Recipe | Coffee and walnut tray bake

This coffee and walnut tray bake is the perfect tea time cake. Delicious!

This is a quick, easy recipe I found on GoodtoKnow. I used a lot of strong coffee and the coffee flavour in the cake was still subtle, so don’t worry about going too far.

Ingredients (makes 12-18 slices of coffee and walnut tray bake cake)

For the cake:

175 g / 6 oz self-raising flour, sifted
100 g / 3.5 oz walnut pieces
175 g / 6 oz butter (at room temperature) or baking margarine
175 g / 6 oz caster sugar (granulated sugar will work if you can’t get caster)
3 eggs (large or medium)
4 tbsp cool, strong black coffee.

For the coffee buttercream:

200 g / 7 oz icing sugar (sieved)
100 g / 3.5 oz butter (at room temperature)
2 tbsp cool, strong black coffee.
Walnut halves for optional decoration

Method

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees C (170 degrees C fan)/ 375 degrees F / Gas Mark 5.

Line your baking tin with greaseproof baking paper. My rectangular tin measures 18 x 32 x 2.5 cm (7 x 12.5 x 1 inches). The original recipe calls for a 18 x 28 cm (7 x 11 in).

If you have a food processor, use it to blitz the walnuts until they are finely ground. I don’t have one, so I put the pieces in a bowl and used the end of a rolling pin to bash them into small bits!

Use a stand mixer or electric hand beaters if you have them. Beat the butter or baking margarine together with the caster sugar for 3-4 minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring the mixture gently between each addition until combined. Add the flour and finely-ground walnuts and stir in gently. Finally, add the coffee and mix thoroughly. Pour the coffee and walnut tray bake mixture into your prepared baking tin and use a spatula or knife to spread out evenly.

Put in the oven for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden brown. My oven tends to bake things quickly. After 25 minutes I removed it and stuck a knife in the middle. It came out clean so the cake was done. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack.

While the coffee and walnut tray bake is cooling, make the coffee buttercream.

Again, if you have an electric mixer, use it to help you. Beat the butter for 3-4 minutes first until smooth. Then add the icing sugar and coffee. Start mixing very slowly until the icing sugar is mostly combined and then beat more vigorously until the buttercream is smooth.

I decided to divide my tray bake into three and decorate each section differently. I cut one third of the cake down the middle horizontally to create two thin layers and spread the buttercream between the layers before sandwiching them back together and then cutting into squares.

I cut the second third into squares, piped a swirl of buttercream on each of the slices and popped a walnut half on top of the swirl.

And, the easiest option, after cutting the final third into squares, I just spooned a dollop of coffee buttercream onto each slice.

How you decorate your coffee and walnut tray bake is up to you. Here are the options!

This coffee and walnut tray bake is absolutely delicious. The coffee flavour in the cake is subtle, but the additional coffee in the buttercream balances this. You can store it in an airtight container in a cool, dry place and it’ll keep for 4-5 days. Good luck making it last that long!