Coffee Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A delicious and moist three-layer coffee cake with a light and fluffy coffee buttercream frosting – perfect for coffee lovers!
The other week I posted a standard ‘recipe request’ post on my Facebook page and got an insane amount of ‘COFFEE CAKE PLEEEEAAASSEE’ kind of posts – so, I was obviously going to oblige.
Now, if you know me then you know how much I adore an iced coffee so I obviously love a coffee based bake – and when it’s baked it’s even more delicious! You can use decaf coffee if you have it, as long as its still a strong flavour!
Coffee bakes
I would say that coffee cake is a classic and quite iconic, and I really don’t make enough coffee based content. I love it personally, and I know so many of you do as well. My coffee and walnut cupcakes have always proved so popular, along with a more recent coffee & walnut loaf cake.
I created an espresso martini cake in my second book Celebrate, and my third book Everyday features my homemade tiramisu and with how popular these were I know I needed to post a classic coffee cake, so here it is.
Cake sponges
These sponges are light and fluffy, and yes there are three decent layers. I know, 8 eggs is a lot, but it is how you make a basic sponge. You need to create an even quantity of eggs weighed in their shells, flour, eggs and sugar to create a sponge so for a three layer cake, you need a lot of ingredients.
- Butter – I use either a room temperature block butter or baking spread for a cake sponge
- Sugar – I use light brown sugar in my coffee cake as I think it helps the flavour profiles
- Flour – self raising flour as always. However, if you don’t have it, you can make your own with 2 level tsps per 150g of plain flour, mixed in before using and removing any other raising agent in the recipe.
- Eggs – 7-8 medium eggs, but weigh in the shells and try and get as close to 400g as possible and match the butter, sugar and flour to this weight
- Coffee – Instant coffee here for me, but a strong espresso works
- Baking powder – this is optional, but I think it helps. Make sure measuring you level the tsp, not heaped.
Cake frosting
This frosting is a basic American buttercream frosting that has had coffee added into it. A frosting like this is so super simple to make and that’s why I love it.
- Butter – unsalted block butter, NOT baking spread
- Sugar – icing sugar, every time
- Coffee – same as above, I use instant coffee that I have dissolved, by 2 strong espresso shots should work fine
Recipe Updated March 2024
Every now and again I will update blog posts as they are a few years old, my knowledge has developed, or I thought it required a change. However, I will always keep the original recipe on the post and that’s here.
- Cake – 400g butter, 400g caster sugar, 8 medium eggs, 400g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 4tsp dissolved coffee
- Bake at 150ºc fan into two tins for 45-55 minutes
- Frosting – 225g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar, 3tsp dissolved coffee
- Beat the butter, add the sugar and coffee and pipe onto the cake
Tips & Tricks
- This cake will last in a container for 3+ days at room temperature, or you can freeze for up to 3 months!
- I used this Medium 2D Closed Star Piping Tip
- I used this large piping bag
- I used this 8″ Cake Tins
- Recipe updated March 2024 – original recipe on the blog post
Coffee Cake
Ingredients
Coffee Cake
- 400 g unsalted butter/baking spread
- 400 g caster sugar
- 8 medium eggs
- 400 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 4 tsp strong espresso/instant coffee
Coffee Buttercream Frosting
- 300 g unsalted butter
- 600 g icing sugar
- 3 tsp strong espresso/instant coffee
- sprinkles/coffee beans
Instructions
Coffee Cake
- Heat the oven to 180ºc/160ºc fan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment, leave to the side.
- Dissolve the 4tsp strong espresso/instant coffee in 1tbsp of boiling water and leave to the side to cool fully.
- Beat together the unsalted butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the self raising flour, eggs and baking powder and beat again briefly until combined - try not to overbeat!
- Fold through the cooled dissolved coffee in to the cake mix so it's evenly distributed.
- Divide the mixture equally between the tins and smooth it over.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean
- Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack.
Coffee Buttercream Frosting
- Dissolve the 3tsp strong espresso/instant coffee in 1tbsp of boiling water carefully, and leave to cool fully.
- Beat the unsalted butter on it's own until smooth
- Add the icing sugar and mix
- Add the coffee and mix again until light and fluffy
- With the first layer of the cake, spread/pipe half of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer, then add the second cake on top, and repeat again
- Sprinkle over some pretty sprinkles and or chocolate coated coffee beans and enjoy!
Notes
- This cake will last in a container for 3+ days at room temperature, or you can freeze for up to 3 months!
- I used this Medium 2D Closed Star Piping Tip
- I used this large piping bag
- I used this 8" Cake Tins
- Recipe updated March 2024 - original recipe on the blog post
ENJOY!
Find my other recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Hi Jane, I was just wondering how much of the batter would go into the 8 inch tins for two tiers?x
Hi Jane, Could you use camp coffee instead of espresso or instant coffee?
Hiya! This should work yes! Enjoy! x
Hi, this recipe doesn’t mention walnuts. How much would i add to this recipe for coffee and walnut cake? Thanks
Hiya! In the post it says just add 100g chopped walnuts to the mix for a coffee and walnut cake. Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane, I wanted to bake this cake and wondering how much in grams would go into each cake tin? x
The best thing to do is weigh out the cake batter and then divide the amount in half and put that amount in each tin.
HI Jane, I just bought your recipe book and made your coffee and walnut cake. I was wondering why it doesn’t have baking powder in and why the quantities are different to this recipe. Love your book and can’t wait to bake them all! Thank you
Good morning Jane!
Love your recipes, they are all so amazing!
Just wondered if you can use camp in this recipe instead of instant coffee?
Many thanks x
Yes for sure!! And thanks!! xx
Hi do you use the same amount of Camp coffee (4tsps)? Wasn’t sure if it was more concentrated or not!
Hi,
Will this work without a stand mixer please?
Hello, yes of course!x
Hi jane
I love baking all your recipes but im having a repeat problem baking this recipe and not sure where I’m going wrong?
It has a tendency to bubble but go sad in the middle? Any advice would be most welcome 😊
Many thanks
Hey, that sounds under baked xx
Hi Jane i just love all your recipes can i use coffee from a jar for this coffee cake
Thank you
Mary
Hi! If you mean instant coffee yes you can sometimes it just has a weaker flavour xx
I have made this and it is amazing!! I would like to make a Victoria sponge cake like this! Could I just leave out the coffee and Walnuts part qnd make the recipe into a Victoria sponge?
Hey! Yes that would work xx
Thank you !
Hi Jane,
I would like to add walnuts to this cake. Would this work with the mixture or would I need to make adjustments? Thank you.
I would maybe reduce the cake quantities by 100g sugar/butter/flour and 2 eggs, and then add in loads of walnuts! X
Could I replace the caster sugar with light soft brown sugar?
Yes for sure! x
Hi Jane,
I have made a few of your recipes now and they have all turned out perfect. I’ve just popped these sponges in the oven however I am just wondering as I struggled on the coffee part- the most important bit! I dissolved the 4tsp coffee in the water however it turned into a solid texture and was really hard to blend into the mixture. Please can you advise on this?
Thanks 🙂
Oh this is so strange!! If they were heaped teaspoons it may have just been too much coffeee for the amount of water so just add a smidge more next time! x
Hello Jane, what would the measurements be if I were to make this a loaf? Thank you x
instead of a 400g mix I would use maybe a 250g mix! x
Hi Jane,
I am looking to make this cake as a double layer but with 2 x 7 inch diameter tins that are about 3 1/2 inches deep – how would you suggest I change the ingredients to suit?
Thanks in advance!
Hiya! This cake is very deep for a two layer (its an old post, normally I’d do three layers from these quantities now) – so I would use maybe 2/3 of the recipe! x
Hi Jane! I want to do this recipe, how do I go about colour the coffee buttercream? X
Sorry, do you mean you want to colour it?
Hi, yes colour it to another colour so it is not brown x
Okay so as the base colour is brown, it will be harder to colour.. you’d have to use a good quality colouring such as sugar flair, wilton, pro-gel etc and counter the brown somehow depending on what colour you want it to be!
Thankyou!!
Hi Jane,
Could I make this with brewed and then cooled espresso or does it need to be instant coffee? Also, if I were to split this across three tiers rather than two, how would you adjust oven times/temperatures please?
Thank you! 🙂
Yes you can do! A strong espresso works well! And yes – it would take 25-30 minutes per layer x
Amazing, thank you so much for your response. Would you use the same amount, 4tsp, of espresso?
Yes roughly – I would use one strong espresso shot! x