Cappuccino Cake

Cake

1. 1Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease the cake tin with margarine or softened butter, using a pastry brush or your hands (if you have cleaned them well), put the greased tin in the fridge to keep cool until you are ready to use it.
2. 2Cream together the softened butter and sugar until this mixture turns pale and smooth.
3. 3Stir the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, do this gently, slowly stirring rather than ‘whisking’ or ‘beating’ the mixture.
4. 4Mix together coffee granules and boiling water. Then sift in a little flour into the cake mixture with a bit of the coffee mixture, fold this in and then repeat intermittently adding flour and coffee mixture to the cake mixture until it has all been added. Add the milk and stir this in gently.

Topping

1. 5Melt butter in a bowl in the microwave or in a pan on the stove, take this off the heat (or out of the microwave) and stir in sugar and cinnamon. Pour this over the base of the greased tin. Scatter the nuts evenly over the butter and sugar mixture. Pour the cake mixture over this and spread evenly to cover all the nut mixture.
2. 6Put in the oven to bake for 30 mins. After 30 minutes you can test the cake by inserting a skewer or fork, if it’s ready the skewer or fork will come out clean, but if it’s not a bit of liquid cake mixture may be stuck to the skewer.

Icing

1. 7Whisk together icing sugar, cream cheese and butter until smooth.
2. 8When the cake is cooked, take it out of the oven and run a sharp knife around the edge of the cake to ensure the cake is not stuck to the tin, then turn the cake out on to a plate. Then turn the cake up the right way again so the nuts are on the bottom.
3. 9Let the cake cool until it is almost completely cool and then pile the cream cheese icing on top. Using a serrated knife draw a swirly pattern from the centre of the icing outwards to make the cake look nice (and a little bit like a cappuccino). Sprinkle with a little cocoa powder to give the final touch to the cappuccino look.