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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Julie says
Wow, this cake is my new favourite. Can't believe how easy it was. Wonderful to make a cake that everyone raved about and also included our vegan co-worker.
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear - thanks Julie! X
Claire Hever says
I made this cake before and it was AMAZING. Just wondering if I can substitute the oil for a vegan butter?
Thanks
Kate Ford says
Hi Claire, I haven't tried it with vegan butter BUT I think it would work fine - you would have to alter the method and cream the butter and sugar to begin with. In fact, I wonder if you might be better off using my Victoria Sponge recipe and adding coffee essence (something like Camp coffee), or else substituting in the coffee and water to replace a bit of the soya milk? Let me know how it goes however you try it!
Lana says
I made this the other day and was so pleased with it. The sponge consistency was perfect and it tasted incredible. The buttercream was a bit too loose and I'd have preferred a bit more coffee in it personally, but I'll definitely be making this again It certainly did last long in our house😂
Anne-Marie Simpson says
Uses this recipe the other day and the cake turned amazing and tasted so yummy! You wouldn’t even know it’s vegan, the sponge cake is so light and moist. Directions are easy to follow as well! Can’t wait to try some more vegan cake recipes from here.
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear - thanks Anne-Marie.
Olly Thompson says
Hey hey - about to do this recipe for the second time!
The buttercream is hands down the best vegan buttercream recipe I've done; it came out a smidge "dry" so added a tiny bit more vegan cream and it was perfect.
I only had two tins, so like an earlier commenter, baked them for about 35 - 40 mins, and they were pretty good.
One thing I wanted to check - the temp is supposed to be 180 in a fan oven, right? I did mine at 160 in a fan oven, as I wanted to stop them doming, but it didn't work very well. Do you have any advice on how to stop the cakes doming?
Thanks for the great recipe!
Kate Ford says
Hi Olly, I find vegan cakes do tend to dome a bit as they have more raising agent than traditional cakes. Cooking lower and slower will help so do turn down to 160 or lower. But it is hard to get a completely flat top. I usually put mine on the cooling rack upside-down which flattens the top, and sometimes actually sandwich them with the top layer upside down, to get a really flat top. Depends how you are decorating them. Glad you've enjoyed the recipe and thanks for the feedback!
Jessica Smith says
Love Love Love this recipe. It really does make you wonder why the hell we ever needed dairy... now we really do not need it at all. These cakes are delicious vegan or not vegan. I'm yet to do the icing as I tend to ice the cakes too soon so I'm tackling this in the afternoon to avoid any runny messes. I only have 2 cake tins so added a bout 850g of mixture or so to each one and then had enough to make up 6 muffins!! (Muffins took 30 mins and the cakes took over 40mins until the skewer came out clean. (I know this is down to so much mixture being in each tin and if divided by 3 it would have took less time. I also turned the oven down after 30 mins to 160 fan as I didn't want them to burn. (I've already eaten one of the cupcakes whilst warm and they were lovely and "moist" haha. Very very delicious and I'm sure with the buttercream the bitterness from the coffee will be balanced out perfectly! I'm going to try and make a lot of your recipes now!! Also I used Oat Milk instead of soya and it worked just the same!
Carla Mae Siman says
Made this cake and it was so delish!!; Love your recipes. Tried the carrot cake as well and was very moist and truly yummy! Thanks!
Kate Ford says
That's so lovely to hear, thanks Carla! X
Naomi says
I’m not sure if it’s just different ovens, but I followed the recipe to the letter and it’s looking doubtful. The cakes were raw at 20mins. I cooked them for 33 mins in total and when I turned them out after cooling, they melted into the wire racks. I did think the batter was quite runny when I was prepping it 🙁
Kate Ford says
Oh no, so sorry to hear this Naomi. You'll see from all the comments above that lots of readers have had great success with the recipe so it does sound like an oven issue to me. Have you tried using an oven thermometer to test how hot your oven actually is? If they were raw at 20 minutes there is definitely something wrong, what a shame.
Jan says
Delicious coffee & walnut cake - really pleased with the recipe and how the cake came out. Just made the one iced tier this time around, but will definitely be making it again! 🍰🙂
Kate Ford says
That's great to hear, thanks Jan! X
Sks says
I did two layers and it turned out fab! Thanks for the recipe
Kate Ford says
Brilliant! Thanks x
Alice says
So easy to make, absolutely delicious my whole family loved it and none of us are Vegan! Wouldn’t have been able to tell it was vegan, better than some non vegan coffee cakes I’ve had 🙂
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear, thanks Alice.
Juanita says
This recipe looks amazing. I'm planning to make it in the coming days for a birthday. I only have two 8 inch tins so was wondering if it'll be okay if I bake two layers and then the third later? I'm just worried that the third layer may not rise/bake properly if left to sit out while the others are baking. I'm happy to make only two layers instead but I'd be worried about them being too thick to cook properly. If you could advise the best option for two 8 inch cake tins that would be wonderful! Thank you 🙂
Kate Ford says
Hi Juanita, yes you're right that leaving out the last bit of mixture will mean it won't rise as much as the rest. I would make two big sponges - if they start to catch at the edges before they are cooked through just cover them in foil. You could slice each one in half for a real showstopper!! Xx
Priyam Atter says
Hello
I just wanted to express my appreciation for your wonderful recipe! I made this cake yesterday as a trial run for a colleagues leaving do (it's her favourite flavour of cake) and was so happy with how the cake turned out! This cake will now be a regular feature in our household. Lovely recipe, thanks again!!!
Kate Ford says
Fantastic! Glad to hear it - thanks Priyam x
Leigh Taylor says
Just made this today, my first attempt at making a cake and omg, its amazing! Im so proud to have done this Its so so good! Thank you! Ill certaintly be bookmarking your wesbite and trying many more! 😁
Kate Ford says
That's so great to hear, thanks Leigh! X
John says
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!’
Antonia says
The cake is absolutely delicious! Perfect texture and sweetness and so nice and simple to make. I replaced the caster sugar with light brown sugar and reduced 100ml of soy milk. I also added a teaspoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Thank you for the recipe and building my confidence as a baker! 🙂
Helen Didsbury says
I made this cake both vegan and gluten-free for my son and his fiancée, and it was delicious! So easy to follow the recipe and we all really enjoyed it. it's ten out of ten from me!
Sylvia Soh says
Hello! Thank you for sharing with us the recipe! Could I ask if I could replace self-raising flour with plain flour?
Thank you!
Jules says
Brilliant recipie.. this really worked well, came out perfectly, looked good, tasted delicious, best vegan coffee cake I've made. Thank you
Abigail says
I made this cake and I can honestly say it is one of the best vegan cake recipes I have ever made! My whole family love it and I will definitely be making this again! Love it!
Martina terminella says
This cake is BOMB!
Thank you!