Happy 3rd Birthday and a Coffee & Walnut Cake

Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year! It's my blog's 3rd birthday today so I had to make something to mark the occasion. Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos - the lighting was very poor and there were a lot of shadows! I can't believe that my blog is entering it's 3rd year - when I started it, I wasn't even sure if it would last for a few months! I had a look back at my baking/blogging resolutions from last year and am pleased to announce that I stuck to all of them.  2012 was a great year for my blog. The highlights have been:

• Co-hosting AlphaBakes with Caroline from Caroline Makes - it has been a resounding success and we are very grateful to all our AlphaBakers. 
• Joining in a record number of blog challenges for 2012 which I hope to continue in 2013. 
• Writing a record number of 166 posts for the year (compared to 107 in 2011 and 106 in 2010

I'm not sure what lies ahead for 2013 but I know I definitely want to continue baking and blogging.  However, the pace will be slower as I have other priorities for 2013 and maintaining my blog plus hosting AlphaBakes on alternate months is like a second full time job! 

On to the cake - this is a coffee and walnut cake using fresh walnuts from my recent trip to Australia.  The cake was moist and delicious with a lovely coffee aroma.  I wanted to try a new decorating technique which didn't quite work so if anyone has any advice, I'd be very grateful! 

  fresh walnuts from Australia 

 cakes ready to go in the oven 

 brush with coffee syrup once cooked 

 my new textured rolling pin - you probably can't see it clearly from the photos but it says happy birthday and has a lovely design with it 

 I rolled out a piece of yellow fondant then rolled the textured pin on top. I then sprinkled some icing sugar to bring out the pattern which you can make out if you look closely. 

 I covered the cake with coffee buttercream and then placed the embossed fondant on top  

  delicious cake! 

I've never used a textured rolling pin before - does anyone know how to make the patterns stand out more? I tried dusting some glitter powder on top but that didn't work. Is it best to use it for details rather then covering the whole cake? 

Recipe for cake and buttercream can be found here