Coffee & Walnut Cake (Vegan)

Makes 10 servings

Coffee and walnut cake (Vegan)

A combination of bold flavours make this cake a great choice for a sophisticated dessert.
This is the only recipe you’ll ever need for an exquisite coffee and walnut cake.
I make this cake all the time! I should have shared this gem of a recipe sooner, but here it is, better late than never 😊
In case you are wondering, no one will be able to tell this cake is vegan, it’s just delicious.
Ready to bake this? Remember to share a photo and tag @apinchofzing on Instagram. Enjoy!

Ingredients

Cake
4 tablespoons instant coffee powder
400g self raising flour
240g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
400ml plant milk
160ml rapeseed oil
100g walnuts (chopped)

No – Buttercream
100g vegetable spread
150g icing sugar (sifted)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coffee or Tia Maria

Method

1. Mix the instant coffee with 2 tablespoons of boiling water and leave to cool down.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease with vegetable spread and coat in flour, two 20cm round cake tins.
3. In a large bowl mix the flour, sugar and baking powder.
4. In a large jug mix the plant milk, coffee mixture (step 1) and oil. Add this to the large bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
5. Stir in the chopped walnuts and divide the mixture between the two cake tins.
6. Bake for 30 minutes. Once baked, remove from the cake tins and leave to cool down completely before moving on to the no-buttercream.
7. To make the no-buttercream, use a stand mixer to cream the vegetable spread with sifted icing sugar, vanilla extract and coffee/Tia Maria. Mix until pale and fluffy (about 5 minutes on high speed).
8. Assemble and decorate the cake. Add some roasted walnuts on top. Enjoy with a nice cup of tea.

Thanks for the inspiration go to The Veg Space

Irish Coffee & Walnut Cake

Makes 10 servings

A combination of bold flavours make this cake a great choice for a sophisticated dessert.

Coffee & walnut cake is a British classic, but the recipe I am sharing with you is not the classic one. The classic recipe comes with butter cream filling, while the cream filling in this recipe is slightly lighter, but without distracting from the traditional combination of flavours. I prefer this particular filling, to butter cream, because it is slightly lighter and contains considerable less sugar, without compromising on taste.

’A pinch of zing’ is all about extra depth of flavour, so for that I roasted the walnuts and added a splash of Baileys Irish Cream to the cream filling.

I must confess I was slightly nervous about altering a classic, but I had a few critics try it and they all gave it the thumbs up! Hope you enjoy it as much as we did 🙂

Ingredients

For the cake

• 150g walnuts (85g for the cake & the rest for decorating)
• 250g butter – at room temperature
• 250g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons coffee – cooled
• 280g self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder

For the cream filling

• 150g icing sugar – sifted
• 225ml double cream
• 150g mascarpone – at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon of coffee – cooled
• 1 tablespoon of Baileys Irish Cream

Method
1. Make a coffee (about 120ml) and leave to cool.
2. Heat the oven to gas mark 4.
3. Roast about 150g walnuts nuts for 5-10 minutes (until golden). Roughly chop 85g of nuts for the cake filling and keep the rest of the nuts aside for decorating.
4. In a large bowl, cream the butter with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy (5-10 minutes). Add the sugar and beat for another 5-10 minutes. Add the vanilla extract, coffee and the eggs one by one and mix until combined. Add the sifted self-raising flour and baking powder in three batches and mix after each one until combined. Finally, fold in the chopped walnuts.
Divide the batter between two 10 inch round silicone cake moulds and level. If using cake tins, remember to grease them and line with baking parchment.
Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes until golden and risen, and a skewer poked in comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the moulds.
5. For the cream filling, sift the icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with the double cream and mascarpone until thick. Fold in precisely one tablespoon of coffee and one tablespoon of Baileys.
Although tempting, do not free pour or over pour the amount coffee or Baileys, because that will make the cream consistency too runny (I had to learn this lesson the hard way).
6. Drizzle the cakes with the remaining coffee.
7. Once the cakes are cool, spread 2/3rds of the cream over one cake and place the other cake on top. Decorate the top by piping the rest of the cream and adding walnuts. Enjoy!

Thanks for the inspiration go to BBC Good Food and my colleague Jeff.

Irish Coffee & Walnut Cake