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The best coffee & walnut cake

The best coffee & walnut cake

Martha Collison's bake offers a punchiness from coffee and contrasting bitterness from walnuts for a truly indulgent grown-up treat.

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Vegetarian
  • Serves10
  • CourseCake
  • Prepare20 mins
  • Cook25 mins
  • Total time45 mins
  • Pluscooling

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Ingredients

  • 225g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
  • 50g walnut halves
  • 225g caster sugar
  • 4 British Blacktail Free Range Large Eggs
  • 225g plain flour
  • 1 tbsp baking powder
  • 2 tbsp fine instant coffee powder, such as Nescafé Azera (or dissolve a chunkier instant coffee in 1 tsp boiling water to make a paste)

For the icing

  • 150g unsalted butter
  • 300g icing sugar
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water
  • 8 walnut halves, plus extra, chopped, to decorate

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Grease 2 x 20cm round sandwich tins with a little butter, then line the bases with baking parchment. In a small frying pan, gently toast the walnuts for the sponge over a low heat for 4-5 minutes, shaking the pan often, until they start to smell fragrant. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, then blitz in a small food processor or spice grinder until finely ground.

  2. Place the butter and caster sugar into a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat with an electric mixer or the paddle attachment of the stand mixer for 5 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition, then add the flour, baking powder, toasted walnuts and coffee powder (or paste) and beat for 1 minute more. Using a spatula, scrape around the bowl a few times during the mixing process, to make sure it’s well combined.

  3. Divide the mixture evenly between the tins and use a spatula to smooth the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the cakes are risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes, then turn onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

  4. For the icing, place the unsalted butter, icing sugar, salt and coffee paste together in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat for a few minutes, or until pale and spreadable.

  5. To assemble the cake, pipe or spread half the icing in the middle and half on top, either piped into rosettes or using a palette knife to create swirls. Decorate with walnut halves and the chopped walnuts. This cake will keep for up to 3 days in an airtight container.

Nutritional

Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe

Energy

2,798kJ/ 670kcals

Fat

40g

Saturated Fat

22g

Carbohydrates

70g

Sugars

53g

Fibre

1.3g

Protein

7.9g

Salt

1.2g

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