Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake
This is a soft and moist Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake, full of mellow coffee and walnuts flavours with a creamy coffee buttercream frosting.
Servings: 10 slices
Calories:
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Alter quantities (metric only) 10 slices
Here's what you'll need...
- 2 lb loaf tin measuring 23x13x7cm
- JEM 3R piping nozzle
Ingredients you'll need...
Coffee and Walnut Loaf Cake
- 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.
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.