Coffee and Walnut Cake

This English teatime cake is found in every museum and gallery café for good reason.

It is a wonderful pick-me-up in the afternoon.

Ingredients:
For the cake:
200g walnuts halves
200g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
50ml coffee granules, dissolved in 30ml boiling water
200g self-raising flour

For the icing:
600g full-fat cream cheese
100g light brown sugar
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:
Preheat the oven to 170C. Butter a 20cm spring-form or loose bottomed cake tin, about 7cm deep, and line the bottom with baking paper.
Spread the walnuts out on a baking tray and place in the oven to very gently toast for about 7 minutes. They need to be just turning golden. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the nuts to cool. Roughly crush half of the walnuts with the side of a large knife and set aside. Reserve the remaining nuts for decoration.
In a bowl, cream together the softened butter and caster sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat in the coffee. Fold in the flour and the crushed walnuts. Pour the cake mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with a spatula.
Bake in the oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the cake is springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven. Allow it to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Run a knife along the inside edge of the tin and turn the cake out onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely –could take up to 2 hours – before icing it. In the meantime make the icing.
In a bowl, beat the cream cheese with the light brown sugar until creamy. Place the cooled cake on a serving plate or stand. Spread the mixture over the cake and cover with the reserved walnuts. Dust with icing sugar.
This cake will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.