This decadent vegan coffee and walnut cake is easy to make, and a real showstopper. Light and nutty sponge layers filled with fluffy coffee buttercream.
🍴Why you will love this recipe
This deliciously light and moist vegan coffee and walnut cake is so very easy to make. You don't need a fancy food mixer or other equipment, just a bowl and a spatula!
There are no weird ingredients in this cake - no vinegar, flax seeds or egg replacers, and it turns out brilliantly every time, just read the reviews at the bottom of the post.
The coffee buttercream is incredibly creamy and light, and the dark, nutty sponge has just the right level of coffee to be a strong flavour without turning bitter. Follow my top tips for best results. If you have time, keeping the cooled cakes in an airtight tin overnight before adding the buttercream makes a huge difference for an extra-soft and moist sponge.
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📝 What you need
Instant Coffee This cake has just the right amount of coffee to have a good coffee kick to it without being bitter. You can use any instant coffee granules or powder, or if you prefer you can swap in liquid coffee essence (like Camp Coffee) in which case you don't need to mix it with water.
Walnuts I chop these by hand rather than using a mini-chopper, so that they don't become chopped too finely.
Oil Use a flavourless oil like rapeseed or sunflower oil. Avoid anything with a stronger flavour like olive or coconut oil.
👩🏽🍳 How to make your Vegan Coffee Cake
For a full, printable recipe with ingredients and detailed instructions, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Mix the coffee granules and water and set aside to cool. Roughly chop the walnuts.
Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder in a large bowl. In a separate jug, mix the oil, soya milk and coffee mixture.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir through the walnuts. Divide the mixture between two tins.
Make the buttercream. When the cakes are completely cool, layer with buttercream and scatter with chopped walnuts.
⭐️ Reader Testimonials
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "I just wanted to express my appreciation for your wonderful recipe! I made this cake yesterday and was so happy with how it turned out! This cake will now be a regular feature in our household. Lovely recipe, thanks again!!!" Priyam
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Just made this today, my first attempt at making a cake and omg, its amazing! Im so proud to have done this. It's so so good! Thank you! I'll certainly be bookmarking your website and trying many more! 😁" Leigh
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Great cake – have used this recipe a few times (was turning into a post Parkrun classic – now is just a classic )🥇 Not many complaints – the only one being ‘where’s my second slice gone!’" John
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "Brilliant recipe... this really worked well, came out perfectly, looked good, tasted delicious, best vegan coffee cake I’ve made. Thank you" Jules
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ "The cake is absolutely delicious! Perfect texture and sweetness and so nice and simple to make. Thank you for the recipe and building my confidence as a baker!" Antonia
🔪 Top Tips & FAQs
Work quickly once you have combined the wet and dry ingredients. The raising agent will get to work straight away creating tiny bubbles, and you want these to form in the oven, not on your worktop!
If you can, store the cooled cakes overnight in an airtight tin before icing. This process draws moisture through the cakes and makes them deliciously soft and moist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! The coffee sponges themselves freeze very well so you can make them ahead of time, (or even batch-cook two at once!). Pop a sheet of greaseproof paper or baking parchment between each layer then wrap the whole lot tightly in foil.
When you need to serve the cake you can just defrost. make the buttercream and layer it up - it is almost impossible to tell that it isn't freshly baked!
An instant coffee powder is easiest to mix to a paste with boiling water, though granules work fine too. If you prefer, you can use a coffee essence (like Camp Coffee) which doesn't need to be mixed with water.
This cake is lovely and moist, so will keep for 2-3 days in an airtight tin or container.
Yes absolutely. The quantities in the recipe make 20-22 fairly large cupcakes, so you might need to adjust these. The simplest way to do this is to go to 'Print Recipe' and adjust the number of slices. Adjusting to 6 slices will give you 12 cupcakes.
🍽 If you liked that...
.... you might also enjoy these vegan recipes from The Veg Space:
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Coffee and Walnut Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 3 tablespoon instant coffee powder or granules mixed with 2 tablespoon boiling water
- 450 g self-raising flour
- 270 g caster sugar
- 2.5 teaspoon baking powder
- 450 ml soya milk
- 150 ml rapeseed oil (or other flavourless oil)
- 100 g walnuts
For the Buttercream:
- 2 tablespoon instant coffee powder or granules mixed with 1 tablespoon boiling water
- 200 g dairy-free block margarine at room temperature
- 400 g icing sugar
- pinch salt
- 2 tablespoon dairy-free single cream optional
- 50 g walnuts
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Mix the instant coffee and boiling water to a paste and leave to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (fan) / 350ºF / Gas Mark 4. Grease and line two 23cm / 9 inch cake tins with a circle of baking parchment or greaseproof paper.
- Roughly chop the walnuts and set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, caster sugar and baking powder).
- In a jug, mix the wet ingredients (milk, oil and cooled coffee mixture), then add these to the dry ingredients. Mix until smooth.
- Stir through the chopped walnuts, then divide the mixture evenly between the two tins. Tap each tin firmly on the work surface to remove small bubbles, then bake for 18-22 minutes until an inserted skewer or knife comes out clean.
- Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, remove the baking parchment and leave to cool completely. Ideally, it is best to leave the fully cooled cakes in an airtight tin or container overnight, to layer with buttercream the following day, (this helps the cakes to soften and stops a crust forming), but if you don't have time, just make sure they are completely cool throughout before starting to layer and decorate them.
For the Buttercream:
- Mix the instant coffee and boiling water to a paste and leave to cool.
- In a food mixer or large bowl with electric whisk/mixer, mix the dairy-free margarine and icing sugar until fully combined, then add the coffee mixture, salt and cream, and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Spread about a third of the buttercream over the bottom layer of the cake. Put the top layer in place and spread half the remaining buttercream over the top. Pipe the remaining buttercream in small rosettes around the edge of the cake.
- Finely chop the walnuts and scatter over the cake.
ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Crin says
Wow! What a great recipe! Took much longer to cook, but I used smaller tins and, worried they might overflow, I placed them on a baking sheet so they would have taken longer anyway. They didn’t overflow in 21cm tins, btw! Took the cake to work and after loads of positive comments most of it was gone by lunchtime! I recommend that if you use coffee granules, they dissolve better if you grind them to a powder first (have learned this on a different recipe). Also, I completely cool all vegan cakes in the tin before even thinking about moving them, or they are prone to cracking. Stunning. Thank you so much.
Kate Ford says
This is great to hear, thanks so much!
Larhysa Saddul says
Hi,
This recipe sounds delicious I want to make it for.someome who is not necessarily vegan but is eggless and was hoping to use what I already have (semi skimmed milk) instead of soya milk. Do you think it will be the same? How will this effect the cake? Thanks
Kate Ford says
Yes that would work fine - I';ve heard from others who have tried this and it worked out well.