Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake

Name: Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 2 tbsp Instant coffee; 1 tbsp Boiling water; 60 g Walnut halves ((½ Cup)); 225 g Unsalted butter (at room temperature (1 Cup)); 220 g Soft brown sugar ((1 Cup packed)); 250 g Self raising flour ((1 Cup and 7 tablespoons) or use plain/all-purpose flour and 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder)); ¼ tsp Fine salt; 1 tsp Ground cinnamon; 4 Large eggs (at room temperature (US extra large)); 1 tbsp Vanilla extract; 1 tbsp Instant coffee powder; 1 tbsp Boiling water; 150 g Unsalted butter (at room temperature (⅖ Cup)); 250 g Icing sugar (confectioners' sugar (2 Cups)); 25 g Walnut halves (chopped into small pieces (¼ Cup)); 10 Walnut halves

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This is a soft and moist Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake, full of mellow coffee and walnuts flavours with a creamy coffee buttercream frosting.

coffee and walnut cake on chopping board

Coffee and Walnut Cake is a staple of most English tearooms and a firm favourite of the nation. As a child, I firmly felt that any cake flavoured with coffee belonged in the same Room 101 as those coffee creams from a box of chocolates. Now, it is one of my absolute favourite cakes.

For this recipe, I wanted to create a coffee and walnut cake recipe that produced a soft and moist cake, but in loaf form, because, to be honest, it's far easier! I really like the texture of this final cake and the addition of a little cinnamon and vanilla extract really brings out the coffee flavours.

This Jamaican Ginger Cake is full of spice and stem ginger.

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What makes this Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake so good?
Ingredients and Substitutions
Instructions
Top Tips
Variations
Storage
FAQ
Linked Recipes
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Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake
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What makes this Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake so good?

✔️ Soft and moist cake with mellow coffee and walnut flavours

I prefer a soft coffee cake rather than a springy spongey one. Therefore, this recipe contains soft brown sugar, instead of white sugar, which gives an extra nuttiness to the cake and enhances the coffee and walnut flavours.

coffee and walnut loaf cake two slices cut portrait

✔️ Vanilla extract

Using a whole tablespoon sweetens up the bitterness of the coffee.

✔️Grinding the walnuts first

Chopping the walnuts up, even very small, tends to leave the coffee and walnut loaf cake with sporadic bits of walnut throughout, and they also often clump together at the bottom of the cake. Grinding them up instead gives bags of walnut flavour in every bite.

Ingredients and Substitutions

Unsalted butter: or you can use salted butter but omit the quarter of a teaspoon of salt. Spreadable butter has oil already added, so if using this only use 3 eggs. I don't recommend using margarine, it changes the flavour of the cake.

Light soft brown sugar: has a very distinct nuttiness to it. After all, that is why it is the favoured sugar to use in coffee. You can substitute with other sugars, e.g. golden or white caster (superfine) sugar.

Self raising flour: can be substituted with plain (all-purpose) flour, if so add another teaspoon of baking powder.

Baking powder: to ensure the coffee and walnut cake rises.

Eggs: use UK large, or if in the US use extra large.

ingredients for coffee and walnut loaf cake

Instant coffee: or you can use instant espresso powder, if so simply mix in with your flour rather than dissolving in boiling water.

Cinnamon: gives a slight cinnamon undertone to this coffee and walnut loaf cake, the flavour works really well.

Walnuts: ground walnut halves are used in the cake and whole on top to decorate. We reduce the flour content in as because we are using ground walnuts.

Vanilla extract: to sweeten the coffee flavour.

Fine salt: helps to bring out the flavour, can be substituted with sea salt flakes or kosher salt.

Icing sugar (confectioners' sugar): for the coffee butter icing.

Instructions

See end of post RECIPE CARD for precise quantities and instructions.

1. Mix your coffee and boiling water together and set aside to cool.

2. Grind your walnuts until they are sand-like.

3. Line your loaf tin.

butter and sugar read to be beaten together

4. Beat together your butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, this can take 1-2 minutes.

5. Sift together your flour, cinnamon and salt.

6. Add one egg and a tablespoon of your flour mixture to your beaten butter and sugar and beat on a low setting until all the egg has been mixed in. Repeat with the rest of your eggs.

7. Beat in your coffee and vanilla extract.

8. Mix in your remaining flour, give the batter a beat for about 10 seconds to ensure fully mixed.

9. Fold in your ground walnuts.

coffee and walnut loaf cake batter it tin

10: Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer/cocktail stick inserted into the centre, comes out with nearly clean, just a few bits of cake are fine because we want the cake to be moist inside.

11: Once your cake is cool, make your butter icing by firstly beating your butter until smooth.

12. Gradually beat in your icing sugar.

13. Using a piping bag and Jem 3R tip pipe sausages of icing over the top of the cake, then smooth through the centre leaving the edges in their semi-circle shapes.

14. Sprinkle over chopped walnuts and decorate down the centre with walnut halves.

Top Tips

Fully beat in each egg before adding another.

I have rushed this stage in the past and ended up with a split (curdled) mixture, not that that was the end of the world, the cakes turned out fine, but, depending on the recipe, it can affect the final texture of the cake, so not worth taking the risk.

Truth is, eggs don't much like being mixed into butter and sugar and can be quite resistant. The egg yolk needs to bring the butter and water from the eggs together to emulsify, otherwise the mixture will not stabilise and this will affect the end result of the cake. So it is worth taking your time with this stage.

coffee and walnut loaf cake with two pieces cut

To help your coffee fully dissolve

Because we don't add a lot of boiling water to our coffee to dissolve it, it can become clumpy and refuse to dissolve.

To resolve this either:

crush your instant coffee granules in a pestle and mortar first so that they dissolve easier or
add your coffee to a microwaveable dish, mix in your boiling water, and then pop into your microwave for 5-10 seconds, stir again once it comes out, it should then fully dissolve.

Variations

If you prefer to have pieces of walnut in your cake rather than grinding them, but want to prevent them sinking to the base, I recommend doing the following:

chop your walnut pieces up small;
place half of your coffee and walnut loaf cake batter into your loaf tin (without any walnut pieces);
fold your chopped walnuts into the second half of your batter;
spread your batter over the first half in the tin.

Storage

This coffee and walnut loaf cake keeps for 2-3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Freeze before adding the buttercream topping.

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FAQ

Are walnuts good for you?

Walnuts are full of goodness. They are high in antioxidants, full of omega3 (good fat), full of vitamins, minerals and fibre and good for the gut.

Linked Recipes

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Jamaican Ginger Cake

A rich, sticky, Jamaican Ginger Cake, full of dark rum, juicy sultanas, chunks of ginger and deep spices and topped with a rum syrup.

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Vegan coffee and walnut cupcakes

Light and fluffy vegan coffee cupcakes dotted with nuggets of soft chopped walnuts and topped with smooth dairy free vegan coffee icing with a sprinkling of walnut pieces. There is a reason why I confidently name them the best.

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featured image of coffee and walnut cake

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Alter quantities (metric only) 10 slices

Here's what you'll need...

Ingredients you'll need...

2 tablespoon Instant coffee
1 tbsp Boiling water
60 g Walnut halves (½ Cup)
225 g Unsalted butter at room temperature (1 Cup)
220 g Soft brown sugar (1 Cup packed)
250 g Self raising flour (1 Cup and 7 tablespoons) or use plain/all-purpose flour and 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder)
¼ teaspoon Fine salt
1 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
4 Large eggs at room temperature (US extra large)
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

Coffee Icing

1 tablespoon Instant coffee powder
1 tablespoon Boiling water
150 g Unsalted butter at room temperature (⅖ Cup)
250 g Icing sugar confectioners' sugar (2 Cups)
25 g Walnut halves chopped into small pieces (¼ Cup)
10 Walnut halves

Here's what we do...

Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake

Heat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/355°F/Gas Mark 4.
Grease your loaf tin. Then take a piece of greaseproof (parchment) paper large enough to lay over the long sides and base of your tin (see the picture in main blog post) and place it in the tin.
Mix your coffee and boiling water together until the coffee full dissolves (see Notes below).
Place your walnuts in your food processor and blitz until they reach a sand-like consistency. Or grind in your pestle and mortar
Sift together your flour, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
Starting on a low setting, beat your room temperature butter and sugar together until soft, lighter in colour and paste-like. This may take up to 2 minutes.
Add one egg and a dessertspoonful of your flour mixture and beat until all of the egg has combined, you need to ensure no egg remains before you add another.
Repeat with your next egg and some flour and then so on until all of your eggs have been beaten in.
Add your cooled coffee and vanilla extract and beat in.
Add the rest of your flour mixture beating in on a low setting until just mixed in and then scraping down the sides and base of your bowl to ensure all of the mixture is incorporated.
Beat on medium-high for about 10 seconds to ensure fully mixed.
Fold in your ground walnuts.
Pour into your prepared tin and level with your small palette knife or the back of a spoon.
Bake for 50-60 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with just a few fudgy bits of cake on.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before holding the sides of greaseproof and lifting the cake onto a cooling rack to fully cool.

Coffee Buttercream Frosting

Again, dissolve your coffee powder in your boiling water and allow to cool until at room temperature.
Sift your icing (confectioners') sugar and set aside.
Give your softened butter a beat for about 10-15 seconds in your mixer, this will ensure your buttercream is soft and creamy.
Leaving your mixer running on a low setting, gradually add your icing sugar a large spoonful at a time, letting each one beat in before adding another.
Once all of your icing sugar has been mixed in, add your cooled coffee and beat until just mixed in, then scrape down the bowl with your spatula so that all of the mixture from the sides and base are mixed in.
Beat one more time for a few seconds to ensure fully mixed.
If using your piping bag, cut the corner off the bag and fit your round nozzle into it, ensuring the bag fits snuggly around it, so that the buttercream does not seep out. Then place in a large glass, fold over the sides and fill the bag with buttercream, using your small palette knife or butter knife.
Roll the sides of the bag back up and tie off the top of the piping bag, or fold it over, so that buttercream does not seep out of the top as you ice.
Starting at one of the shorter end of the top of the cake, begin icing by squeezing the buttercream in a line and then turning and piping another line in the opposite direction, so that an S pattern is formed (see picture in main blog post).
Then take your small palette knife or butter knife and spread the buttercream out across the top of the cake, leaving the edges so that the semi-circle of icing remains (see blog post for picture).
Sprinkle over your chopped walnuts and then place halves down the centre of the cake.

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Supporting Notes

A tip to ensure that your coffee dissolves into your boiling water, grind it into a powder first using a pestle and mortar or pop it into your microwave (in a microwavable container) for up to 10 seconds.

Ensure that you fully beat each egg into your butter and sugar mixture before adding another, otherwise it can affect the quality of your final baked cake.

This cake will keep at room temperature in an airtight container for 2-3 days. It will keep for up to a week if refrigerated. You can freeze it before it is iced.

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Comments

4.54 from 47 votes (42 ratings without comment)

Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake

What makes this Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake so good?