Full question
I have a question I always wanted to ask regarding the Coffee And Walnut Layer Cake. I, being a coffee snob, never have instant coffee in my house. When I buy some for a recipe it is such a waste as it ends up drying up like a rock, so ends up in the bin. I am always concerned that if I make espresso instead, the liquid component may throw the balance of the ingredients out. Could I use very finely ground coffee instead?
Our answer
Nigella's Coffee And Walnut Layer Cake (from KITCHEN) has sponge layers made with ground walnuts and espresso powder and is sandwiched with a coffee flavoured buttercream. We suspect straight ground coffee beans may give the cake a slightly gritty texture and we would not use them in the buttercream as this will make it gritty, rather than smooth and rich. Espresso powder is made from used espresso coffee grounds that have been dried out and ground again. So it could be possible to make your own powder at home but you need patience plus a machine that can grind the dried mixture to a very, very fine powder. However it is not something we have tried so are unable to recommend a method.
The cake has 1-2 tablesooons of milk added and these could be substituted with a really strong coffee. Our concern is that it may be difficult to make "real" coffee this strong as the powder used in the cake is the equivalent strength of around four cups of espresso (which is about 8 tablespoons of liquid). If you are able to make really strong espresso then you could use up to 3 tablespoons of this liquid in the cake and 2 tablespoons in the buttercream, but the coffee flavour will probably not be quite as pronounced.
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