Go Back
–+ servings
finished vegan coffee & walnut cake

vegan coffee & walnut cake

this is a simple recipe, but has big results. All you need is a bowl, jug, scales electric whisk. mix the two together, pour and bake.
5 from 4 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
frosting application 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, British
Servings 10 slices

Equipment

  • 1 set of digital scales
  • 1 1 litre jug
  • 1 electric whisk
  • 1 large mixing bowl
  • 2 8 inch/20cm loose bottom cake tins
  • 2 8 inch/20cm paper circules
  • 1 piping bag & nozzles optional, but if you want to make it a bit fancy & it helps the nuts look better.

Ingredients
  

The dry bowl ingredients

  • 200 g light brown caster suger could reduce the sugar to 175
  • 1 teasp cinnamon
  • 2½ teasps baking powder
  • ½ teasp salt
  • 100 g white self-raising flour
  • 275 g wholewheat self-raising flour
  • 75 g finely chopped walnuts

The wet jug ingredients

  • 6 tbsps ground coffee
  • 175 g boiling water
  • 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
  • 1½ tbsps cider vinegar
  • 2 teasps vanilla essence
  • 150 g cold pressed rapeseed oil
  • 360 g oat milk or soya milk but less the volume of coffee

The coffee frosting

  • 50 - 60 g kahlua or other coffee liqueur
  • 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
  • 1 teasp vanilla essence
  • 500 g golden icing sugar
  • 115 g firm non-spreading vegan margarine Flora Plant Butter is good.
  • 25 g finely chopped walnuts

Instructions
 

Making the 2 cake layers

  • grease and line the bases of 2 by 8 inch/20cm cake tins with greaseproof paper & set aside.
    20cm cake tins lined
  • weigh all the flour and other dry ingreidients into a large bowl
    Dry ingredients for coffee cake
  • mix well with a food mixer
  • weigh all the wet ingredients into a 1 litre jug and mix with the same mixer
    wet ingredients for coffee cake
  • Apply your "bake even" strips if you have them now. They need to be fully wet, but not actually dripping.
    Bake even strips
  • Set th oven to 180°C Fan so that it's ready when the cakes are in the tins - they want to go straight into the oven as soon as they're in the tins.
  • Make a well in the centre, and pour all the wet ingredients in quickly.
  • whisk until fully mixed - make sure to scrape the sides down with a silicon spatula to ensure there are no dry bits lurking on the bottom
    cake mixture ready to pour
  • Divide the mixture evenlty between the 2 tins. The easiest way is to weigh it in each one in turn using a zeroable/tareable digital scale. The mixture will come to roughly 1185g so 590g in each tin - that leaves a bit for the children to lick from the bowl!
    mixture divided between tins
  • Shake flat using a circular motion.
  • Place on the middle shelf of the oven and set the timer for 30 minutes
  • Check with a toothpick or cake tester - it should come out with no mixture sticking to it.
  • Cool thoroughly either on a cake grid or in the tins, but it's best to cover them with something that will allow the steam to escape but that won't let them dry out too much.
    cakes baked & cooling

Making the frosting

  • Measure the kahlua, into a medium size bowl
  • add the granules to the bowl
  • add the vanilla essence to the bowl
  • weigh in the icing sugar
  • weigh the vegan stick butter and cut into small cubes and add to the bowl
  • use the beaters of the mixer to break up the butter before you start the whisk by pushing it into the butter cubes repeatedly. This will help it start mixing it muc more quickly.
  • The start the mixing on low at first, and speed up once you've got a good bit of the mixing done.
  • keep mixing until it is perfectly smooth and homogenous - put in a cool place so it doesn't go too soft.

Assembling the cake

  • Chose the cake layer with the flatest top and place on a flat circular base
    placing the bottom layer
  • then start spreading a roughly ¼ inch or ½cm thick layer of icing on top of it.
    starting to ice the bottom
  • finish off the layer of icing trying to keep it nice and even - roughly ¼ inch thick
    finished layer on bottom cake
  • carefully place the other cake layer on top - being careful not to break it
    placing second cake on top
  • spread a layer on top, and then cover the sides with icing - making sure to leave enough icing for the extra decoration around the top. It's importan to do it in this order or when you do the sides you mess up the stars. Alternatively you could make sure the stars are set in a little so that you don't mess them up, but that is still more difficult.
    the nearly finished cake
  • finally, take the other 25g of walnuts and cut them into fairly small pieces
    finely chopped walnuts
  • and scatter them over the top, inside the icing stars..
    finished vegan coffee & walnut cake
Keyword coffee, walnuts, vanilla, instant coffee
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!