Eggless coffee and walnut cake

For all you coffee lovers, I have the perfect recipe for you! This eggless coffee-walnut cake is super soft and fluffy. Oh and that kick of coffee and bite from the walnuts- SO good!
I’m notorious and guilty for dunking my cake in coffee. The mouthfeel of a freshly baked cake mixed with the strong spell casting taste of coffee is impeccable. To combine both of these is such a brilliant idea. This coffee walnut cake is what a coffee lover’s dreams are made of. Perfectly sweetened, strongly flavoured with coffee and the nuttiness from the walnuts make it the combination we have all been waiting for. This bakery style cake is eggless and has the creamiest cream cheese icing.

I’m more excited than ever to frost my coffee walnut cake with cream cheese since this time the cream cheese is also made at home. YES, you can find the recipe right here. This is perfect as I do understand that not all grocery stores offer creamcheese. Now you can continue with your baking adventures without worrying about where to procure that cream cheese from! If you make this, please also tag me on Instagram!

THE EGG REPLACER

Over years and years of recreating recipes, I have come to determine that yoghurt works as the best replacer for my cakes. This coffee walnut does not need eggs, so people who do not consume eggs can enjoy this too. YAY! As a replacement I have used yoghurt. Your basic homemade ‘dahi’ will also work well here. To activate the yoghurt I have used a chemical leavening agent- bicarbonate soda, commonly known as baking soda. Baking soda is alkaline in nature and reacts when comes in contact with acidic ingredients. The yoghurt here acts as an acidic ingredient and reacts with the baking soda. This creates a reaction and bubbles of carbon dioxide are produced. These bubbles will now get trapped in the batter and help our cake rise and be absolutely amazing. Enough science back to baking now. Haha!

COFFEE GOODNESS

The coffee walnut cake should remind you of a cup of coffee as soon as you bite into it. To recreate this experience I have made sure to use the perfect amount of coffee. To prepare the concoction I have taken equal parts of coffee and hot water. Hot water will activate the coffee better and bring out the flavour by awakening the coffee powder. My go-to coffee brand for instant coffee is nescafe. However you can take this one step further and elevate the taste even more by adding a single shot of espresso.

THE FROSTING

Now that we have obtained our freshly made cream cheese at home. It’s time to whip it up and make the smoothest cream cheese frosting for our coffee walnut cake. All you need to make the frosting is softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla and cream cheese. Make sure that the butter is soft and not melted. This will not do justice to the texture of the frosting. Also, use a good vanilla extract or vanilla bean. This may seem small, but makes such a major difference. Lastly icing sugar will give structure to the frosting, this can be replaced by powdered sugar just make sure you add a little cornflour to the mix for stability.

BAKING THE CAKE IN A MICROWAVE

Just like most of my recipes, this cake is versatile enough to bake in an oven and a microwave. For the oven, I would recommend baking it at 180 C for 30-35 minutes.

But, for a microwave, bake it at 180C in the convection mode for about 25 minutes.
And if you want to understand the basics of baking a cake in a microwave, I have a blog post about How to bake a microwave (link the blog). For the video, check out my youtube channel here.

Eggless coffee and walnut cake

 

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Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

• 1 + 1⁄2 cups (180g) all purpose flour (maida)
• 1 teaspoon (4g) baking powder
• 1 cup (285g) yogurt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon (3g) baking soda
• 3⁄4 cup (150g) castor sugar
• 1⁄2 cup (120mL) vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon (5mL) Vanilla Extract
• 2 tbsp coffee powder + 2 tbsp hot water ¼ cup
• (63g) crushed walnuts

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 cup (225gm) cream cheese, softened
• 1⁄2 cup (100gm) butter, softened
• seeds from half vanilla pod
• 1 + 1⁄2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven @ 180C.
2. In a clean bowl, add the yogurt and baking soda. Give it a good mix using a spoon and let it sit for 5-10 minutes until it becomes foamy.
3. In a separate bowl add the sugar and vegetable oil. Using a whisk mix this really well for about 3-4 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix it.
4. Add the yogurt and baking soda mix and combine well.
5. In a separate bowl add coffee powder and water, mix it and add it to the cake batter.
6. Now to the batter through a sift add the flour and baking powder. Using a spatula gently fold the dry mix in. Mix until you don't see any large flour pockets.
7. Add the walnuts and give it a final mix. Transfer to an 8’ baking pan lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake @ 180C for 30-35 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
9. To make the frosting, whisk the butter, cream cheese and vanilla together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the sugar and use a spatula to mix until the frosting is smooth and fluffy.
10. Generously top the cake with frosting once the cake has cooled completely.

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