Easy Coffee and Walnut Cake

This easy coffee and walnut cake is a coffee lovers dream! It has four layers and is decorated with coffee buttercream and crushed walnuts.

About This Recipe

If you are a cake lover then you must try this recipe. This cake has sophisticated flavors and is a nice change from the usual sweet cakes like vanilla sponges and chocolate cake.

This cake can be served as afternoon tea or it can be made for birthdays! You can decorate this cake however you like. I chose to go for coffee buttercream and walnuts because the flavors go really well together. However, if you prefer less cream don’t cover the whole cake, add buttercream between each cake layer instead.

Coffee and Walnut Cake Ingredients

• Unsalted butter – Use room temperature unsalted butter.
• Brown Sugar – Brown sugar adds a sweet, nutty, caramel flavour to this cake. You can use white sugar instead but I prefer brown sugar.
• Eggs – Use room temperature eggs for this recipe.
• Self-raising flour – Make sure you sift self-raising flour before mixing.
• Baking powder – Baking powder should also be sifted before mixing.
• Instant coffee – Use any instant coffee for this recipe.
• Milk – Make sure milk is room temperature.

Coffee Buttercream Ingredients

• Unsalted butter – Must be room temperature.
• Icing sugar – Sieve icing sugar.
• Instant coffee – Use any instant coffee.
• Hot water – Is used to dissolve the coffee.
• Walnuts – Use fresh walnuts for this recipe.

How to Make Coffee and Walnut Cake

1. Preheat oven to 160C fan/180C/325F/Gas 3. Grease two non-stick, 7 inch cake tins and set aside.
2. Add self-raising flour, baking powder and instant coffee to a medium bowl and mix until well combined.
3. Next, add unsalted butter and brown sugar to a large bowl. Then, whisk for 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour one egg into the bowl and whisk until it disappears. Repeat this step for the remaining eggs.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients into the egg mix and pour in a splash of milk and mix for a minute. Repeat this step for the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
6. Pour cake batter into the greased tins and bake for 25 minutes or until done. Remove cakes from tins and leave to cool upside down.

NB: Do not over mix the cake batter because it will make the cake tough.

How to Make Coffee Buttercream

1. Whisk unsalted butter in a large bowl for 1 minute.
2. Add half of the sifted icing sugar to the butter and whisk for 3 minutes. Then, add the remaining icing sugar and whisk for another 3 minutes.
3. Next, add the instant coffee and hot water and mix for 2-3 more minutes.

HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE EASY COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE

1. Add coffee buttercream to a piping bag and set aside.
2. Smooth 1 tbsp of buttercream in the center of a cake board. Add the first cake layer to the board and add buttercream. Repeat this step for every layer until the cake is fully assembled.
3. Then, frost the entire cake with coffee buttercream.
4. Finally, add crushed walnuts to the body and top of the cake. Add swirls to the rim and top with walnuts (as pictured).

Top Tips

• Make sure unsalted butter, eggs and milk are at room temperature before mixing! This ensures that the ingredients mix together properly.
• Sieve dry ingredients before baking to make sure the ingredients mix together evenly.
• Use a large spoon to mix the cake batter after adding the dry ingredients. This will make the cake fluffy and prevent over mixing.
• Make sure the cake is fully cool before you start decorating. If the cake is not cool then the buttercream will melt when you apply it to the cake (nightmare).

WHAT I USED TO THE MAKE EASY COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE

• Piping bags
• 7” Cake tin
• Cake board
• Cake turntable
• Water bottle for syrup
• Cake smoother

Related Posts

• How to Make Ferrero Rocher Cake from Scratch
• Coconut Raffaello Malibu Rum Cake
• Pistachio Vanilla Cake From Curlys Cooking

Thanks for reading this recipe, comment below if you made this and let me know how it went! Follow @simshomekitchen on Instagram, take a photo, tag and hashtag it with @simshomekitchen. 

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Easy Coffee and Walnut Cake

Jen Sim

This easy coffee and walnut cake is a coffee lovers dream! Decorate with coffee buttercream and crushed walnuts for an extra crunch.

5 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cake, coffee, walnuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Servings: 12 people

Author: Jen Sim

Equipment

• ▢
  Hand or stand mix

Ingredients

Coffee Cake

• ▢ 360 g self raising flour
• ▢ 360 g unsalted butter
• ▢ 360 g brown sugar
• ▢ 350 g eggs
• ▢ 3 1/2 tbsp of ground instant coffee
• ▢ 3 tsp of baking powder
• ▢ 1-2 tbsp of milk

Coffee Buttercream

• ▢ 300 g unsalted butter
• ▢ 475 g of icing sugar
• ▢ 2-4 tbsp of instant coffee depending on how strong you want the coffee flavour to be
• ▢ 1 tbsp of hot water to dissolve the instant coffee
• ▢ 300 g walnuts crushed

Instructions

How to Make Coffee and Walnut Cake

• Preheat oven to 160C fan/180C/325F/Gas 3. Grease two non-stick, 7 inch cake tins and set aside.
• Add self-raising flour, baking powder and instant coffee to a medium bowl and mix until well combined.
• Next, add unsalted butter and brown sugar to a large bowl. Then, whisk for 3-5 minutes.
• Pour one egg into the bowl and whisk until it disappears. Repeat this step for the remaining eggs.
• Add half of the dry ingredients into the egg mix and pour in a splash of milk and mix for a minute. Repeat this step for the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
• Pour cake batter into the greased tins and bake for 25 minutes or until done. Remove cakes from tins and leave to cool upside down.

How to Make Coffee Buttercream

• Whisk unsalted butter in a large bowl for 1 minute.
• Add half of the sifted icing sugar to the butter and whisk for 3 minutes.
• Then, add the remaining icing sugar and whisk for another 3 minutes. Next, add the instant coffee and whisk for 2-3 more minutes.
• Decorate cake with buttercream and walnuts.

Notes

• Make sure unsalted butter, eggs and milk are at room temperature before mixing! This ensures that the ingredients mix together properly.
• Sieve dry ingredients before baking to make sure the ingredients mix together evenly.
• Use a large spoon to mix the cake batter after adding the dry ingredients. This will make the cake fluffy and prevent over mixing.
• Make sure the cake is fully cool before you start decorating. If the cake is not cool then the buttercream will melt when you apply it to the cake (nightmare).