coffee cake with cream cheese frosting

The beautiful cake that you see in this post is a joint-effort by Da's niece (SCT) and me. I baked the cake while SCT prepared the cream cheese frosting and decorated the cake.

Do not be daunted by what you see in this post. This cake is actually not difficult to make.

INGREDIENTS (for the cake)

300g self-raising flour
250g butter (softened)
250g brown sugar
4 eggs (beaten)
50g walnuts (crushed)
200ml coffee (I used a hazelnut flavoured 3-in-1 coffee and added hot water to mix it) (cooled)
2 tbsp brown sugar


INGREDIENTS (for the frosting)

325g cream cheese (softened)
100g butter (softened)
1 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
zest of 1 orange


INGREDIENTS (for the topping)

green kiwi fruit (sliced)
strawberries (halved)
mixture of walnuts, pecans and pumpkin seeds (chopped)
chocolate (chopped) - SCT used Cadbury's fudge brownie chocolate

METHOD (for the cake)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and flour two 8" round baking pans. Set aside.

3. Sift the self-raising flour in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 250g brown sugar until pale and creamy.

5. Add the walnuts, half of the coffee and the eggs. Mix well.

6. Fold in the flour and beat until evenly mixed.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

8. Remove the cake from the oven. Sweeten the remaining coffee with 2 tbsp brown sugar and sprinkle over the two cakes.

9. Leave the cakes to cool while preparing the cream cheese frosting.

10. When the cakes have cooled, level the top of the cakes if they rose unevenly.

METHOD (for the frosting)

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl and beat using an electric mixer until evenly mixed.

2. Spread the frosting on top of one of the cakes and sandwich the frosting with the other cake.

3. Spread the remaining frosting over the exterior of the entire cake.

METHOD (for the topping)

1. Sprinkle the chopped nuts on the sides of the frosted cake.

2. Arrange the kiwi fruit, strawberries and chopped chocolate on top of the frosted cake.

3. Refrigerate the cake for at least an hour before slicing.