METHOD

FOR THE CAKE

1. In a small bowl, mix the instant coffee with one tablespoon of boiling water and set aside.

2. Roughly chop the walnuts and toast them in a dry pan over low heat for about 15 minutes, or until they smell toasted.

3. Preheat your oven to 180˚C (160˚C Fan). Butter and line with baking parchment two baking tins that are 20cm in diameter (a single baking tin, 23cm in diameter will also work well). 

4. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter, until light and fluffy.

5. In a small bowl, quickly beat your eggs together. Then, add them gradually to your butter & sugar mixture, continuously beating until well incorporated. 

6. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and gently fold in with a spatula. To avoid overmixing, add the walnuts as you go, as well as the coffee and tahini. 

7. Spoon in the mixture equally between the two tins and bake for approximately 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, then take the cake out of the tins and place on a wire rack to cool completely. 

FOR THE TAHINI BUTTERCREAM

1. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of instant coffee with one tablespoon of boiling water and set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl, beat the mascarpone, room temperature butter, icing sugar, tahini and the cooled coffee together with an electric mixer set on low speed. Increase to medium speed and beat until fluffy.

TIP: It is important that all your ingredients for the buttercream are at room temperature. If not, you might end up with a split buttercream, if your butter was too cold for example. If this happens, don’t panic, simply boil some water, place in a medium-sized bowl and place your large bowl with buttercream on top of the smaller bowl and keep whisking, The steam from the water will slightly warm up your butter and should rescue your buttercream!

3. To assemble the cake, place one sponge on a plate. Spoon over half of the Tahini Buttercream. (You can drizzle a little tahini on top here if you’re fond of the stuff, as we are). Sandwich with the remaining sponge and top with the remaining frosting. Scatter a few walnuts and sesame seeds on top and a little drizzle of tahini.