Tea and cakes

We are having a short 'autumn' holiday in Holland. The girls are free from school and I took a day of work. Just to enjoy; be with the girls, do some baking, cooking and some much needed house cleaning. A dear friend of mine came for tea and dinner. I decided to bake something special.

After leafing through my baking books, I decided on mini coffee cakes from the book 'Good food 101 Cupcakes & small bakes'. They were simply delicious. Full of walnuts, with a slight hint of coffee. I can recommend the book to you. It costs less than five pounds and is full of delicious, easy to make and foolproof recipes! I have several of the little '101 books' on my shelves and I often use them.

The flowers on the photo's are probably the last Cosmea's and Zinnia's from my garden. They look so bright and cheerful on a grey and wet autumn day as today. My neighbour kindly gave me some branches of the Calicarpa, which look great in between the pinks.

Wishing you all a happy wednesday! Lieve groet, Madelief

Oh, before I forget: the other pies on the photo's are the famous Dudok apple pie & chocolate truffle pie. The plates are from the PIP home collection.

Mini coffee cakes

100 gr walnut halves

140 unsalted butter

140 gr caster sugar

3 large eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp strong coffee (espresso or made with instant), cooled

175 gr plain flour

4 tsp baking powder

For the icing

three tablespoons of coffee

140g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Finely chop all but twelve of the walnut halves. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale, then gradually beat in the eggs. Add the chopped walnuts, vanilla and 2 tablespoons of coffee. Mix the flour and baking powder, fold in gently, then divide the mix among the baking cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with about 3 tablespoons of coffee. Ice the cooled cakes, then decorate with nuts.