your hands in there and dirty. It feels slightly gross but trust me your hands will be soft like a baby's bum afterwards!
- Add eggs one at a time and mix in thoroughly.
- Now it is time to add the coffee. It is entirely up to you how strong you want them to be. I used about 2 tablespoons of coffee and afterwards thought that they could have tasted more like coffee. If you find that the mix gets too runny just add a little bit more flour until your mix has the right consistency again.
- Fold in the flour and chopped walnuts. I didn't chop them but rather hit them (while still in the pack) with a rolling pin. Saves time and great way of releasing penned up anger my friends!
- Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for 20-25.
- Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool. If you ice them too early then the icing will melt (not attractive let me tell you!) so give them plenty of time to cool. Use the time to make your icing and get prepped with decorations.
- For the icing, combine the softened butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. It will be a little work but it will be worth it. Again I like doing this by hand (clean ones of course) but it is totally up to you how you do it!
- Prep your icing bag and fill it with the icing. A good trick is to pop your icing back into a glass, fold about 1/3 of the bag over the rim of the glass and then fill. Youtube taught me that and it was the best trick I have learned so far.
- Make swirls or whatever sort of icing you like and then go crazy for decorations. I opted for 3 coffee beans and gold edible glitter!
Et Voila:
These babies got the thumbs up from my colleagues and personally I liked them a lot too. They were pretty too look at but nice and nutty cause I went a bit nuts about putting nuts in. What can I say, I like my nuts....
The coffee beans on top gave them a nice extra crunch and kick. And while the edible glitter proved to be rather potent and sticky (everyone ended up with madly glittery lips and we all looked like we had ended up in a bad drag queen show!) but looked so good that it was worth it.
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