Coffee Loaf Cake

5 from 3 votes

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 and simple coffee and walnut loaf cake to put together.

Prep Time20

Cook Time55

Total Time1 15

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: British, Worldwide

Diet: Vegetarian

Servings:

Calories: 583kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

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.

Nutrition