Coffee and Walnut cake is truly a British classic, and one of my all-time favorite cakes. It is often found on dessert menus and afternoon tea trays in the UK. Make it in your own kitchen and bring a little taste of Britain to your home.
If you’ve been to the UK, hopefully you’ve tasted a coffee and walnut cake. There’s just something about these two flavors together that is so unique. It creates a flavor all its own, and it’s simply sublime.
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Coffee and Walnut Cake for Afternoon Tea
Whenever I get the chance, I order coffee and walnut cake when I’m in the UK, because it’s one of the things I miss most about living there. A famous British chef apparently claimed he would choose coffee and walnut cake as his last meal. Now that’s saying something! And of course it’s a cake Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would judge in the GBBO tent.
Many of you saw my Instagram story on my dad’s 84th birthday, and asked about his cake. I promised I’d post the recipe soon, so here it is–and here Dad is with his cake.
I attempted to do my research on the origin of this cake, but strangely, could find nothing. So sadly, there’s no credit to the original creator of this marvelous concoction, but I, for one, salute you (whoever you were!)
Are you a coffee-lover? How about making the original and authentic tiramisù recipe from Treviso!?
The Difference Between a British Coffee Cake and an American “Coffee Cake”
If you were to order or ask for a “coffee cake” in Britain, you’d probably be served a slice of this coffee and walnut cake, or a coffee-flavored cake. Whereas, in the US, you’d be served a cake which could have fruit in it, a streusel through it, or a crumble topping, but most likely, the only coffee involved would be the one you’d be drinking. (Click the following photo for the recipe.)
Baking a Coffee and Walnut Cake in Your Kitchen
There’s no reason you can’t taste this cake for yourself, even if you’ve never stepped foot on British soil. I’m here to bring you these wonderful recipes in a format where you can make them yourself (in the US without a scale, although I will continue to BEG you to buy one!) Your results will be so much better when it comes to baking.
Why not bake one and have your own afternoon tea? Many people think afternoon tea has to consist of finger sandwiches, scones and desserts, however, a cup of tea and slice of cake can fit the bill, too!
Although I credit BBC Food for this recipe, you should know that this cake is simply a twist on a Victoria sponge cake: added coffee and walnuts, and a coffee flavored buttercream, instead of a jam (and cream) filling.
NB: I don’t know if the quantity is off for the buttercream on the BBC recipe because I felt I needed a lot more to fill the cake and decorate the top (the rosettes do use a lot of icing.) Adjust the quantity to your liking. I also used real coffee and coffee powder for a stronger coffee flavor in the cake.
Coffee and Walnut Cake
slightly adapted from a BBC Food recipe serves 8 to 12
INGREDIENTS
For the cake
- 225g (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature (if using unsalted, add 1/4 tsp salt)
- 225g (1 cup) caster sugar
- 4 eggs, preferably organic, free range
- 30ml (2 Tbsp) strong espresso coffee
- 1/2 tsp espresso powder (I used a little mortar and pestle to make it super fine)
- 225g (2 cups) self-raising flour
- 50g (1/3 cup) finely chopped walnuts
For the buttercream
- 145g (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- pinch of salt
- 500g (4 1/2 cups) confectioner’s/powdered sugar
- about 75ml (about 4 Tbsp) strong espresso coffee
- 8 to 12 walnut halves for the top of the cake (pick the best ones)
Grease or spray 2, 8″ cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper, grease, and dust the entire pans with flour.
Make the Cakes
Preheat the oven to 350F (180C)
Using a stand mixer, hand mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add an egg to the butter and sugar mixture and blend thoroughly.
Add about a quarter of the flour and mix until cleared. Repeat with the remaining eggs and flour until the eggs and flour are used.
The cake mixture will be light and creamy.
Add the chopped nuts. Stir the espresso powder into the liquid espresso, then add to the mixture.
Blend well, then divide the cake mixture into the prepared 8″ cake tins.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cake will be a lovely golden brown color.
Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and place on cooling racks (remove the paper.)
Make the Buttercream
Blend all the ingredients for the buttercream together until you have a smooth and creamy frosting.
Decorate the Cake
If the cakes aren’t flat on top, cut them so that they are level (I like to use this super inexpensive tool.) Then either spread or pipe just under half of the frosting on one layer of the cake (the cut side.)
Place the second layer on top. Be sure to put the cut side down (so both cut sides are facing each other in the middle.) Spread the frosting on the top. This is a very rustic cake, so don’t worry if you don’t get it to look perfect.
Next, pipe rosettes on top of the cake (or you can place dollops of frosting) for 8, 10 or 12 walnut halves to sit on, depending on how many slices you want to have.
Lastly, add a walnut half to each rosette.
That’s it! You’ve just made a classic British coffee and walnut cake!
You can dig in, or put it in the fridge for a while which will set the buttercream and make slicing and serving a bit less messy.
Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee; it goes perfectly with both!
Coffee and Walnut Cake, a Classic British Cake for Afternoon Tea
A classic British afternoon tea cake with the flavors of coffee and walnut.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 225g (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature (if using unsalted, add 1/4 tsp salt)
- 225g (1 cup) sugar
- 4 eggs, preferably organic, free range
- 30ml (2 Tbsp) strong espresso coffee
- 1/2 tsp espresso powder (I used a little mortar and pestle to make it super fine)
- 225g (2 cups) self-raising flour
- 50g (1/3 cup) finely chopped walnuts
For the buttercream
- 145g (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- pinch of salt
- 500g (4 1/2 cups) confectioner's/powdered sugar
- about 75ml (about 4 Tbsp) strong espresso coffee
To decorate
- 8 to 12 walnut halves for the top of the cake (pick the best ones)
Instructions
Grease or spray 2 8" cake pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper, grease, and dust the entire pans with flour.
Make the Cakes
- Preheat the oven to 350F (180C)
- Using a stand mixer, hand mixer or by hand, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add an egg to the butter and sugar mixture and blend thoroughly.
- Add about a quarter of the flour and mix until cleared. Repeat with the remaining eggs and flour until the eggs and flour are used.
- The cake mixture will be light and creamy.
- Add the chopped nuts. Stir the espresso powder into the liquid espresso, then add to the mixture.
- Blend well, then divide the cake mixture into the prepared 8" cake tins.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cake will be a lovely golden brown color.
- Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then carefully remove and place on cooling racks (remove the paper.)
Make the Buttercream
- Blend all the ingredients for the buttercream together until you have a smooth and creamy frosting.
Decorate the Cake
- If the cakes aren't flat on top, cut them so that they are level (I like to use this super inexpensive tool.) Then either spread or pipe just under half of the frosting on one layer of the cake (the cut side.)
- Place the second layer on top. Be sure to put the cut side down (so both cut sides are facing each other in the middle.) Spread the frosting on the top. This is a very rustic cake, so don't worry if you don't get it to look perfect.
- Next, pipe rosettes on top of the cake (or you can place dollops of frosting) for 8, 10 or 12 walnut halves to sit on, depending on how many slices you want to have.
- Lastly, add a walnut half to each rosette. That's it! You've just made a classic British coffee and walnut cake!
Notes
Chill a little before serving for better slicing results.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 10 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 688Total Fat: 37gSaturated Fat: 20gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 154mgSodium: 309mgCarbohydrates: 90gFiber: 1gSugar: 69gProtein: 6g
All nutrition info is simply estimated.
An American “coffee cake”~ Quick Rhubarb Cake
Coffee cupcakes from a UK blogger ~ Coffee Cupcakes
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Hello! Just wondering what espresso powder is? Is that like instant coffee granules? Or ground coffee that you might use in a cafetiere/plunger? Just trying to work out what to use… very keen to get baking! :)
It’s strong coffee powder, so you get more of a coffee flavor. If you can’t find it just try what you have, and see how the flavor is and adjust for the next time. However, do NOT use ground coffee or you will be very unhappy! I added an affiliate link to show you an example of the product.
I made this cake for the first time and I shall be adding it to my recipe book, my family loved it and said it was the best Coffee and Walnut Cake I have ever made, I used Camp coffee essence instead, it was very moist
Happy to hear it, Julia! If you get a chance, if you can click on the 5 stars in the recipe card, I’d really appreciate it!! Thank you!
[…] 19. Coffee and Walnut Cake […]
Just made this cake for the first time and it won’t be the last! It is delicious. I followed the recipe, weighed the ingredients and it came out perfect.
Love to hear it, thank you, Kate!
I thought this recipe was a little strange, I feel like it was lacking a lot of ingredients (vanilla extract, baking powder/soda, etc.). My cake didn’t rise much if at all and was rather dense and dry, something I think some baking powder would’ve helped.
I also didn’t think the cake tasted overly sweet or overly like coffee, at least the buttercream saved it in that aspect, because it was sufficiently sweet and tasted like coffee.
I suspect you are in the US as this is not a “strange” recipe in the UK, in fact it’s simply a twist on a Victoria sponge (a classic British cake).
It is actually not missing baking powder because it uses self raising flour (it’s already in the flour). I also suspect you may have overbaked it if it was dry.
Like most British cakes, it is not overly sweet, you are correct. Glad you liked the buttercream.
I baked this today. Absolutely divine! I did add 1/2 tsp of baking powder though!!
Glad you liked it!! :)
I am so happy I found this recipe because I super love coffee cake. I cannot wait to try making this coffee and walnut cake. I bet this will be really good. Thank you for sharing this!
Does anyone else know what the nutritional information is for as it is definitely not correct for a 1/10 of the whole recipe, but other than that the cake is delicious – many thanks
It’s not! I’ve got about 400+ recipes that I have to fix the nutritional information because the app doesn’t do it correctly! :( I would say that if you are concerned about fat or calories, you should probably not be making/eating this cake with the icing on it. Will try to fix it asap! CC
I was baking this as special request from my husband for his birthday. I followed your instructions and my batter didn’t seem as light and fluffy as your picture. Went back to ingredients and I realized that you had 2 different measurements for flour 225g (2cups). I did 2 cups and my cake is ruined. Thanks.
2 cups is correct. In fact, a reader just send me a photo of his own 60th birthday cake using this recipe this morning. I’ll email it to you.
Self raising flour is lighter than other flours, so that is not the reason your cake is “ruined”. Not sure what “ruined” even means, as in inedible? I can’t imagine that it didn’t turn out at all. HOWEVER, I will say, I always recommend using scales for precise measurements and the best outcome in baking. French pastry chefs never use cups for a very good reason: they are incredibly imprecise. Even cups themselves vary from brand to brand as noted in this article. This recipe is solid, but I suggest you buy a scale for the outcome shown in my photos.
I made this cake twice using cups for measuring. Both times the cake was dry. After reading Ina’s comment I realised 225g of flour is ONE cup not two!!! I will be using my scales from now on! The flavour of the cake is spot on and reminds me of my favourite childhood cake.
Oh yes please do use a scale, especially when baking! You will not be disappointed using the scale, Susannah! Cups should be outlawed when baking :(
That is quite literally your fault for not reading it properly…
I see the mistake too… 1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of self raising flour and both state 225g.
I just sent you an email so as not to embarrass you here, but since you used a fake email address, I’ll post it here.
Just wanted to let you know that there is no mistake in this recipe, Ruth. You state you see the mistake, but this is a classic high school science trick question.
If you had a cup of marbles and a cup of feathers, would you STILL say they weigh the same?
Flour and sugar are not equal in weight which is where your error lies. So many people don’t understand the difference between weight (scale) and volume (cups) and end up making comments like yours stating the recipe has a mistake. It does not have a mistake, however, I ALWAYS recommend using a scale for the best results. French pastry chefs do not use cups for good reason.
Have a good day.
Also, I do the weighing/measuring in my kitchen, however, I just googled 225g of self raising flour in cups and got this: “A mass of 225 grams of self-rising flour is equivalent to 1.8 cups. This amount is roughly equal to 1 cup with an additional 12.8 tablespoons to measure out the 0.8 cups left over.”