Wicked Delicious Coffee Flavored Walnut Cake with Creamy Coffee Frosting

This cake should come with a warning attached, so here goes. It’s wicked, it’s delicious and it’s worth every bite. I don’t call it coffee cake since that’s misleading. It’s got a nice strong coffee flavor to it enhanced by the coffee frosting and I’ve found that even people who aren’t coffee drink lovers usually love this cake.

I’ve tried this with brewed coffee and coffee pods etc. etc. but ya know what? It just doesn’t taste coffee-ish enough. I use a strong instant coffee and a lot of it and it gives the right flavor.

Since the holiday of Succot is before us, I felt this was the perfect dessert to post, with a rich holiday flavor to it. You can swap out the walnuts with pecans if you choose but it’s better with that hint of bitter that walnuts have and no worries, with the frosting it is not too bitter.

I start with the cake since it must totally cool before you frost it (yes, really or the frosting will melt into the cake, no no no) and whilst the cake is baking, you can whip your frosting together and it will wait patiently on the side till the cake cools down.

So on to the cake.

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180 C.

First put the walnuts and sugar in a food processor.

Whirl together till chopped and sorta sandy looking like so:

Don’t overchop them since we don’t want nut butter. Okay Next a mixer.

Put all the dry ingredients together, including the nut/sugar mixture, and mix. Then in a separate bowl, dissolve the coffee granules in the hot water, stir till completely dissolved. Then add the cubed marg/butter to the mostly cooled coffee. You don’t want it to melt, but if it’s a bit hard out of the fridge, it’s a chance to soften it. Make sure the liquid is not boiling hot.

When you’re sure the mixture has cooled, add the buttermilk or soy milk with vinegar in it and the vanilla and the eggs, lightly stir and add all to the dry ingredients in the bowl.

Beat just till smooth and incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure no pockets of mixture are left unmixed.

Scrape scrape scrape and mix again briefly. Then take 2 9 inch round pans and spray with oil spray and cover with parchment rounds (or cut out yourself) or alternatively spray with Baker’s Joy or oil and flour your pans. The cakes will cling and be difficult to remove otherwise so choose either method.

Divide batter up evenly between the pans. Bake for about 20 minutes or till wooden toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely on wire racks.

Now please note that the cakes do not rise high. That’s fine, don’t worry it’s not a gigantic cake, it’s meant to be about halfway up the pans.

Now to the frosting (which you could also prepare whilst they bake, as you please).

I actually chose to make this in the food processor since it was already dirty and I wanted to see the difference between whipping in the mixer and pulsing in the processor. I’ve subsequently done frosting in the processor many times since I was very pleased with the consistency. Either way, it will come out fine. For the frosting, your marg/butter must be super soft. Otherwise, it’ll have bits of it in the frosting and that’s just nasty. So plan ahead and make sure it’s soft just NOT melted. Onward.

Do this right in the dirty (from walnuts and sugar) processor, it’s fine. Just make sure your coffee granules melt. You can give it a pulse to help it along if need be. Next add the cubed marg/butter.

Why cube it? Because you don’t want big chunks that won’t incorporate into the frosting. Next add the powdered sugar.

K, you ready? This is the fun part. Pulse pulse pulse and here you go!

Here too (you do this in the mixer as well) scrape bottom and sides with a scraper/spatula to make sure all the marg/butter incorporates and pulse again. Go on taste a bit, heavenly, no?

Now, remove the first cake and carefully flip out onto a serving platter and take some frosting and coat gently all over. Top with second cake and frost thinly. Btw, notice I left the bottom parchment circle on for ease of moving the cake but you can peel it off if you wish.

Let set about 10-15 minutes and then recoat the whole cake. Nice garnished with a few walnuts on top. Serve to holiday acclaim or whenever you want a beautiful cake.

Wicked Delicious Coffee Flavored Walnut Cake with Creamy Coffee Frosting

1 3/4 cup (350 grams) white sugar
1/2 cup (50 grams) walnut halves
1 cup butter or margarine, (227 grams) cubed, softened
1 cup (240 ml) boiling water
1 heaping tablespoon coffee granules (not a mistake, a teaspoon is far too little, a whole tablespoon)
1/2 cup buttermilk or soy milk (120 ml) with one and a half teaspoons of vinegar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (250 grams) flour
1 slightly rounded teaspoon of baking soda
1 flat teaspoon salt
Frosting:
3/4 cup (170 grams) very softened butter or margarine, cubed
3 cups (345 grams) sifted confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon coffee granules melted in 1 tablespoon boiling water, let cool

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.

Put sugar and walnut halves in food processor together and whirl till the walnuts are in fine fragments and you have a sandy texture. Don’t overchop, you don’t want nut butter.

Transfer the mixture to a mixer and add the dry ingredients, i.e., the flour, baking soda and the salt. Mix together.

Next dissolve your coffee granules in the boiling/hot water in a separate bowl. Let cool somewhat. When very warm, add the vanilla, the buttermilk or soy milk, marg/butter, and finally the eggs. Stir lightly and add all together to the dry ingredients. There will be chunks of marg still, that’s correct. Beat together till incorporated and smooth and scrape sides and bottom of mixer to make sure everything mixes properly together.

Pour the batter into two 9 inch round pans which you either oil and flour, spray with Baker’s Joy or spray with oil and place parchment rounds on. This will stick to your pans if you don’t and you won’t be able to turn them out properly. Why get aggravated?

Bake for 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean. Remove cakes from oven and let cool completely on wire racks. When cakes are fully cooled, turn out one on serving platter and thinly spread frosting on, then take second cake, place over first and thinly coat. Let set 10-15 minutes and frost with remaining frosting all over cake. Decorate top of cake with a few whole walnut halves.