All That's Left Are The Crumbs: Walnut Espresso Cake ~#TheCakeSliceBakers

This rich butter cake, flavored with espresso powder, has a decadent

whipped espresso and rum buttercream frosting. The candied praline pecans

on the top add just the right crunch to complement the cake.

The Cake Slice Bakers continue to bake through - Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano this year. Aleksandra, a James Beard Award–winning writer, shares her secrets of the cakes Parisians like to bake at home. Recipes such as a simple yogurt cake, a surprisingly easy Bûche De Noël, and Walnut Pear and Roquefort Madeleines will show you the surprising simplicity of a French cake.

The Cake Slice Bakers are a group of dedicated bakers who all love cake. Each year we choose a new cake-centric cookbook and bake our way through it. Every month we are given 3 choices and on the 20th day of each month we reveal what we have chosen on our blogs. This month's choices were Walnut Espresso Cake, Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Savory Loaf, and Boozy Peaches and Mascarpone Layer I couldn't resist trying the Walnut Espresso Cake.

Why yes, they are pecans on my cake - not walnuts - despite the recipe name. I like pecans better, and I had a large container of Praline Pecans, so I decided to use them instead of having to go and purchase walnuts. I think it was a great choice. This cake does not have a grocery list of ingredients, so once everything is measured out it is super easy to put together and the bake time is relatively short. It sure smells good when you take it out of the oven, with a strong coffee smell. As you can see it is not a very tall cake, and I used a 9-inch springform rather than the 10-inch in the recipe. I would say you could go down to an 8-inch, lower the temperature to 160℃ (325℉), and bake for a little longer - but keep you eye on it so that the espresso does not burn. This book suggests that serving this with coffee would be redundant, and serving it with tea would be sacrilegious, and therefore suggests that a glass of dessert wine would be the perfect choice. I can totally see this working with a glass of port, muscat, or even an ice wine but I also believe that you should make your own choice. So if you want a nice cuppa with this cake, go ahead and enjoy.

Walnut Espresso Cake

Printer Friendly Recipe

Ingredients

Cake ~

3 eggs, room temperature
175g butter (¾ cup) butter, room temperature
175g (¾ cup) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
180g (1½ cups) cake flour
10g (2½ teaspoons) baking powder
5g (1 tablespoon) espresso powder

Buttercream ~

225g (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
400g (3½ cups) powdered sugar
15g (¼ cup) espresso powder
1-2 teaspoons dark rum (I used Bundaberg Rum, which is an Aussie rum)
40 walnut halves, for decoration

Preparation

Cake ~

Preheat the oven to 180℃ (350℉).
Line the bottom of two 8-inch springform pans with rounds of parchment and spray the sides with baking spray (you may also make this a one-layer cake by using a 9-inch springform pan).
In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork to break up the yolks.
Using a stand mixer or hand held beaters, cream the butter and the sugar together until very pale and fluffy - almost as pale as milk.
Add about a third of the eggs while continuing to beat until incorporated, then add another third once again beating until incorporated, then the final third beating until fully incorporated.
Continue to beat and add the vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Set a sieve over the mixing bowl and sift the dry ingredients directly onto the batter.
using a rubber spatula, gently fold the dry ingredients in, just until no streaks of flour remain.
divide the batter evenly between the two prepared cake pans and smooth the tops gently.
Bake for 20-25 minutes (note if using a larger single pan bake for approximately 30 minutes).
Remove and set on a baking rack to cool.
After 10 minutes, invert the cakes onto the rack to finish cooling.

Buttercream ~

While the cakes are cooling, make the buttercream.
Using a stand mixer or hand held beaters, cream the butter for 1 minute.
Add the powdered sugar and beat until creamy and smooth.
Add the espresso powder and rum and beat to combine.
If you are not icing the cake right away, refrigerate the icing in a covered container. Bring to room temperature before icing the cake.
When icing the cake, you always want to ice the bottom side as it is more porous. If the cake is domed in shape, slice a thin layer off the top to make it even and level. If you do this, then either side is fine for icing.
Ice one layer with half the butter cream, then nestle about 20 walnut halves in the buttercream.
Cover with the second layer of cake, ice the second layer with the remaining buttercream and very lightly press the remaining walnut halves in a pretty pattern of concentric circles into the buttercream.
You can leave the sides of the cake bare, or ice them. This icing is too good to waste
If making this as a larger, one-layer cake, simply cover the top of the cake with all of the icing and all of the walnuts. It may look excessive but will taste fabulous.
This cake is best served within a few hours of icing it.

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.