Coffee and Walnut Traybake with Coffee Icing

There are some things that I'm snobby about. Its not very nice I know but I can't help it. Like stuffing you get in a cheap carvery. I'd rather eat sawdust from a hamster's cage. Or scones you buy in the supermarket. They taste like someone went crazy with the baking soda and stick to the roof of your mouth like kiddies playdough. I can't help but visibly turn my nose up at them. Probably the most common things for people to get snobby about are coffee and wine and hilariously I have strong feelings about neither. In fact I find wine tasting an hilarious melodrama. You say it tastes like fields of raspberry plants under a full moon I say where's the Sprite so I can sweeten this thing up and make it drinkable.

Similarly with coffee I think people take it all too serioulys with phrases like 'full bodied' and 'silky' and conversations about Columbian versus Peruvian beans. They invest in expensive expresso machines they never use and start furiously grinding coffee beans at home. I'm a-half-spoon-of-instant coffee, full-spoon-of-sugar kind of girl. I can hear coffee lovers everywhere wince but I'm hoping I'll win some respect back with this classic coffee and walnut cake. The coffee flavour is quite strong but the sponge is light and fluffy. Enjoy!

125g unsalted butter softened
125g caster sugar
2 large free range eggs
150g self raising flour sifted
1 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water
75g walnut pieces

For the icing
200g icing sugar
85g unsalted butter melted
2 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water
3 tbsp cream
25g walnut pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until creamy and pale.
3. Gradually add the eggs with a heaped tablespoon of flour. Beat well after each addition.
4. Then add the coffee liquid and mix lightly.
5. Add the sifted flour and walnut pieces and fold in gently. Bake for 20 mins in a traybake tin (approx 25 x 20 x5cm) until golden.
6. Remove from the oven and loosen with a knife around the edges. Gently ease the cake out and allow to cool on a rack.
7. To make the icing sift the icing sugar. Add the melted butter,coffee liquid and cream and beat for around 2 minutes until creamy Leave to sit in the fridge for about half hour. Spread over the traybake and scatter walnuts.