Rock n Roll Recipe Requests

Alright, 'cakes wot I dun made for an indie-pop night' may have been a more accurate title, but who doesn't love a bit of alliteration. Anyway, Dunc from The Autumn Store asked for the recipes and after putting on another ace gig its the least I can do:

Maple Syrup and Pecan Cake
Easy one this as I nicked it from here on the bbc website in the first place. Only changes for my version are I use an 8" tin and it seems to take more like 35-40 minutes, plus I can't resist cutting it in half and filling it with blackcurrant jam, the slight sharpness complements the cake really well.

Coffee and Oat Cake
(apologies for the imperial measurements, this is a very old recipe I got from my mum and I can't be arsed to convert it)

cake:
6 oz porridge oats
9 oz butter/margarine
9 oz castor sugar
5 eggs
6 oz self-raising flour
3 teaspoons coffee essence*

Preheat oven to 190C/gas mark 5.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy

Add eggs one at a time with a little flour, then fold in remaining flour, oats and coffee essence

Pour mixture into greased 10" round tin and cook for 35-40 minutes.

Coffee Butter Icing:
2 oz butter
4 oz icing sugar
1 tbsp coffee essence*
2 oz good quality oats
1 tbsp milk/hot water (ignored in my version, see note on coffee essence)

Spread the oats on a baking tray and cook at 180C/gas mark 4 for a few minutes until lightly browned.

Cream the butter until soft and gradually beat in the sugar and liquids until soft and creamy (make sure if using my method for coffee essence that it has had a chance to cool first)

Spread icing thinly over the cake and sprinkle the oats over the top, pressing down gently to stop them all falling off the moment you pick up a slice.

*I have no idea what coffee essence is and have never spotted it in the baking section of a supermarket, so assuming its basically really strong coffee I fudge together a replacement by making a strong pot of coffee and then taking a few tablespoons of it and mixing it with as much instant coffee as it'll take into solution. I think I ended up adding about 2-3 tablespoons of it to the main cake recipe and the same again to the icing (but no additional liquid in the icing)

p.s. The gig was fantastic, Ace Bushy Striptease were particularly impressive and are the first local band I've seen since starting (and generally failing at) this whole blogging malarky who I can wholeheartedly recommend (David Leach doesn't count as he's no longer local, although he's still rather good)