• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Charlotte's Lively Kitchen logo

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Baking & Desserts
      • Biscuits & Bars
      • Cakes
      • Cheesecakes
      • Chocolates
      • Cupcakes
      • Icing
      • Ingredients
      • Jams, Curds & Spreads
      • Meringues
      • Savoury Baking
      • Scones
      • Sweet Sauces
      • Vegan Baking
    • Lunch & Dinner
    • Side Dishes & Sauces
    • Breakfast
    • Drinks
  • Conversions
    • Grams to Cups Conversions
    • Oven Temperature Conversions
    • All Baking Tools
  • The Food Calendar
  • Subscribe
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • HOME
  • RECIPE INDEX
  • – BAKING & DESSERTS
  • – LUNCH & DINNER
  • – SIDE DISHES & SAUCES
  • – BREAKFAST
  • – DRINKS
  • CONVERSIONS
  • CALENDAR
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • PRIVACY
×
Home » Baking & Desserts » Cakes » Easy Coffee Cake

24 January 2019

Easy Coffee Cake

26.8K shares

Contains Affiliate Links 

Easy Coffee Cake – A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour.

PLUS – How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

Skip to the recipe

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

Last week I shared with you my recipe for Easy Chocolate Cake, and today I’m back with another simple, classic cake recipe – Coffee Cake topped with Coffee Buttercream.

Two big cake recipes in a row?

Yes. I realised that I have so many more cupcakes on here than full-sized layer cakes. The reason for this is that I almost always test new cake recipes as cupcakes, as it’s easy to make small batches making lots of little tweaks until the recipe is just perfect. As soon as the recipe is just right, I’ll share it on here and move onto the next one.

I decided it was about time that some of those cupcakes were transformed into big cakes, so I’m on a mission to supersize them all for you.

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

One of the reasons I love this coffee cake recipe is that both the sponge and the buttercream are absolutely jam-packed with coffee flavour. 

Coffee is one of my absolute favourite cake flavours, and I struggle to resist buying a slice if I spot one in a coffee shop. However, sadly I’ve noticed that quite a few lack coffee flavour in the actual sponge, there’s the subtlest hint, but all the coffee flavour is in the icing. Not so with this cake, both the sponge and buttercream are packed full of flavour.

Can I use freshly brewed coffee rather than powder or granules?

No, the reason I use instant coffee powder or granules in this recipe is that it’s the easiest way to get an intense coffee flavour into both the sponge and buttercream. The amount of freshly brewed coffee needed would mean adding too much liquid to the mixture.

You also cannot substitute the coffee powder/granules for ground coffee beans. Making this substitution wouldn’t give the same flavour (as they need brewing to bring out the flavour) as the coffee beans wouldn’t dissolve into the mixture, so you’d end up with bitty cake and buttercream.

I only have coffee granules, how do I grind them into a powder?

I always use granules rather than powder and I simply give mine a quick blitz in my spice grinder. You can also grind them in a pestle and mortar.

Can I use decaf coffee?

Absolutely. We mostly drink decaf coffee at home and so that’s what I usually use for my cakes. The results of using regular instant coffee and decaf are the same.

Can I use self-raising flour instead of plain?

Absolutely. Instead of the 200g of plain flour and 2½ tsp of baking powder listed in the recipe, use 210g of self-raising flour.

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

Other recipe inspiration for coffee lovers

If you’re like me and love coffee flavoured treats then take a look at some of my other coffee-filled recipes:

  • Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes – coffee cupcakes topped with whipped cream and a hidden caramel centre
  • Coffee & Walnut Cake
  • Cappuccino Truffles 
  • Coffee Cupcakes

Caramel Macchiato Cupcakes, Coffee & Walnut Cake, Cappuccino Truffles & Coffee Cupcakes

What’s the best way to store my coffee cake?

This coffee cake can be stored in an airtight container for 4-5 days. Preferably it should be stored in the fridge (but allow it to come up to room temperature before eating as it’ll have a better flavour and the buttercream will soften), but it’ll be fine at room temperature providing the room isn’t too warm.

This cake is suitable for freezing, either just the coffee sponge or the buttercreamed cake. To freeze the coffee sponge cake, wait for it to cool and then wrap the cake in clingfilm or store it in an airtight container before freezing. Defrost it thoroughly before decorating.

The buttercreamed cake can also be frozen in the same way. If you’ve piped the cake beautifully and you’re worried about squashing it when you wrap it in buttercream simply freeze the cake uncovered on a dish for an hour to firm up the buttercream. Then wrap it in clingfilm. As the buttercream is already solid, it won’t get squashed. When you want to defrost the cake, remove it from the freezer and remove the clingfilm (so it doesn’t stick to the buttercream as it thaws).

I would not recommend freezing just the buttercream to use later as the consistency becomes a little too fudgy. This means it’s delicious on the cake but tricky to spread or pipe.

What are the coffee cake ingredients for a different size of tin?

As for my easy chocolate cake, I wanted to make it simple for you to make this cake in a different size or shape (either round, square or rectangular) so you can get it to fit in a tin you already have at home or feed as many or few people as you need.

The main recipe below is for a two-layer 20cm round cake (this serves 12 people). However, this recipe is easily adapted to use other sizes of tins. 

To find the ingredients needed to make this cake in a different size, simply add the dimensions of your tin and the number of layers into the boxes below and hit “Calculate”.

Round Cake

Cake Diameter (cm)

Number of Layers

Cake Ingredients

0 g plain flour
0 tsp baking powder
0 tsp coffee powder/granules
0 medium egg(s)
0 g soft margarine or butter
0 g soft light brown sugar
0 tsp milk
0 tsp salt

Buttercream Ingredients

0 g butter
0 g icing sugar
0 tsp vanilla extract
0 tsp instant coffee powder/granules
0 tsp boiling water

Square or rectangular cake

Cake Size (cm)
x

Number of layers

Cake Ingredients

0 g plain flour
0 tsp baking powder
0 tsp coffee powder/granules
0 medium egg(s)
0 g soft margarine or butter
0 g soft light brown sugar
0 tsp milk
0 tsp salt

Buttercream Ingredients

0 g butter
0 g icing sugar
0 tsp vanilla extract
0 tsp instant coffee powder/granules
0 tsp boiling water

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS

Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

Easy Coffee Cake

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour.
PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 
4.55 from 151 votes
Print Pin Rate Save Go to Collections
Active Time: 25 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes
Total Time: 55 minutes minutes
Servings: 12 servings
Prevent your screen from going dark

INGREDIENTS

Metric - US Cups/Ounces

For the coffee sponge

  • 3 tbsp instant coffee powder - or coffee granules ground to a powder
  • 200 g plain flour
  • 2½ tsp baking powder
  • 220 g soft light brown sugar
  • 220 g margarine or butter - butter must be soft at room temperature
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 2 tsp milk
  • ⅛ tsp salt

For the coffee buttercream

  • 200 g butter - soft at room temperature
  • 400 g icing sugar
  • ¼ tsp vanilla extract
  • 8 tsp instant coffee powder or granules
  • 4 tsp boiling water
  • A little milk

This recipe is for 2x 20cm round sandwich tins. To find the ingredients for a different size of tin please use the calculator above the recipe.

INSTRUCTIONS

Make the coffee sponge

  • Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
    Line two 20cm round sandwich tins with greaseproof paper or re-usable baking tin liners (I use these tins and these liners).
  • Put all of the cake ingredients into a large bowl (3 tbsp coffee powder, 200g plain flour, 2½ tsp baking powder, 220g soft light brown sugar, 220g margarine or butter, 4 medium eggs, 2 tsp milk, ⅛ tsp salt). Beat with an electric mixer or by hand on a low speed until all of the ingredients are combined. 
  • Split the mixture between the two prepared tins. Then bake for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
  • Once the cakes are cooked, remove them from the oven. Leave them to cool in their tins for about 10 minutes before removing them from the tins and moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the coffee buttercream

  • While the cakes are cooling make the coffee buttercream. Start by mixing together the instant coffee powder/granules (8 tsp) with the boiling water (4 tsp). Set aside to cool.
  • In a large bowl beat the butter (200g) and vanilla extract (¼ tsp) on a low speed until soft. Add the icing sugar (400g) and beat on a low speed until combined with the butter and smooth. 
    Gradually add the coffee mixture, 1 tsp at a time. After each addition beat the buttercream until the coffee has been fully combined before adding more.
  • Check the consistency of your buttercream. It should be soft enough that you could spread it onto a slice of bread. If it is too firm, then add a little milk (no more than 1 tsp at a time) until it is your desired consistency.

Build the cake

  • Place the bottom layer of your coffee sponge onto your serving dish. Spread about ⅓ of the coffee buttercream evenly across the sponge (I like to use a palette knife, but you could use a regular knife or the back of a spoon).
  • Add the top layer of sponge. Again spread ⅓ of the coffee buttercream on top. Put the remaining buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle (I use a JEM1B nozzle). Pipe 12 blobs of buttercream evenly spaced around the edge of the cake. I give the piping bag a little wiggle as I squeeze so that the buttercream looks slightly ruffled.
    Of course, if you don't fancy piping, simply split the buttercream even between the middle and top of the cake.
  • Serve

NOTES

❄️ Suitable for freezing
Please see storage instructions above the recipe for more information.
WANT TO HEAR ABOUT NEW RECIPES FIRST?SUBSCRIBE to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Mailing List

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 521kcal | Carbohydrates: 63.1g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 28.3g | Saturated Fat: 12.6g | Sodium: 274.4mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 50.6g

Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.


Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Keyword: Coffee Morning
Author: Charlotte Oates

Free From/Suitable For

The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary, and product recipes can change over time.

 
  • Suitable for Vegetarians
  • Tree Nut-Free
  • Peanut-Free
  • Sesame-Free
  • Soya-Free
  • Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
  • Lupin-Free

Easy Coffee Cake - A delicious all-in-one coffee sponge topped with smooth coffee buttercream. Simple to make and packed full of flavour. PLUS - How to make this cake in any size of round, square or rectangular tin. 

26.8K shares

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Adam Lea says

    December 22, 2024 at 10:55 am

    5 stars
    I wanted to make this cake with three tiers, 20cm diameter which your calculator conveniently tells me how much of each ingredient to use. I wanted to add walnuts to the recipe to turn it into a coffee and walnut cake, for which you have a recipe, but that one doesn’t have a calculator. When cross-checking the two recipes, I noticed for a three tier coffee cake with 20 cm tins, the quantity of ingredients is double that for the three tier coffee and walnut cake with 18 cm tins. The increase in volume going from an 18 cm tin to a 20 cm tin for the same depth is only about 25%, so why does the quantity of ingredients double?

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      December 29, 2024 at 6:29 pm

      The layers in the coffee and walnut cake are designed to be thinner than a standard layer so they use less mixture.

  2. Chris says

    October 16, 2024 at 9:24 am

    5 stars
    I love this coffee cake recipe and make it often.
    Turns out lovely each time.
    Really can appreciate the coffee flavour, best I have had.
    I have just baked a chocolate cake with coffee frosting, which is divine.
    I looking forward to baking some more Charlottes recipes now.

    Reply
  3. Lumi says

    September 30, 2024 at 6:39 pm

    5 stars
    Added a dash of whisky to the batter. Replaced half the eggs with yoghurt for extra moisture and realised I didn’t have enough icing sugar for the coffee buttercream but this gave it a nice bitter kick.

    Reply
  4. Kj says

    September 27, 2024 at 1:14 pm

    5 stars
    Great cake recipe and the best icing – although I only make 3/4 as it is a lot!

    Reply
  5. Shinji says

    September 21, 2024 at 11:07 pm

    5 stars
    Made this cake yesterday and it turned out great! The recipe was easy to follow and we had most of the ingredients already, so the whole process was a piece of cake Thanks so much for sharing this!

    Reply
  6. Mary says

    August 24, 2024 at 12:31 pm

    5 stars
    Excellent

    Reply
  7. Claire says

    July 14, 2024 at 9:02 pm

    5 stars
    Baked this cake today & it is a delicious cake, super soft & you can taste the coffee in the sponge which is hands down better than any other recipe for coffee cake I’ve tried . The Buttercream is smooth & strong in coffee flavour so a definite HIT if your a coffee lover , will definitely make this cake over & over again everyone loved it .

    Reply
  8. Kate says

    July 09, 2024 at 11:09 am

    5 stars
    Hi, found I didnt quite have enough butter for your recipe so i substituted the rest with greek yoghurt and it came out fabulous. Very moist and full coffee flavour. |Made for my sons birthday, who is a coffee cake connoisseur! Will definitely use this recipe again.

    Reply
  9. Christine says

    June 01, 2024 at 3:48 pm

    Hi, I’m using this recipe to do my sons wedding cake. I will be making a 30cm,25cm and 20cm all 4 tier and was just wondering
    How long I should bake each for please? I will make 2 cakes and split each one to make the 4 tiers required

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      June 13, 2024 at 12:30 am

      I would highly recommend making some practise layers and testing the time for each size in your tins and in your oven because both things can make a difference anyway. I would also recommend checking the thickness of the layers are as you wish as each layer in this cake as written isn’t very thick – you may struggle to cut each in half.

  10. Blue says

    May 18, 2024 at 9:41 pm

    4 stars
    Another great recipe. I am not huge on coffee cake and found it rather sweet, but my friend who is a coffee cake afficionado loved it so it’s definitely done its job! Made it dairy free and it worked just fine. Thank you for the recipe.

    Also, thank you for being one of the rare recipe sites with actual functionality and that isn’t written by AI! Your calculator is really useful, I appreciate the simplicity of this comment box and the brevity and clarity of your writing is great. Thanks for providing a high-quality website on an increasingly difficult-to-use internet. You will be my first port of call for recipes from now on!

    Reply
  11. Janhavi says

    May 01, 2024 at 11:31 am

    5 stars
    holy hell this cake was SO GOOD.
    for context, im 17 and i hadnt baked a cake all by myself, ever, before this. and it was a raging success!! my dad started chemo yesterday so i thought i’d make him something to boost his spirits a little, and he loved it- it was super moist, not too sweet and the coffee flavour was actually really nice
    thanks for this wonderful recipe<3

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      May 09, 2024 at 12:26 am

      Well done, I hope this is the first of many homemade cakes that you and your dad will share together x

  12. Ruth Foster says

    April 27, 2024 at 9:35 pm

    5 stars
    Baked beautifully, tasted delicious, perfect! Thank you.

    Reply
  13. Claire says

    April 25, 2024 at 11:02 am

    5 stars
    So I dropped my phone in a lake which had this recipe bookmarked and I’ve just found it again! Love this recipe. So delicious. I’ll be making it for my dads birthday tomorrow.

    Reply
  14. PS says

    April 09, 2024 at 4:52 am

    5 stars
    I had to come back to comment, because I baked with this recipe twice, and both times it was so delicious!!!
    I was quite nervous about it from the comments and also I am scared about the whole over-under mixing but this cake was was so simple. I did amend it slightly where I put the butter first to fluff it up, and then combined it with sugar, but I’m sure it would have been fine either way. The bake time was so quick, and for the first time I actually thought about the proportion of ingredients to my cake pan (why haven’t I done this before!)
    My cake turned out amazing, no bumps or craters.
    Will be exploring for your other recipes now, thanks again!

    Reply
  15. Sindhu Koshy says

    February 27, 2024 at 10:27 am

    Can i get the measurements of eggs in grams

    Reply
    • Charlotte Oates says

      March 02, 2024 at 9:56 pm

      You can check my Eggs: Does Size Matter? guide for information on how much eggs of different sizes weigh.

« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe




4.55 from 151 votes

Primary Sidebar

Charlotte Oates about me

Hi, I'm Charlotte Oates. Welcome to my lively kitchen where I share delicious, simple baking recipes, baking tools and calculators, and lots of tips and tricks.

Find out more
Facebook logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Facebook page Pinterest logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen - Pinterest page Instagram logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen Instagram page Twitter logo - when clicked this will open the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen twitter page

Latest Post

  • A cartoon calendar with the text The Food Calendar UK Food Days, Weeks and Months
    The Food Calendar 2024 – International & UK Food Days, Weeks and Months

Featured Recipes

  • Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
  • Biscoff Cake
  • A no-bake Oreo cheesecake topped with whipped cream and Oreos.
    Oreo Cheesecake (No-Bake)
  • Chocolate Orange Cake
    Chocolate Orange Cake
  • Lemon cake topper with lemon buttercream on a white cake stand.
    Easy Lemon Cake (All-In-One Lemon Sponge)
  • No-bake lemon cheesecake
    Easy Lemon Cheesecake (No Bake)
  • Lemon Buttercream
  • White-Chocolate-Buttercream-2
    White Chocolate Buttercream
  • A close up of a coffee cupcake topped with a swirl of coffee buttercream on a cooling rack with more cupcakes behind.
    Coffee Buttercream

Footer

About

Contact

Privacy Policy

↑ back to top

Copyright © 2024 CLK Digital Limited

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.