Coffee And Mint Cream Cake - cooking recipe

Ingredients

For Sponge Cake
1 tablespoon fine ground coffee
1 1/2 tablespoons water (heated to near-boil temp)
3/4 cup unsalted butter (well-softened)
1 cup sugar
2 cups self-raising flour (sifted)
1/2 cup ground almonds
3 eggs
icing sugar (to dust top layer of cake)
of fresh mint (sml sprigs for garnish)
For Buttercream Filling
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
2 tablespoons creme de menthe

Preparation

For Cake: Preheat oven to 350\u00b0F.
Lightly grease & line 2 7-in rd baking tins w/greaseproof paper.
Put coffee grounds in a sml bowl & pour hot water over them. Leave to infuse for 4-5 minutes, then strain thru a fine sieve (See note below).
Put butter, sugar, flour, almonds, eggs & coffee in a lrg bowl. Beat well for 1 min till blended. Divide mixture evenly between the tins & level the surface.
Bake for 25 min till well-risen & firm to the touch. Leave in the tins for 5 min, then turn out onto a wire rack to fully cool.
For Filling: While cake layers are baking, cream the butter, icing sugar + creme de menthe liqueur together in a bowl till light & fluffy. Refrigerate till cake layers are baked & fully cooled.
Remove lining paper from sponge cake layers. Put 1 layer on serving plate (flat side up) & frost top surface only w/chilled filling. Gently place 2nd layer atop filling (flat side down). Refrigerate till ready to serve.
To Serve: Generously dust top of cake w/icing sugar & scatter fresh mint leaves over dusted surface. (This was inconsistent w/the pic which showed the mint leaves mounded in the center of the top of the cake, so choose the look you prefer).
NOTE RE PREP STEP 2: My pref would be to use a simple coffee filter to strain the coffee & remove the grounds. I'd just squeeze it to get all the coffee for the cake or press the filter w/the round side of a tbsp to manage that step easily. :-).