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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.
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.
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
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
FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS
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Easy Coffee Cake
INGREDIENTS
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
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
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.
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
Devika says
Great tasting and easy to make! Thank you
Jemma says
Hi Thankyou for recipe…..I’m going to try making this cake soon…so just want to make sure the conversion is correct….for a square 21×21 cm cake tin.
Is it 24.5 tsp of coffee all up?
Charlotte Oates says
No this is not correct! Using the calculator for the square/rectangle cake and entering 21 and 21 for the cake size and then 1 for the number of layers, this is the quantity of ingredients calculated.
150 g plain flour
1.875 tsp baking powder
7 tsp coffee powder/granules
3 medium egg(s)
165 g soft margarine or butter
165 g soft light brown sugar
1.5 tsp milk
0.125 tsp salt
These quantities will obviously increase as you increase the number of layers that you are looking to make.
Karen says
Super easy & super yum. Enough icing to cover the sides too. Looked gorgeous with the piping and a few chocolate coated coffee beans on top. I reduced the baking time but I suppose temperatures vary between ovens. Thanks!
Dina says
The cake was good and came out as expected thumbs up on the recipe.
The buttercream turned out WAAAY sweeter than I would’ve hoped (even by using 300g of sugar instead of 400g).
Maybe I’ll try with 200g next time; unless @charlotte you think it may change the texture too much and have any thoughts on other things I could do!
Best,
Dina
Charlotte Oates says
I wouldn’t recommend adjusting the sugar quantity as there will become a point where you are just making coffee flavoured butter. You may wish to try increasing the strength of the coffee to counteract the sweetness – and make sure you are using a bitter coffee type.
Ndanji Siame says
Very good, rich recipe
Procrastibaker says
I love coffee cake but have never made one myself…been fancying some all week so looked up recipes and found d this one. It is DELICOUS! Super easy, all in one sponge and excellent level of coffee flavouring. Perfect, thank you. Ps loved the calculator for altering the tin size too, didn’t use it but I’ll be coming back to try your other recipes because of how it’s all laid out. Thanks for sharing Charlotte
Leah says
Hello I’m. Bit confused on the calculator part . My tin is 14 inches think 3 inch depth and want to make 3layers what do I put in the calculator part ?
Charlotte Oates says
You would need to convert the inches to cm. Your tins are roughly 35.5 cm. So you would enter 35.5, 35.5 then 3 (layers) in the calculator fields in that order. This is assuming that you are talking about using round tins. Good luck.
Deidre says
Made this cake last night for my dad’s birthday. It is super easy and seriously delicious!!! Sponge is soft and the perfect crumb.
Thumbs up even on the frosting, yummmm.
Kamakshi says
Hi
I am a coffee lover and really wanted to try this recipe. I just have a question. Can i use oil instead of butter? And also can i make it without the frosting? Like a normal loaf cake. ? Will it be ok?
Charlotte Oates says
I would not recommend using oil instead of butter in this recipe as I have not tested in and cannot guarantee the results. I would expect it to not work as the butter is not melted in this recipe. You certainly do not need to add the frosting. You can try the sponge in a loaf tin but the cooking time and temperature will need to be adjusted – again I cannot advise on the result as I have not tested this version of the recipe.
penelope says
the cake is so perfect for me except it’s crumbly. probs my mistake that i mixed for too long still, i rate this 5 stars, its soo good<3333
*also i separated butter and sugar, beat till fluffy and i ADD condensed milk and it change the game completely (definitely worth trying) -110 g sugar, 120 condensed milk.
Lee says
I was a bit afraid of the cake being dry, but the sponge turned out super moist and yummy on my first try! I still have to work on my buttercream making skills though, sadly it turned out very gritty 🙁 My husband ate it and said it was delicios anyway, but I still think I can improve 😀 Maybe will try it with a different icing.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Alicia says
Any way to make the frosting without butter?
Charlotte Oates says
I have a vegan recipe forVegan Vanilla Buttercream and Dairy-Free Chocolate Buttercream which you could adapt to be coffee flavoured. Neither of these recipes use butter. I hope that helps.
Cat says
Made this for a family member’s birthday and everyone loved it.
Christine says
Lovely cake moist fluffy will make it again and again
Maha says
Can I brown the butter in cake recipe ,because I heard by browning of butter it gives intense flavour
Charlotte Oates says
I haven’t tested it so I can’t be 100% sure of the results, but I would expect it should work OK.
Nici says
I made this for my sister’s birthday as coffee cake is her favourite. She likes her coffee cake to taste strongly of coffee and this cake fulfilled the brief.
My tins were smaller than the main recipe but there was a handy calculator included. You just put in the size you’re using, and whether the tins are square or round, and you get an ingredients list for that size.
For reference, I used golden caster sugar instead of soft brown as that’s all I had. I also used large eggs so left out the milk. Additionally, I used self-raising sponge flour, following the instructions in the recipe for using it instead of plain.
This is the simplest cake I’ve ever made and everything blended together really quickly and easily.
It cooked beautifully in 30 minutes and everyone said it tasted delicious. I will definitely make this again.
Z says
Does this call for unsalted or regular (salted) butter?
Charlotte Oates says
I recommend unsalted butter for baking unless otherwise specified.
Emily says
Very clear instructions and very easy to make. I thought the quantities were just right and I’m very happy with the result – thank you!
Catherine says
This recipe is brilliant – I always use it when baking a coffee cake for my Coffee Shop, and people always rave about it! Couldn’t recommend a better recipe.
SUZANNE JOLLY says
I have just made your simple coffee cake and i am well pleased, its delicious, I followed your every word and it turned out perfect. Thank you from your new follower Suzanne.
Philippa says
Sadly very dry cake , not the best recipe to use. I made based on reviews should have stuck with BBC food rarely go wrong
Charlotte Oates says
I’m sorry to hear that you found the cake dry. It may have needed a little less time in the oven.