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
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…
- 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.
Ian says
Hi Charlotte…
Wondering if you could give me some advice…
I followed the recipe but the cake layers really didn’t rise much at all and I’m just not sure where it went wrong.
Any pointers would be really appreciated.
Thanks a mill.
(I’ve tried a couple of your other recipe’s and they’re great, really easy to follow…so thanks a mill!!)
Charlotte Oates says
These layers aren’t designed to rise as much as my other cakes as I wanted a three layer cake with the height of a two-layer cake. If you want thicker layers then try splitting the mixture between two sandwich tins and increase the cooking time to 30-35 minutes.
Rosie says
Hi Charlotte! Sorry if I’m being silly but is the butter unsalted or regular butter?
Thank you x
Charlotte Oates says
Unsalted
Julian says
Hi Charlotte, thank you for the recipe, it looks amazing! I’m going to attempt it soon, do you think it would bake ok in an 8 inch square tin? If so what would you recommend multiplying the ingredients by and oven time etc?
Charlotte Oates says
You’ll need to increase the ingredients by 50%.
I wouldn’t bake in one deep square tin (as you may find it sinks – some people have no problem, others it can happen, I think it’s mostly down to the style of oven or type of tin used). You could split into two square tins. If you do this then I’d increase the oven time to 30-35 minutes.
Julian Mullis says
Thank you very much for the help, the cake turned out amazing! Looking forward to trying out more of your recipes!
Jess Clynewood says
Hi,
I only have 23cm tins – so to make this recipe in two 23cm tins, would I double it?
Thanks,
Jess
Charlotte Oates says
It doesn’t need to be quite doubled. You’ll need 2/3 more ingredients.
Bridie Woodbridge says
Really good! quite a bit of leftover icing but i suppose that depends on your preferences
Jananey says
Hi Charlotte, thank you for sharing this simple yet amazing Recipe. Made it today for a friend’s birthday and everyone loved it. But I felt the cake was dry so I used simple syrup. When we eventually had the cake it was fine but yet the edges were a bit dry. Two things I did differently;
1) Used Dark Brown Sugar – used same qty.
2) Used 2x20cm pans
3) Baked for about 20min
Which of the above do you think would have caused the dryness?
I would appreciate your guidance as I’m an amateur home baker and would love to learn more.Thanks again..much love..
Charlotte Oates says
It’s difficult to say as I’ve never tried that exact combination. However, I suspect it could be using the larger tin as this gave the cake a larger surface area and may have made it dry out more quickly. In future, if you want to use 2x20cm tins, I’d increase the quantities by 1/3 (so add an additional egg and increase all of the other ingredients relatively) and then bake for 30ish minutes. This will give you 2 deeper sponger that will hopefully hold their moisture a bit better. It may also be that your oven cooks slightly on the hotter side, so maybe check them a little earlier.
Leah says
Hi Charlotte
Iv made this cake using this recipe before and it was lovely. I’m just wondering if I wanted to make the layers thicker can I just double the recipe thank you.
Charlotte Oates says
For thicker layers I’d use the same amount if mixture, but split between two tins (so if you want three deeper layers, increase the quantities by 50%). You’ll need to increase the cooking time to 30-35 minutes.
Catherine says
Loved this cake and will be making again very soon as coffee and walnut cake is a staple tea time treat here in the UK ;-). Was initially worried that the weight of main ingredients wouldn’t be enough for the 2 x larger tins I used but I needn’t have been concerned as the cake did rise beautifully for an ‘all-in-one’ recipe. I will add that I used strongly brewed real coffee in mine and probably didn’t make quite make so much of the buttercream. Really lovely cake.
lucy says
Hi Charlotte,
I want to give this recipe a try for the weekend but only have 20 cm tins. Would 2 x 20 cm tins work for this recipe they would just be thicker layers?
Thanks
Charlotte Oates says
If you want to use 20cm tins you’ll need to increase the ingredient quantities. I would suggest increasing everything by 1/3 (so you use 4 eggs instead of 3).
It’s fine to bake it in 2 tins, just increase the cooking time to 30-35 minutes.
Ali G says
One of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten- and endorsed my my Stepson!
Kanwal bano says
Had very good experience with this cake
Tess says
A brilliant easy to follow recipe, that I have made countless times and it never lets me down.
Joyce says
Hello! I love coffee & walnuts & this recipe looks amazing 🙂 I would love to try & make it for my birthday coming up. How would I adjust the cooking time If I want to make this into cupcakes instead?
Charlotte Oates says
Have a look at my recipe for coffee cupcakes and use the cooking time from there (they’re based on the same basic recipe).
Coffee Cupcakes
Clare says
I made this cake as a treat for work. I work in the hospital and it went down fantastic (during this pandemic) such great comments from the staff and doctors. Thank you your recipes are brilliant!
karen keightley says
Hi Charlotte
I always make your cakes they are perfect every time thankyou but everytime I try to make the buttercream fillings they are far to runny I’ve tried using less butter it looked ok but then all ran out of the cake today I had another go at the coffee one so disappointed can you help regards karen
Charlotte Oates says
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cake, but I’m sorry to hear that the icing isn’t turning out as expected. It sounds as though either:
* Your butter was too soft when you made the buttercream.
* You’ve added too much liquid, either coffee or additional milk for consistency.
* The coffee was hot when you added it, so softened the butter leaving runny buttercream.
* You added too much coffee in one go so it didn’t combine with the butter properly.
I’d recommend you take a look at the video on my coffee buttercream post. Hopefully this will show you the consistency as you go and might help you spot where it could have gone wrong.
Rebecca says
I used the right sized tins and this was nowhere near enough mixture for 3 layers! One didn’t even reach the edge of the tin after it came out of the oven!
Charlotte Oates says
I’m sorry to hear that the cake didn’t turn out as expected. Did you smooth the mixture in the tins before baking (so that it was in an even layer)? The layers are designed to be thinner than a standard cake (as I wanted 3 layers, but only the height of a 2-layer cake).
Danielle says
Looks wonderful can’t wait to try this recipe!!
Can I ask, does the cake mix need to be distributed into 3 cake tins as I have 2*9 inch cake tins and would rather stick to that.
I would happily get another cake tin if it does change the consistency though.
Charlotte Oates says
You can use 2 tins instead of 3 (I quite often make this cake that way). However, if you want to use 9″ tins then I’d recommend increasing the amount of mixture otherwise your finished sponge will be very short. I’d increase the ingredients by 2/3 and as you’re using more mixture in each tin that I do in the original recipe (by baking 3 thinner cakes as 2) I’d increase the cooking time to c. 30 minutes.
Vida Djuric says
Lovely, moist cake, taste the coffee and walnuts.
Need to double up ingredients, as I used 9in tins, 2 off, so not much cake, figured, after already starting, but was in a rush, so did not check out properly.
Nevertheless, lovely cake.
Tania says
Hi, I couldn’t get coffee powder, can I use coffee essence instead? If so, how much? Thanks!
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not tested this cake with coffee essence so I’m not sure how well it would work – sorry.
Sandra says
Amazing recipe! I divided all the amounts by 3 as it’s still lockdown here (UK) and I live on my own ahah! Used a 11cm tin, baked in one go for 35-40min at 140 fan and it turned out great.
Very tasty, will do again!