Recipe: Walnut and coffee cake | Coffee buttercream | Coffee fudge icing | Double dark chocolate cake

Cake, in all its varying forms, is an utterly delicious treat. And, sadly, that is what cake is these days – a treat. But if you would like to eat more of it (and who wouldn't? Kate Moss, possibly) you can do so and at the same time assuage your guilt by serving it as a pud instead of with a cup of tea or coffee.

Looking back through my previous recipes I see that I have not yet given you my walnut and coffee cake. This is something I devised following a visit to friends in France last July, having bought something very similar in a small patisserie. It was so utterly delicious it was an inspiration.

I have been making this recipe for our demonstrations, both at home and away. And golly, it really is good.

The cake is dense with walnuts, the coffee is in the buttercream filling and the fudgey textured icing.

If you want to make it more elegant, as a pud, simply serve it with the dark chocolate sauce that I gave you two weeks ago, as part of the Valentine's Day menu.

Walnut and coffee cake

If you want an excuse to eat a fairly rich cake such as this one as a pud, serve it with ice-cream, either pale coffee or vanilla, and with dark chocolate sauce. This cake consists mostly of walnuts, which are so very good for us. The coffee flavour in both the buttercream and the fudge icing is not at all strong. Too often coffee cakes are wrecked by tasting too strongly of coffee, and I speak as someone who loves a double espresso to drink.

SERVES 6 TO 8

You will need a 9 inch (22cm) non-stick springform cake tin, base lined with a disc of baking parchment.

For the cake:

8oz/225g soft butter

8oz/225g caster sugar

4 large eggs

8oz/225g walnuts, dry-fried for several minutes to refresh their taste, cooled, then pulverised in a processor to fairly fine crumbs, and mixed with

3oz/85g sieved self-raising flour

Beat the butter with the caster sugar until very thick and pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, alternating with amounts of the walnut and flour mixture. When all the ingredients are incorporated, scrape the mixture into the prepared tin, smooth the surface and bake in a moderate heat, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4, for 40-45 minutes. Take the cake from the oven, cool for ten minutes in the tin then turn it out on to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Be careful, because this cake is crumbly. When cold, slice carefully horizontally through the cake, and invert a plate to catch one half. Sandwich together with the following buttercream:

Coffee buttercream

6oz/170g soft butter

6oz/170g sieved icing sugar

coffee extract, made by dissolving 3 rounded teaspoons of best quality instant coffee granules in 3 tablespoons boiling water; cool, and use 2 teaspoons of this for the buttercream

Beat the soft butter, gradually adding the sieved icing sugar. When all is incorporated, beat in the coffee extract. Spread over one layer of cake, and carefully put the other layer on top, spread the top with the following icing:

Coffee fudge icing

4 tablespoons cold water

1 rounded tablespoon granulated sugar

2oz/55g butter

1 tablespoon coffee extract – left over from making the buttercream icing

4-6oz/110-170g sieved icing sugar

8-12 walnuts halves, to decorate

Put the water, granulated sugar, butter and coffee extract into a saucepan over moderate heat, and stir. Do not let the liquid boil until every grain of sugar has dissolved and the butter is melted. Then boil fast for a minute, then take the pan off the heat.

Have the sieved icing sugar ready in a bowl, and beat in the buttery coffee syrup, adding more sieved icing sugar as necessary. Beat very well, cool, then spread over the top of the filled cake. Arrange the walnut halves around the edge.

People drool at the prospect of a good walnut and coffee cake, and truly, this makes an excellent and convenient pud. Instead of ice-cream, or as well, dark chocolate sauce is very good served as an accompaniment.

Double dark chocolate cake

This cake is slightly different in that it consists of one layer. Whipped cream, containing grated dark chocolate, is spooned on and over the top.

6oz/170g butter

6oz/170g dark chocolate, of about 70 per cent cocoa

3 large eggs

6oz/170g soft brown sugar

4oz/110g sieved self-raising flour

2oz/55g drinking chocolate powder – I use Green and Black's

1oz/30g cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the top:

3oz/85g grated dark chocolate

teaspoon vanilla extract

pint/285ml double cream, whipped enough to hold its shape, but not too stiffly

Base line a non-stick cake tin with a disc of baking parchment.

Put the butter and dark chocolate into a saucepan over moderate heat and melt both together. Beat the eggs into the chocolate/butter mixture, one by one. Beat in the soft brown sugar, the sieved flour, drinking chocolate and cocoa, and, finally, the vanilla extract. Scrape this into the prepared cake tin and smooth the surface even. Bake in a moderate heat, 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4 for 20-25 minutes. This cake is better not entirely cooked through – it has a very deliciously gungey texture. Cool in its tin.

When cold, turn the cake on to a serving plate.

Fold the grated dark chocolate and vanilla extract into the whipped cream and spoon and spread this over the surface of the cooled cake.

This article was originally published in The Scotsman on 27 February 2010