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
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.
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
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Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
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Line 3x18cm round sandwich tins (I use these liners).
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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).
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Divide the mixture equally between the three tins.
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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
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Mix the instant coffee granules (3 tbsp) with the boiling water (1½ tbsp) and then set aside to cool.
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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.
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Add the vanilla extract (¼tsp) and add the coffee a teaspoon at a time, beating in each addition before adding more.
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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
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Place the bottom layer of your cake onto your chosen dish. Cover with ⅓ of your buttercream. Sprinkle over half of the chopped walnuts.
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Place another layer on top and repeat the last step.
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Place the final layer on top. Decorate with the remaining buttercream and then finish with the walnut halves.
Recipe 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.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.
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.
The cake – more like glorified pancake topped with sugar – was quite disappointing. The cake barely rose and was extremely greasy and the icing was incredibly sweet. I followed the recipe to the T and it did not turn out how I had expected.
Hi Sam,
I’m sorry to hear that the cake didn’t work out for you. The layers are designed to be thinner than normal (two layers split into three) but it sounds as though yours didn’t rise at all. How old was your flour? It can be that the raising agents in older flour lose their power over time which may explain this. Can I also check whether you used grams or cups measurements? I originally made the cake in grams and then used a converter for the cups so it may be that they’re a little off. If it was cups then I’ll review the conversions to ensure they’re accurate.
I think sweetness of icing is definitely down to person preference. If in future you find it a little too sweet then you can beat in more butter which will help to offset the sweetness. This buttercream is made using a ratio of 2:1 sugar to butter which is quite standard for buttercream, but it would work with 1:1.
So….I made this cake yesterday and from the snount of ingredients listed, I was just about to make 1 layer of 9 in cake! I had to bake another one very quickly to make a second layer. You do need to double it up if you want 2 layers of 9 in. I also don’t see these proportions making 3 layers of an 8 in cake. No way! But otherwise very flavoursome and nice cake. Just double or triple everything for the cake mix and it will be fine.
Hi Maria, the recipe is for a 18cm/7″ cake so I’m not too surprised that the ingredients would only make one layer of the 9″ as it’s a lot bigger. I’m glad to hear that you had time to whip up another layer to go on top 🙂 If you ever need to know the ingredients for a different size of tin from the one listed in the recipe then drop me an email or comment and I’d be happy to work them all out for you. The layer are designed to be quite thin as you can see in the pictures. The amount of mixture is what I’d usually use to make two layers for most cakes but I wanted three for this as I liked the look of it but I didn’t want the cake to be taller than a two layer so made them all that bit thinner and reduced the cooking time. Some people would probably prefer their cake a bit thicker in which cake they’d need to up the ingredients a bit. Again, I’d be more than happy to work out how much for anyone that wanted that.
Hi Charlotte, if I used the plain (non self-raising) flour what amount should I use and what amount of baking powder or baking soda and which of these two would be preferable?
Thanking you in advance.
Maria
I haven’t tried it but Nigella says you can make self-raising flour by using 2 tsp baking powder and 150g of plain flour.
Thanks Charlotte!
Would this work in a deep 20cm tin or would I best to stick with just 2 layers? Thanks.
Yes, it should work fine. It’ll take 45-50 minutes to cook.
Delicious! This cake is absolutely amazing! Love espresso and walnuts cake. Did you try this cake with almonds or peanuts? Or which one would be more perfect?
I’ve only tried it with walnuts as I wanted to stick to the original classic combination. I’m sure it would work well with the other too though.
Would caster sugar be an ok alternative to LB sugar. Thanks x
I prefer the flavour with LB sugar as it add a slight caramel hint to the cake but the recipe will work absolutely fine with caster.
My daughter made me this cake for mother’s day today and we’ve just finished it all off. I never normally write reviews but had to as it was divine. I absolutely love coffee cake and regularly have it when I’m in cafes but I can honestly say I’ve never had one that tastes as good as this one. I will be getting my daughter to make me it again for my birthday in June. Great recipe.
Thanks Jean, I’m glad you enjoyed it. Have a lovely birthday in June!
Hi Charlotte- did you use large or medium eggs? The cake looks lovely! Thank you Paula
Medium
Thank you!
Can you make this cake the day before?
Yes, simply store it in an airtight container overnight (preferably in the fridge if you can, but don’t worry if you haven’t got space).
This cake is absolutely amazing! Love espresso and walnuts cake. Did you try this cake with almonds or peanuts?
I haven’t as I wanted to stick to the classic coffee and walnut combination. I’m sure it would work well with either almonds or peanuts though.
I’m going to make this for Thanksgiving. Think I’ll add a little cinnamon to the cake and add a little maple and cinnamon to the frosting. Do you think that would flavor up fine with this cake?
I’ve not tried adding cinnamon but I would imagine it will work well as it goes well with both coffee and walnuts. Take care if you’re adding maple syrup to the buttercream as it’s quite runny and you need to ensure you keep it quite a firm, smooth in order to use it on the cake. Add it only a tsp at a time and beat it in throughly before adding more. It will make the buttercream sweeter so you may want to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe slightly.
Can powdered espresso be used or would it be too strong?
It should be fine.