Full question
Hello Team Nigella! My biggest passion is baking and the prices for some ingredients sometimes makes it harder to explore this beautiful world. In my country unsalted butter is very expensive. I want to make the Coffee and Walnut Layer Cake but can I use margarine intead of butter for the buttercream icing? Thank you.
Our answer
Nigella's Coffee And Walnut Layer Cake (from KITCHEN) is a sponge cake enriched with walnuts and filled and topped with a coffee buttercream. The sponge uses 225g of softened unsalted butter and we feel that for the sponge it would be fine to use margarine instead of butter.
For the buttercream we would prefer to use butter. There is less butter used in the frosting than in the sponge. The flavour of butter is better than margarine and we feel that the flavour of the buttercream will not be the same if margarine is used. Some margarines also have a different texture to butter, lack the creaminess of butter and and don't quite have the same feel in the mouth, which we think could affect the enjoyment of the finished cake.
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