This creamy, delicious coffee cake is full of coffee flavour, perfect as a simple tea time treat or as a celebration cake.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Homemade Coffee Cake
This is one of my favourite homemade cakes, with or without the icing. This coffee cake is slightly different from what you may be used to, in that I don’t make coffee to add to the cake. Instead, I add good quality instant coffee granules straight to the batter right at the end, with the flour.
The result is a wonderful hit of coffee aroma with just a hint of bitter as you have a bite of the cake. It’s beautiful to look at too, as you slice it, you see all these little black specks, almost like poppy seeds. The addition of cardamom lifts the flavour and adds just a hint of warmth to the coffee cake.
Coffee Cake Icing
This is a very popular cake with my clients. And because it’s always ordered for a special day, I always ice it. Buttercream icing transforms this coffee cake from a delicious teatime cake to a celebration cake worthy of any occasion.
However, when I make it at home, I leave it un-iced, and we have it warm on its own or with some ice cream and sometimes even custard.
What icing you use for this cake is completely up to you. Plain old vanilla buttercream is amazing with this coffee cake as it tones down any lingering coffee hint of bitter, if you are not a massive fan of coffee, which is usually the case with kids.
But my personal favourite icing for this cake is coffee buttercream. Perhaps a more obvious choice for a coffee cake, but I think if you are a coffee lover, then it just completes the flavour.
Take a look at my Buttercream Icing page for all the various flavours. If you are not too confident about icing cakes, take a look at my Cake Decorating page, where you’ll find all the necessary information, like Icing and Filling Cakes with Buttercream.
The Coffee
As mentioned right at the start of this article, we won’t be making any coffee for this cake, instead the coffee hot comes direct from instant coffee granules, added to the batter. So you want to start off with a good quality instant coffee.
My favourite kind for this is the instant coffee granules that are mixed with ground coffee beans. There are quite a few brands out there doing this, I use the Kenco Millicano in our coffee cake.
You’ll need an 8″ (20 cm) cake pan, line it and grease it as required.
Now, let’s get our aprons on!
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Lin xx
Coffee Cake (with Optional Coffee Buttercream Icing)
Ingredients
- 200 g self raising flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 160 g salted butter
- 160 g sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- seeds of 6 cardamoms ground
- 2 Tbsp instant coffee granules
Optional Coffee Buttercream
- 250 g regular salted butter
- 600 g icing (powdered) sugar
- 2 Tbsp strong espresso OR strong instant coffee whatever you drink
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180˚C (350˚F / 160˚C Fan).
- Sift the flour and baking powder.200 g self raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder
- Cream the butter and sugar for a minute until light and pale.160 g salted butter, 160 g sugar
- Add eggs, one at a time, with 1 tsp flour with each addition, beating about a minute in between. The flour will stop the mixture from curdling.3 large eggs
- Add the vanilla and cardamom and lightly beat to mix.1 tsp vanilla paste, seeds of 6 cardamoms
- Fold in the flour and coffee and pour into your cake pan.2 Tbsp instant coffee granules
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes.
- Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.
- If you are icing, as in the pictures, make sure your cake is completely cool, before doing so. To ice the cake, please head on over to the Icing and Filling Cakes with Buttercream page.
Optional Coffee Buttercream
- Place the butter in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy, about a minute.250 g regular salted butter
- Add the icing sugar and beat until thoroughly combined and smooth. You’ll end up with a very pale cream mix.600 g icing (powdered) sugar
- Add the coffee and vanilla and beat to mix.2 Tbsp strong espresso OR strong instant coffee, 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Keep it covered with cling film until you’re ready to use it.
Notes
The Nutritional info and total time is for the cake without the icing.
Hi there, I’m emailing from nz and wanted to ask please in the photos above for your coffee cake, did you use vanilla buttercream or make this one with the coffee buttercream.. I cant really tell.. Thank you so much I’m super excited to make it for my birthday soon!” Sarah
Hi Sarah, for these particular pictures, I believe I used vanilla buttercream (they were taken about a decade ago). However, my favourite icing with this cake is definitely coffee buttercream. The coffee flavour isn’t overly strong in the icing, given the amount I suggest. You can always adjust the strength of the coffee buttercream to your taste. But if you want to make it stronger, increase the amount of coffee granules/beans, not the water. You don’t want the icing too watery.
Let me know how it goes.
I love cooking with granulated coffee; it really brings out the chocolate flavor in desserts. Also, beautiful pics!
It sure does, thank you.
Oh wow – this is my kind of coffee cake… are real one! Absolutely gorgeous! I bet it’s delicious!
Thank you, it sure is!
first of all these pictures are fireeeeee. The cake itself looks incredible and I really like how you decorated it, You did a fabulous job!
Thank you Andrea!
If that cake tastes as half as good as it looks, then I’m all in! Definitely going to try this out!
Thank you Derek!