I had a craving for a Coffee Cake so had a quick flick through my cookbooks for some inspiration. I came across this recipe and it sounded pretty good. I liked the idea of the crunchy Walnut Crumble topping on it and it used sour cream, which was handy as I had a bit in the fridge that needed to be used up. This recipe is adapted from one in the Australian Women’s Weekly Bake cookbook, which is one of my favourites. If I’m craving cake, it’s usually the first place I look.

The slice has a coffee flavoured butter cake base with a yummy brown sugar crumble topping spiked with crunchy walnuts. Embarrassingly, we polished this off in a few days. Even Roman loves it!

Walnut Crumble Coffee Slice
makes 24 fingers

1 tbsp instant coffee
1/4 cup boiling water
125g butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (200g) caster sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup (160g) sour cream
1 1/2 cups (220g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Walnut Crumble
2/3 cup (100g) plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g butter, chopped into small cubes and chilled
2/3 cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup (120g) walnuts, chopped

To make the crumble topping, sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl. Add the butter and rub in with your fingertips, until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Stir in the brown sugar and half the walnuts.

Pre heat the oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease and line a 20 x 30cm (8 x 12″) slice tin.

Sift plain flour and baking powder together and stir to mix through the baking powder evenly.

Dissolve coffee in boiling water in a small bowl. While it cools, beat butter, vanilla and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Fold in sour cream and flour in two batches (sour cream, flour, sour cream, then remaining flour). Stir in coffee and spread into pan.

Sprinkle walnut crumble evenly over the top. Press the topping down slightly. Then, sprinkle over the remaining walnuts.

Bake for about 30 mins, or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool slice in pan.

Remove from tin and cut into 24 fingers.