Birthday coffee and walnut cake

For my dad's 70th birthday, I was thinking of making an elaborate 70-shaped cake with rolled icing and hours upon hours of decorating. However, my dad simply wanted a coffee and walnut cake. And what the birthday boy wants, he gets. So, a simple coffee and walnut cake it was.

8oz marg
8oz caster sugar
4 eggs, beaten
8oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

Cream the marg and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder, before adding the coffee. Pour into 2 prepared round tins. Bake at 180C (160 fan) for about 30 minutes until golden and coming away from the sides of the tins.

I decorated the cake with coffee buttercream, using a pack of butter, about 600g icing sugar, and 3 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water - but let the coffee cool first else it'll heat and melt the butter.

I covered the cake in a thin layer of buttercream before piping roses over the sides, then adding walnuts to the top. For such a simple recipe, this coffee and walnut cake is delicious - proving yet again that simple is best. Dad was really chuffed, and there was loads left over for me to scoff too!

Apple loaf cake for Stamford Cake Club

What to bake for a fairy tale-themed cake club... I decided upon a Snow White-inspired apple loaf cake for the latest meeting of the Stamford Clandestine Cake Club, finished off with Snow White icing and apples on top. We met at Burghley Park, with the wonderful Burghley House as the backdrop for our fairy tale cakes.

The recipe is quite simple and easy to knock together. I did worry about the look of the mixture before it was baked, as there seemed to be far too much apple and not enough cake - but it turned out great in the end. Fluffy and moist without being soggy, tart apples, and sweet icing on top.

200g self-raising flour
75g marg
100g light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 Bramley apples, peeled and cored
3 eggs, beaten

Put the marg and flour together in your mixer, and blend until you have fine breadcrumbs (you can do this by hand too). Mix in the sugar and cinnamon.
Add the eggs, and the apples, and gently mix.
Tip into a large loaf tin (I think mine might be a 2lb tin).
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C (160C fan) for about an hour. You could also split this into two smaller tins, but bake for less time.
To finish, make normal icing with icing sugar and hot water - not too runny, but loose enough to drip down the sides a bit.
I made some apples out of Renshaws red paste, making one red and green for the poisoned apple.

I would recommend this cake heartily as it was really delicious.

It was a smaller group at Cake Club this month, with several drop-outs and a few no-shows, but the smaller groups are often my favourites. They give you a chance to talk as a group without feeling like you're holding court. And even if it was just me and one other baker at cake club, I'd still be happy. If you haven't signed up for the Clandestine Cake Club yet, why not!