My recipe for a classic Coffee & Walnut Cake. Three layers of delicious coffee sponge packed full of chopped walnuts and topped with smooth coffee buttercream.
This Friday is the Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and I thought I’d share with you what I’m going to be making to take along to the one at my boys’ school. It’s my version of a classic coffee & walnut cake.
As you may have realised, I’m a bit of a fan of cake. However, there’s one cake I love above all others and that is coffee & walnut. If I spot it in a café then I really struggle to resist buying a slice to have with a pot of tea (as a side note shouldn’t all tea in cafés come in a pot? It’s just not the same having just one cup). For me a good coffee and walnut cake should have a really good coffee flavour and lots of walnuts running all the way through and that’s what I’ve made here.
I’ve bowed to Pinterest peer pressure and made my cake with three layers (you can never find simple 2-layer cakes on there). I think this particular cake works well with three layers as it means you can have extra buttercream, but if you’ve only got two tins I’ve added some extra notes below the recipe to adapt it. I also got a bit carried away with my piping bag to make it look pretty. If you’re not a fan of piping then just slather it on with a knife, it’ll still taste amazing 🙂
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Coffee & Walnut Cake
INGREDIENTS
For the coffee & walnut sponge
- 10 g 2 tbsp coffee powder - (or instant coffee granules ground in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar)
- 150 g self-raising flour
- 165 g soft light brown sugar
- 165 g soft margarine - or butter
- 3 medium eggs
- 1½ tsp milk
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 75 g chopped walnuts
For the coffee buttercream
- 250 g softened butter
- 500 g icing sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp instant coffee granules
- 1½ tbsp boiling water
To decorate
- 25 g chopped walnuts
- A handful of walnut halves
INSTRUCTIONS
Make the coffee & walnut sponge
- Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
- Line 3x18cm round sandwich tins (I use these liners).
- Sift the self-raising flour (150g), coffee powder (10g) into a large bowl and salt (⅛ tsp). Add the remaining ingredients (3 medium eggs, 165g soft margarine, 165g soft light brown sugar and 1½ tsp milk) and mix until fully combined (either by hand or using an electric mixer on a low speed). Fold in the chopped walnuts (75g).
- Divide the mixture equally between the three tins.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for about 10 minutes, then remove them from their tins and move them to a wire rack to cool fully before decorating.
Make the coffee buttercream
- Mix the instant coffee granules (3 tbsp) with the boiling water (1½ tbsp) and then set aside to cool.
- Cut the butter (250g) into cubes and then beat on a low-medium speed until soft. Gradually add the icing sugar (you add it gradually to stop it flying everywhere) and beat until fully combined.
- Add the vanilla extract (¼tsp) and add the coffee a teaspoon at a time, beating in each addition before adding more.
- Check the consistency of your buttercream. It should be soft and perfect for piping at this point. If it’s still a little stiff then beat in a little milk.
Decorate
- Place the bottom layer of your cake onto your chosen dish. Cover with ⅓ of your buttercream. Sprinkle over half of the chopped walnuts.
- Place another layer on top and repeat the last step.
- Place the final layer on top. Decorate with the remaining buttercream and then finish with the walnut halves.
NOTES
- I've decorated my cakes by piping buttercream roses and then filling any gaps around the edge with a little extra squirt of buttercream. I used a JEM 1B nozzle.
- If you'd prefer to make this as a 2-layer cake then the only change you'll need is to increase the cooking time to 30-35 minutes. You'll also need ⅔ of the buttercream (or you could use the extra buttercream to make a thin coating around the outside of the cake.
- If you'd like to bake the cake in one deep tin and then slice it up into layers, you'll need to increase the cooking time to 45-50 minutes.
- The undecorated cakes are suitable for freezing. Simply wrap them tightly in clingfilm and pop them into the freezer. Defrost them thoroughly before decorating.
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Soy-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are easily available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
Donna says
7 May 2019 at 6:58 pmThis is one of the best cakes I have made. I found the ingredients ample to make a 2 tiered cake and adjusted the icing to suit. The cake was easy to make and had a lovely consistency.
Poppy One says
20 March 2019 at 12:58 pmI followed this recipe very carefully but ended up with 3 soft round flat ‘cookies’. The quantities are not sufficient for a 3 layer cake baked in 18cm tins. You need to double it.
Wasted a lot of time and ingredients, then had to go and buy a cake.
Charlotte Oates says
20 March 2019 at 3:38 pmI’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you. The layers are designed to be thinner than a regular cake (it’s basically enough mixture for a 2-layer cake, split between 3-layers). You could try splitting the mixture into two if you want deeper layers. You’d need to bake the cake for 30-35 minutes to ensure it’s cooked through.
Gabriela says
29 March 2019 at 7:16 pmI read this and made it into a 2 layer cake. The height of the sponges is hilarious. Probably about 1cm high. This is the shortest cake I ever made. Should have done twice the ingredients in 2 layers… I don’t get it.
Mita says
22 February 2019 at 9:07 amHi, could I know if I can just use all purpose flour instead of self-raising? Thanks!
Charlotte Oates says
23 February 2019 at 10:12 amYou can but you’ll need to use additional baking powder to ensure it rises properly.
Replace the self-raising flour with 150g all prupose flour and 1 7/8 tsp baking powder (1 tsp + 1/2 tsp + 1/4 tsp + 1/8 tsp)
Emily says
6 December 2018 at 1:58 pmThank you very much!
Emily says
3 December 2018 at 9:46 pmHi just wondering what the recipe would be for three 21cm round tins. Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
5 December 2018 at 11:53 amIf you want to have three thin layers like those shown then you need to increase the ingredients by 1/3, so…
13g 2 tbsp + 2 tsp coffee powder – (or instant coffee granules ground in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar)
200 g self-raising flour
220 g soft light brown sugar
220 g soft margarine – or butter
4 medium eggs
2 tsp milk
⅛ tsp salt
100 g chopped walnuts
For the coffee buttercream
335 g softened butter
665 g icing sugar
¼ tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp instant coffee granules
2 tbsp boiling water
If you would like three deeper layers (more of the depth of a standard sandwich cake layer) then you need to double the ingredients for the cake and use the ingredients listed above for the buttercream.