This coffee loaf cake with walnuts is the perfect blend of robust coffee flavour and nutty texture with hints of subtle baking spices. Topped with creamy coffee buttercream this is a quick & simple coffee and walnut loaf cake to put together.
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This coffee loaf cake is a soft, fluffy and moist cake combining walnuts, cinnamon and cardamom with a rich coffee flavour. It’s easy to dress up or down, depending on how the smooth and creamy buttercream is applied and it’s a simple yet exciting variation on a much-loved classic coffee and walnut cake.
Try a slice of this coffee and walnut loaf with your favourite latte. Why not try out my Biscoff latte, honey latte or cardamom latte?
And if loaf cakes are your thing try my apple loaf cake, sticky ginger cake and golden syrup cake too.
Reasons to love this recipe
- Quick and easy – this coffee and walnut loaf cake can be in the oven in around 20 minutes.
- Easy to decorate – you can go fancy and pipe the buttercream on or you can go down the rustic route and slather it on thickly with a knife.
- Aroma – baking this cake is going to make your house smell divinely homely.
- Appearance – depending how you decide to apply the buttercream this cake can look classic or smart and dainty.
- Texture – the sponge cake is soft and fluffy but finely chopped walnuts add a little bite to this cake too.
- Taste – the coffee flavour in the cake and the buttercream is rich and robust. And the addition of walnuts, cardamom and cinnamon stops it from being just another coffee loaf cake.
- Feeds a crowd – expect to cut at least 12 servings out of this cake.
Ingredients notes
Butter and baking margarine: hand on heart, I prefer using baking margarine (such as Stork) in most of my sponge cakes and I recommend it when making the batter in this coffee and walnut loaf cake recipe. Baking margarine creates a lighter textured cake than butter does. However, for buttercream, the clue is in the title. For the best flavour in your frosting use proper butter.
Instant coffee: this easily dissolves in water and blends into the cake without leaving a gritty texture. I used Nescafé Gold Blend.
Walnuts: this is the classic ingredient in many a coffee loaf cake. You’ll most likely need to buy walnut halves and chop them up yourself as I’ve never come across chopped walnuts.
Spices: these are entirely optional but trust me when I tell you that a touch of ground cinnamon and ground cardamom really livens up the base flavour in this coffee and walnut loaf cake.
Double cream: I’ve incorporated a dash of cream into my coffee buttercream to add a little extra decadence. In the UK double cream has a fat content of 48%. If you’re elsewhere in the world, look for cream with a similar fat content. Oh, and it’s fine to leave the cream out or replace it with a splash of milk if you need to loosen the consistency of your buttercream.
Step by step instructions
- Dissolve the instant coffee granules in water that has been boiled and left to stand for 5 minutes. Leave it to cool to room temperature.
- Chop the walnuts finely.
- Stir the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cardamom powder together in a bowl.
- Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Don’t worry if the batter splits.
- Sieve half of the flour mixture into the bowl and gently fold it in using a large metal spoon.
- Pour the cooled coffee into the batter and fold it in, then sieve in the rest of the flour mixture and fold this in too.
- Scatter the chopped walnuts into the bowl and fold them in.
- Spoon the batter into a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin.
- To make the buttercream sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and use electric beaters to cream it with the butter until light and fluffy.
- Pour in the cooled coffee and the cream.
- Beat until combined. (Optional: use a spatula to press the buttercream against the side of the mixing bowl to remove air bubbles, making it smoother.)
- Either pipe the buttercream onto the top or spoon it on and spread it out with a knife.
- Chop the nuts and scatter over the top (you can also scatter some fine espresso powder or grated chocolate over the top if desired).
Expert tips
- Let your coffee loaf cake cool completely before topping it with the buttercream otherwise the buttercream will melt.
- Always measure your ingredients accurately. The best way to do this is with a set of digital kitchen scales and the gram system of measurement.
- Using room temperature ingredients helps the cake to bake evenly.
- Chop the nuts finely so they are easy to evenly distribute within the cake batter.
- Chop the nuts prior to mixing the cake batter as the baking powder activates as soon as it is mixed into the batter. If raw batter is left to sit before it is baked then there is a risk that the baking powder will lose its strength, meaning that the cake doesn’t rise as much as it should.
- Let the coffee cool to room temperature before adding it to the cake batter or buttercream. If it is too warm it will melt the butter.
Frequently asked questions
It would be tricky to replicate the strength of the coffee in this cake by switching to espresso coffee. Only 2½ tablespoons of water are added to the 2½ tablespoons of instant coffee granules, so achieving such a bold flavour using the same volume of espresso coffee would be a challenge.
Don’t be tempted to stir ground coffee directly into the cake batter either as it will adversely affect the texture of this cake.
Yes, of course. You can also substitute them for other nuts. Pecans and hazelnuts are good alternatives.
Yes, you can. To make a smaller version of this coffee and walnut loaf cake simply halve all of the ingredients, pour the batter into a 1lb loaf tin and bake for around 40 minutes.
The fluffiest cakes are made when the butter and sugar are creamed together properly. Use electric beaters and keep on creaming the ingredients for around 3 minutes until the colour lightens considerably to ensure plenty of air gets into the ingredients.
When adding the flour, take the time to sieve it and then fold it in gently to ensure that the air is not knocked out of the batter. Take care not to overmix the batter, so stop mixing when no streaks of flour remain.
Yes, it can. You can freeze this coffee loaf cake whole or cut it into slices before freezing it.
To freeze the uncut cake pop it into the freezer uncovered for 2-3 hours, then wrap the cake tightly in several layers of food wrap. When ready to defrost, remove it from the freezer, take off the food wrap and let the cake defrost at room temperature.
Alternatively, freeze the individual slices for 1 hour, wrap each one in food wrap and place them all into a freezer bag. Pull out slices as required. Remove the food wrap and leave to defrost at room temperature.
Variations
- Leave out the nuts and spices for a classic coffee loaf cake.
- Swap the walnuts for hazelnuts or pecans.
- Add in some chocolate chips (white or dark are both great options) for a chocolately take on this coffee and walnut loaf cake.
- Use glacé icing in place of the buttercream or go fancy with some cream cheese frosting.
- Go without icing and serve the cake with ice cream (vanilla, coffee or chocolate) or some whipped cream.
Have you made this coffee and walnut loaf cake recipe? If you have please give it a rating or leave a comment – I love to hear how you get along with my creations.
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📖 Recipe
Coffee Loaf Cake
Equipment
- 1 x 2lb loaf tin (the dimensions of my tin are 23.5cm x 12.6cm x 6.5cm)
Ingredients
For the Coffee Cake Batter
- 240 g Baking margarine or butter
- 240 g Caster sugar
- 4 Eggs large, free-range
- 240 g Plain flour
- 3 teaspoons Baking powder
- 2½ tablespoons Instant coffee granules
- 100 g Walnuts
- ½ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground cardamom
For the Coffee Buttercream and Decoration
- 175 g Butter
- 1½ tablespoons Instant coffee granules
- 250 g Icing sugar
- 45 ml Double cream
- 15 g Walnuts
Instructions
Make the Coffee Loaf Cake
- Boil the kettle and let the water sit for 5 minutes.
- Prepare the coffee for the cake and buttercream. For the cake batter put 2½ tablespoons of the instant coffee into a small jug and pour in 2½ tablespoons of the freshly boiled water. Stir to dissolve the coffee. For the buttercream, in another jug, blend 1½ tablespoons of the instant coffee with 1½ tablespoons of the water and stir to dissolve. Set aside the jugs of coffee to cool to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F and grease & line the base and sides of a 2lb loaf tin.
- Chop the walnuts finely.
- Stir the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cardamom powder together in a bowl.
- Use electric beaters to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. This will take around 3 minutes.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Don’t worry if the batter splits, it will reform when the flour is added and still bake nicely.
- Sieve half of the flour mixture into the bowl and gently fold it in using a large metal spoon.
- Pour the cooled coffee into the batter and fold it in, then sieve in the rest of the flour mixture and fold this in too. Be mindful not to overmix the batter. As soon as there are no more streaks of flour stop mixing.
- Scatter the chopped walnuts into the bowl and fold them in.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf tin and bake for 50-60 minutes until well risen and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
- Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin before unmolding and removing the baking paper.
Make the Buttercream and Decorate the Cake
- To make the buttercream sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and use electric beaters to cream it with the butter until light and fluffy. This will take 2-3 minutes.
- Pour in the cooled coffee and the cream. Beat until combined.
- (Optional) Use a spatula to press the buttercream against the side of the mixing bowl to remove air bubbles, making it smoother.
- Either pipe the buttercream onto the top or spoon it on and spread it out with a knife.
- Chop the walnuts finely and scatter over the top (you can also scatter some fine espresso powder or grated chocolate over the top if desired).
Notes
- Always measure your ingredients accurately. The best way to do this is with a set of digital kitchen scales and the gram system of measurement.
- Using room temperature ingredients helps the cake to bake evenly.
- Chop the nuts finely so they are easy to evenly distribute within the cake batter.
- Chop the nuts prior to mixing the cake batter as the baking powder activates as soon as it is mixed into the batter. If raw batter is left to sit before it is baked then there is a risk that the baking powder will lose its strength, meaning that the cake doesn’t rise as much as it should.
- Let the coffee cool to room temperature before adding it to the cake batter or buttercream. If it is too warm it will melt the butter.
- Let your coffee loaf cake cool completely before topping it with the buttercream otherwise the buttercream will melt.
- To make a smaller version of this coffee and walnut loaf cake simply halve all of the ingredients, pour into a 1lb loaf tin and bake for around 40 minutes.
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