We’ve been enjoying a very successful British summer of sport so far with Andy Murray winning Wimbledon (and Heather Watson the mixed doubles), Danny Willett taking the golf US Masters title and Chris Froome dominating the Tour de France. The England cricket team has been performing well, Lewis Hamilton leads the Formula One championship… and our Olympic prospects are looking bright.

What could we incorporate into this week’s Cakes & Bakes to mark the start of the afore mentioned Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro? Why, Brazil nuts of course!

I trawled all my cook books and the internet and eventually found Dan Lepard’s double espresso Brazil nut cake recipe in the Guardian website’s food & drink section. If you’re a fan of coffee & walnut cake, you’ll love this!

His instructions call for a coffee water icing but I found a chocolate filling that I fancied (from my Little Books of Delight: Chocolate Cakes), so I combined the two together. I also added some whole and chopped Brazil nuts to garnish the top. Serve it with a double espresso, what else?!

Click here to save this double espresso brazil nut cake recipe to Pinterest for later!

Double espresso brazil nut cake

Dan Lepard

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Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Servings 8

Ingredients

  

For the cake

• 100 ml/3½fl oz milk
• 2 level tsps instant coffee
• 1 tbsp fine-ground roasted coffee beans
• 175 g/7oz butter softened
• 100 g/4oz light soft brown sugar
• 100 g/4oz caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100 g/4oz plain flour
• 100 g/4oz spelt rye or wholemeal flour
• 2 level tsps baking powder
• 75 g/3oz brazil nuts finely chopped

For the chocolate cream filling

• 100 g/4oz butter
• 25 g/1oz cornflour
• 25 g/1oz cocoa powder
• 300 ml/½pt milk
• 50 g/2oz dark chocolate
• 100 g/4oz caster sugar
• 8 whole brazil nuts
• 10 g/⅓oz chopped brazil nuts

Instructions

 

For the cake

• Butter two 20cm Victoria sponge tins and line the bases with discs of non-stick baking paper
• Combine the milk, instant coffee and ground coffee in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave until warm
• Beat the butter, brown sugar and caster sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Beat in the coffee mixture until evenly combined
• Sift the two flours and baking powder together two or three times, then beat this through with the chopped brazil nuts
• Divide the mixture equally between the tins, heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4 and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes away clean
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes
• Remove from the cake tins and cool completely on a wire rack

For the filling

• Cream the butter until light and fluffy
• Mix the cornflour and cocoa with enough milk to make a smooth paste
• Put the chocolate and remaining milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil
• Pour on to the cornflour and cocoa mixture
• Return to the pan and simmer for at least 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the sugar and continue to simmer until the mixture reaches the consistency of a thick custard
• Cool, then gradually beat the custard into the butter
• Use some of the filling to sandwich the two cake layers together before using the rest to cover the top and sides
• Decorate with the whole and chopped brazil nuts

Keyword brazil nuts, cake, chocolate cake, coffee cake, layer cake