verona coffee syrup cakes

yesterday was my birthday and one of the things my parents got me was the cookbook Little Cafe Cakes by julie le clerc. dan also got me a gift certificate to a really cool kitchen supply store in islington, the gill wing cookshop, where i bought individual size cake tins to try out some new recipes from my new cookbook! so this is the first one i tried and they were really good, but really rich. here is the recipe...

250 grams butter
1 1/4 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup strong verona coffee
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon finely ground verona coffee beans
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

syrup ingredients
1 1/2 cups strong verona coffee
1/4 cup coffee liqueur
1 teaspoon ground coffee beans
3/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 160 C. Grease and flour 12 individual cake tins.
2. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffly. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add coffee, vanilla, nutmeg, and ground coffee beans. Fold in flour and baking powder.
3. Pour into prepared tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool in tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack to cool completely. Pour hot syrup over cooled cakes.

For the syrup boil all ingredients together in a pan until reduced to a light syrup.

note...
verona is a starbucks blend of coffee and my personal favorite. feel free to substitute your own favorite coffee.