A slice of classic coffee and walnut layer cake covered with a layer of creamy buttercream frosting is the perfect tea-time treat. This easy recipe was passed down to me by my Granny, and I’m sharing it today so you can try it too.
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My favourite cake
When I was little, one of my favourite treats was to go shopping with my Granny on a Saturday morning because once her shopping was done she’d take me to the local tearoom for a slice of cake.
I loved going to the cake shop and standing in front of the glass-fronted display trying to decide which cake to have. There were so many to choose from. Slices of chocolate cake, Victoria sponge cake filled with jam and cream, juicy apple pies and my particular favourite, a slice of coffee and walnut cake covered with coffee buttercream.
I think my preference may have had something to do with the size of the cake. It towered above the other cakes on display, and quite filled my plate once it had been laid on its side. The crumb was soft and moist, with little bits of walnuts mixed through for extra texture and the cake was filled and covered with thick layers of creamy coffee flavoured buttercream. Each slice was topped with half a walnut which I always picked off and saved for last.
I’ve mentioned in other posts that my Granny was always baking in the kitchen – you can see an example in this post for her bacon and egg pie – so of course, I asked her to make a coffee and walnut cake at home. And being a Granny, she did as all good Grannies would do, and she got to work in the kitchen. This recipe is the result. I may have tweaked it slightly over the years, but it still remains my Granny’s coffee and walnut cake. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Recipe information
**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this coffee and walnut cake on the printable recipe card at the end of this post.**
- Prep time – 15 minutes
- Cooking time – 20 – 25 minutes
- Yield – 1 x 8″ 2-layer cake
- Calories – 591
- Main equipment – electric hand mixer. Of course, you can get away with using a wooden spoon and plenty of elbow grease, but an electric hand mixer takes all the hard work out of mixing the cake.
Ingredients
I’ve separated the ingredients into cake and frosting.
For the cake
Chopped walnuts – you will need some walnuts for the cake mixture and some for decoration. If you don’t have walnuts, you can substitute them for pecan nuts.
Self-raising flour – you can make your own self-raising flour by adding one teaspoon of baking powder to each cup of flour.
Brown sugar – this adds a lovely caramel flavour to the cake. You could use white caster sugar instead.
Eggs – the recipe calls for 4 medium-sized eggs, but you can use large eggs. If your eggs are on the small side then add an extra egg.
Butter – if you don’t have butter you can get away with using margarine. My Granny’s original recipe used margarine, but I’ve changed that out for butter. For easy mixing make sure your butter is at room temperature.
Instant coffee granules – these should be dissolved in boiling water
Baking powder – even though the recipe calls for self-raising flour, you will need an additional teaspoon of baking powder to help the cake reach great heights.
Salt – this is optional, but it does enhance the flavour of the cake.
For the coffee buttercream frosting
Icing sugar – this is also known as confectioner’s sugar or powdered sugar depending on where in the world you live.
Butter – I wouldn’t recommend substituying this for margarine. Butter provides a much better flavour and texture for the buttercream frosting.
Instant coffee granules – dissolved in boiling water.
Instructions
Mix the cake batter
- Dissolve the coffee granules in 1/4 cup of boiling water and set aside to cool.
- Chop the walnuts into small pieces. If you want to decorate the cake with whole walnut halves, remove about 16 halves and set them aside. If you want to decorate the cake with chopped walnuts, chop them all, then remove about 1/2 a cup of walnuts and set them aside.
- Measure the sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and mix either with an electric hand mixer or with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined. There should be no lumps of butter in the mix (image 1 above).
- Next, add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. The mixture will look as though it has curdled but don’t worry, this is perfectly normal and will right itself once the flour has been added (image 2 above).
- Add the flour, salt, baking powder and cooled coffee, and mix until there are no streaks of flour left (image 3 above).
- Finally, stir in the chopped walnuts (image 4 above). Don’t forget to save about half a cup of chopped walnuts for decorating the cake.
Prepare the cake pans and bake
- Brush 2 x 8″ (20cm) cake pans with sunflower oil.
- Take a square piece of baking parchment and fold it into half, then fold into quarters, and finally fold again into eighths.
- Measure the baking parchment from the centre of the baking pan to the edge and cut away any excess with a pair of scissors (image 1 above).
- Unfold the baking parchment and lay it onto the base of each baking pan (image 2 above).
- Divide the cake mixture evenly between the two cake pans.
- Bake in a preheated oven (180C / 360F) for 20 to 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and a wooden toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out cleanly. Remember not to open the oven for the first 20 minutes or you will run the risk of the cake sinking in the middle.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before covering with coffee buttercream frosting.
Mix the frosting
- Dissolve the coffee granules in 1 tablespoon of boiling water and allow to cool.
- Measure the icing sugar and butter into a bowl. If the butter is at room temperature it will be soft enough to mix easily (image 1 above).
- Mix the butter and icing sugar until it all comes together in a thick ball and all the icing sugar has been incorporated.
- Now add the dissolved coffee granules and mix through.
- Use half of the mixture to sandwich the two layers of cake together. I like to turn one cake upside down and use that as the bottom layer. That way, if your cake has risen to a point in the middle you will have a nice flat surface to spread the frosting on to.
- Spread the remaining coffee buttercream over the top and sprinkle with the chopped walnuts. If you prefer, you can decorate the coffee cake with walnut halves instead.
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Questions
The cake will be cooked when it is firm to the touch.
You can also test for doneness by inserting a wooden skewer or toothpick into the cake at various places. If the skewer comes out cleanly with no wet batter sticking to it, the cake is cooked.
Do remember not to open the oven door for the first 20 minutes or you will run the risk of the cake sinking in the middle.
Yes, you can bake this cake as a tray bake. You will need a 13″ x 9″ baking tray that is deep enough to hold all the batter. Line the tray with baking parchment to prevent sticking, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out cleanly.
You can also use this mixture to make individual coffee walnut cakes in a muffin tin. Grease the muffin tins with a little butter, or brush lightly with sunflower oil before spooning the mixture into the holes. You may find the muffins will need slightly less cooking time. Check for doneness after about 18 minutes.
If you bake your coffee cake in either of these ways you will find you have too much frosting because there are no layers, so you can just halve the quantities for the coffee buttercream.
Yes, this cake freezes very well. However, I would freeze the cake before adding the frosting.
Just wrap each layer of cooled cake in greaseproof paper or baking parchment and either cover with plastic wrap or place them into a large ziploc freezer bag. The cake can be frozen for up to 6 months.
To use, allow to defrost on the counter before frosting.
The cake will remain fresh for up to 4 days. I like to keep my cake covered in the refrigerator, especially in the summer months, so that the frosting stays firm.
Pin for later
If you like the look of this coffee and walnut cake why not pin to your Pinterest board so you can make it later? Just click on the image below.
Related recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe, you may like to try some of my other cakes:
- German bee sting cake
- Easy pineapple coconut cake
- Easy coconut pie
- Quick mix chocolate cake traybake
- Best ever carrot and walnut cake traybake
- Upside down cherry cake
The recipe
Coffee and walnut layer cake with coffee buttercream frosting
(Click the stars to rate this recipe)
Equipment
- Wooden spoon
Ingredients
Coffee and walnut cake
- 7 ounce (200g) butter room temperature
- ½ cup (100g) brown sugar (or 8 tablespoons)
- 4 medium eggs
- 1½ cups (200g) self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cups (100g) chopped walnuts
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules dissolved in 4 tablespoons boiling water
Coffee buttercream
- 2½ cups (300g) icing sugar (powdered sugar)
- ¾ cup (150g) butter room temperature
- 2 teaspoons instant coffee granules dissolved in 1 tablespoon boiling water
- ½ cup (40g) chopped walnuts
Instructions
Coffee and walnut cake
- Preheat oven to 180°C / 360°F
- Dissolve the coffee granules in 1/4 cup of boiling water and set aside to cool.
- Chop the walnuts into small pieces. If you want to decorate the cake with whole walnut halves, remove about 16 halves and set them aside. If you want to decorate the cake with chopped walnuts, chop them all, then remove about 1/2 a cup of walnuts and set them aside.
- Measure the sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and mix either with an electric hand mixer or with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined.
- Next, add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. The mixture will look as though it has curdled but don't worry, this is perfectly normal and will right itself once the flour has been added.
- Add the flour, salt, baking powder and cooled coffee mixture and mix until there are no streaks of flour left.
- Finally, stir in ¾ dups chopped walnuts.
- Brush 2 x 8" (20cm) cake pans with sunflower oil.
- Line the base of each pan with baking parchment.
- Divide the cake mixture evenly between the two cake pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes until the cakes are golden brown and firm to the touch. A toothpick or wooden skewer inserted into the cakes should come out cleanly.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before covering with the coffee buttercream.
Coffee buttercream
- Dissolve the coffee granules in 1 tablespoon of boiling water and allow it to cool.
- Measure the icing sugar and butter into a bowl. Mix the butter and icing sugar until it all comes together in a thick ball and all the icing sugar has been incorporated.
- Now add the dissolved coffee granules and mix through.
- Use half of the mixture to sandwich the two layers of cake together. Then spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sprinkle with the chopped walnuts.
Notes
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutrition information has been calculated using an on-line calculator, and is intended for information and guidance purposes only. If the nutrition information is important to you, you should consider calculating it yourself, using your preferred tool.
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I have linked this recipe to #CookBlogShare week 10 run by Sisley & Chloe which was hosted this week by yours truly.
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