This easy coffee and walnut cake is a coffee lovers dream! It has four layers and is decorated with coffee buttercream and crushed walnuts.
Table of Contents
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
- 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.
NB: Do not over mix the cake batter because it will make the cake tough.
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 hot water and mix for 2-3 more minutes.
HOW TO ASSEMBLE THE EASY COFFEE AND WALNUT CAKE
- Add coffee buttercream to a piping bag and set aside.
- 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.
- Then, frost the entire cake with coffee buttercream.
- 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
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Easy Coffee and Walnut Cake
This easy coffee and walnut cake is a coffee lovers dream! Decorate with coffee buttercream and crushed walnuts for an extra crunch.
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Servings: 12 people
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).
This was so good! I loved the crunch of the walnuts, and my kids loved it too! The cake looked exactly like the photos!
Delicious and flavorful Butter Cream. Cant wait to try this recipe for the weekend treat. Family to love this delicious Coffee and walnut combination cake.
Coffee and walnut make a perfect duet! And that coffee buttercream sounds delicious
I love this, walnut is usually my nut of choice, I really like the flavor and of course very nutritious. The flavors of this cake are really well balanced and the crumb moist, just the way I like it.
Each layer of this cake look moist and like the perfect texture. The walnuts on top are also a great touch and really tie everything together.
Instant coffee is my secret weapon when it comes to baking! Loving these flavour combos and that icing looks so light and fluffy. I’m a huge fan of walnuts, and paired with coffee, you can’t go wrong.