Making the WI Proud!

A couple of absolute classics for you to bake and devour. Come along this Saturday for a scary array of valentines themed treats (I'm getting a bit happy with the cookie cutter at the moment...)

Coffee and Walnut

125g butter softened

125g caster sugar

2 eggs 

125g self-raising flour

2 heaped tbsp coffee , dissolved into a paste with a little hot water

100g walnut halves/pieces

300g soft butter

250gish sifted icing sugar

More dissolved coffee paste (up to you how much depending on how much of a caffeine hit you want)

Preheat the oven to 170C.  Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs little by little. Chuck in everything else (save a few walnut halves  for decoration) and mix well. Grease and line two sandwich tins, evenly divide the mixture and shove them in the oven for about 40 mins until their nice and springy. Let the cakes cool and in the meantime cream together the butter, icing sugar and coffee until smooth, sandwich the cakes together generously and spread the remaining butter cream on top, top it off with some walnuts.

Not-so-mini Victoria Sponges

200.0g caster sugar

200.0g softened butter

4 eggs , beaten

200.0g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder 

2 tbsp milk 

 

Double cream whipped (Use an electric whisk. Seriously. My arm has barely regained feeling.)

Jam (I'd recommend the lovely fruity stuff you can buy in the Polish section of Sainsbury's)

Throw ingredients into a bowls and mix until you have a lovely smooth batter. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two shallow square tins (the kind you would use for brownies or tray bakes). Bake for around 20mins, or until a knife stuck in the middle comes out clean. Once cool, use a small/medium circular cookie cutter to cut out rounds. 
Spread some jam and a blob of cream on a round and squash another round on top. 
Finish off with a dusting of icing sugar... Ta Da!