It’s National Baking Week, and with only a week left until the Great British Bake Off Finale, I thought I’d share my chestnut and coffee cake recipe with you! It’s a chestnut flavoured sponge with coffee flavoured buttercream – which I’d never made before, but it’s so simple and very tasty!

Ingredients for the sponge

• 225g butter
• 225g caster sugar
• handful of ready-cooked chestnuts, blended to a fine crumb
• 4 eggs
• 225 gluten-free self-raising flour

Ingredients for the buttercream

• 2 tsp coffee granules
• 1 tbsp boiling water
• 200g icing sugar
• 100 butter

Method for the sponge

1. Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180C and grease 2 x 20cm circular cake tins
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Beat eggs in, a little at a time
4. Fold in the flour, until it’s all mixed in
5. Add the chestnuts and mix well
6. Divide the cake mixture between the two tins
7. Bake for around 30-35 mins, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the sponge, comes out clean
8. When they’re done, take out of the cake tins after 5 mins and transfer to a wire rack to cool

Method for buttercream

1. Mix the butter and icing sugar together
2. In a separate bowl, mix the coffee and the boiling water until the coffee has dissolved
3. Add the coffee mixture  to the butter and icing mixture and mix well
4. Taste the buttercream, if you want a stronger coffee taste, just mix more of the coffee with the water.

Once the sponge has cooled, coat the top of one layer and carefully place the other sponge on top. If you have buttercream leftover spread all over the top of the cake or grab a spoon and tuck in, which is what my boyfriend shamelessly did!  In his defense, you can’t just bin the leftover buttercream, it takes too good.