I decided, at fairly short notice that our self-catering break would be made better by cake! That meant I needed to have the ingredients, or be able to adapt them to match what I had. As luck would have it I had everything to make Nigella's coffee and walnut layer cake in her Kitchen cookbook.
And you can't beat a bit of Nigella!
I knew it'd be indulgent and would more than likely be a straightforward recipe too. Which was good as I didn't have much time to make it either! And I was right on both counts, phew.
I went onto a bit of auto-pilot and made the cake without prepping the tins. And then when I dug them out of the cupboard I greased them but omitted to line the bases, which I only realised as I re-read the recipe as they came out of the oven.
So keeping my fingers crossed I persuaded the sponges out of the tins - and I got lucky! Both of them came out relatively easily and intact. I left it until the morning - yep, the morning that we were heading off - to make the buttercream as I thought it would be much easier to do in my own kitchen, with the food processor rather than in a holiday cottage kitchen! A good move, although MOH took some convincing. With the sponges and buttercream packed for travelling we were ready to go...
I'd taken my palette knife and spatula so I could assemble the cake when we got there and was comforted to read Nigella's advice on the buttercream, I didn't need to make it smooth and should apply it in a "comforting, swirly pattern". Great - I can do "snow-scene" icing with my eyes shut!
Left to right: would they come out? Phew, yes they did!
the icing sugar dust cloud & the assembled cake
The cake was assembled and decorated with walnut pieces (not halves) and tasted yum!
The verdict:
- It was yum and easy to make!
- There was plenty of buttercream, I was pretty sure Nigella wouldn't scrimp on this!
But did it make our break better?!
Well, it certainly contributed to a great week away where we ate and drank way too much. That means for the next few weeks I'll be cooking healthier recipes as we're off away again in a few weeks and this time there might need to be a bikini involved!
Hopefully these healthy recipes will be just as tasty.
I'm linking up with
so pop over there
and see what everyone has cooked this week.