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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
Kavya says
Can I use whipping cream, coffee powder and vanilla essence to make the cream instead of butter and icing sugar.
Charlotte Oates says
You can. I’d use 1 tsp of coffee powder/granules per 240ml of cream. Don’t worry that the granules/powder is speckle in the cream, it’ll dissolve as you whip it.
You may find the flavour of the cream is a little bitter once you’ve added the coffee. Personally I would add a little icing sugar too to sweeten it a little.
Emily says
Awaiting taste test but looks good so far! Can. I split the mixture into cupcakes/ muffin cases and just Cooke in less time?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes. It’ll split into 16 cupcakes which will need approx. 20 minutes in the oven.
Emily says
Taste test: my boys loved it! Best one so far! Thank you xx
Stella says
Thanks for replying! One more thing – noticed you didn’t mention salted or unsalted butter, could you clarify? I’m making this tomorrow!
Charlotte Oates says
I usually use unsalted.
Stella says
Hey there!
I would like to bake two layers but I have only one tin.
Do I have to keep the batter in the fridge while baking the first layer?
Or would it be fine to leave the batter at room temperature for the time the first layer is baking?
Thank you 🙂
Charlotte Oates says
For best results you’re best making two batters, one for the first layer and one for the second. It’ll be just as fine left at room temperature as in the fridge, but you may find that by leaving it sitting the rise on the second cake isn’t as good.
Rachel Wood says
According to my husband, who’s a coffee cake ‘expert’, it’s the best he’s ever tasted. That’s as good as a Paul Hollywood handshake to me !!
Easy to follow & delicious. I’ll be checking out more of your recipes now Charlotte, thank you.
Tom says
I love this recipe, made it half a dozen times now, i make it in one 20cm tin , 150°C for 50 to 60mins, has never failed yet, tastes amazing & gets better after a couple of days if it lasts that long.
Have made the chocolate cake to, equally amazing cake. Thanks for the great recipes.
Corina Loe says
Lovely cake. I am not a baker and cake came out perfectly. It was for my husband’s birthday and he said it’s the best cake he has ever had. Thanks !!!
Sarah Curran says
Delicious cake, made a practice one before trying for a birthday cake! It’s delicious and I think perfect coffee flavour wise. However my partner thought while very tasty, the sponge was a bit too coffee flavoured. Can I reduce the amount of coffee spoons in the cake without ruining the measurements/the way the cake turns out?
Charlotte Oates says
You can, but you’ll need to substitute the weight of coffee you removed with additional flour.
Mrs. Maggie McCaig says
Lovely cake , followed recipe to the letter. But I baked it at 160 for 22 mins. Perfect.
Jo says
I followed the recipe to the letter and I’ve never had a cake explode in the oven before until now!
Charlotte Oates says
Wow! I’m very sorry to hear that happened. In all my years of baking I’ve also never had a cake explode in the oven so I’m not really too sure what could have happened.
How did you measure the baking powder? (It should be measured using a measuring teaspoon rather than a regular teaspoon and the teaspoon should be level). If you added too much then that may cause what you’ve described, aside from that I really cannot think would the problem could be.
Amanda says
Not sure what I did wrong
The outside is little over baked (not burned, just more of the crispy side) and the middle was under-cooked so I had to re-bake them (sliced them to avoid over baking the whole cake)
It’s edible but I wish the coffee taste was stronger
I’m going to try again with the buttercream next time
Charlotte Oates says
Hmmm, this is a bit of a mystery. I’m really surprised the cake lacked flavour as I specifically designed it to have a strong coffee flavour as I find so many other coffee cakes out there are a bit lacking.
Did you bake the cake in sandwich tins, or in one deep tin? Using one deep tin could explain why the cake was overdone on the edges and underdone in the middle. If the edges were overbaked then this could make them dry which I find can lead to a cake having less flavour.
Madeline says
Hey is there any alternative to icing sugar. Im trying to make this cake with the ingredients i have at home so can i use raw sugar or caster sugar instead of icing sugar?
Thanks
Btw the recepie looks so simple and easy thanks for sharjng it.
Charlotte Oates says
You can use caster sugar for the coffee sponge, but you really do need icing sugar for the icing as any other sugar will be grainy and not smooth. If you don’t have any icing sugar then this cake would also be good with some whipped cream.
Amy says
Delicious. Everyone loved it!!
carol mcintosh says
I have just made this cake but it’s sunk in the middle.. Any idea what iv done wrong??
Charlotte Oates says
The most likely reason is too much baking powder. You need to use a measuring teaspoon and make sure the BP is level.
Did you bake it in sandwich tins or a deep tin? I would always recommend using sandwich tins as people can get mixed results using a deep tin.
Another possibility is that your oven temperature was too low so it didn’t cook through before checking.
Jimmly says
Because of the Covid-19 lockdown, looking for simple cake and came across this recipe. Loved it! Simple and loaded with the coffee flavor.
Katie says
I dont have any plain flour. Can i use self raising flour instead?
Charlotte Oates says
Absolutely. Instead of the 200g of plain flour and 2½ tsp of baking powder listed in the recipe, use 210g of self-raising flour.
Nandini says
Hi! I baked a smallish cake today…for my boy who turned 10 today. It had to be a celebration under the Covid-19 lockdown and I was looking for a cake wih ingredients that I had at home. It turned out perfect! Thanks for the size calibration…that allows you to readjust ingredients as per the size you want to bake.
Sue says
Can I add walnuts to this coffee cake ? And how many grams please ?
Charlotte Oates says
You can. I’d add about 100g of chopped walnuts.
Becky says
Oh my this is by far the best coffee cake I have ever made and eaten, I nearly ate it all its very moreish and I’ve had to pass the recipe on to my mother in law 🙂
Jo says
Can dairy free milk be used, ie oat or soya?
Charlotte Oates says
Yes
Tracey Albert says
Hi Charlotte, Thank you for guiding me to your coffee cake recipe. I have baked it this afternoon, it looks and smells so good, i’m looking forward to trying it later, i must confess i have already tried the coffee buttercream and it tasted delicious. I would also like to thank you for re-awakening my desire for baking.
Shirley George says
Hi Charlotte,
Thank you so much for the recipe. I baked it today as a test bake and I love the flavour. The coffee flavour is still lingering in my mouth . I didn’t make the buttercream though. Just wondering how can I make the cake more moist? Should I add more milk, sour cream or buttermilk? If yes, how much would you add to the above recipe please? Thanking you in advance from sunny island Singapore ☺️
Shirl
Charlotte Oates says
I wouldn’t add more milk as I find that makes the cake more laggy rather than moist. I’d recommend trying it with the buttercream before changing the actual bake as that will add to the moistness of the overall taste of the cake.