Coffee + Pecan Cake

Moist, tender nutty cake covered in buttery coffee frosting.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1 cup (110 grams) pecans
• 1 cup (225 grams) caster sugar, divided in half
• 7 tablespoons (100 grams) softened butter
• if using unsalted butter, add 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 tablespoon freeze dried instant coffee (I used Moccona)
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 1/3 cup (50 grams) all purpose flour

For the icing:

• 4 tablespoons (56 grams) soft butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon freeze dried instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups (240 grams) icing sugar
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• extra chopped pecans to decorate

– If using metric cups, reduce volume measures by 1 tablespoon for every cup of dry or liquid ingredients – 

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with paddle and whisk attachments
• 8 inch round or ring cake pan (approx. 3 inches deep)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 160C (325F). Line the base of an 8 inch round or ring tin with baking paper. Brush the sides with a little melted butter and dust with flour. The tin will need to be quite deep as the cake may rise a lot and then fall back – 3 inches should get you there.

Lightly toast the pecans in a dry frying pan until you start to smell delicious nuttiness and the skins just start to colour. It will only take a couple of minutes. Tip the toasted nuts onto a large cutting board and chop fairly fine. Pecans are quite soft so they are easy to chop by hand and you can control how chunky they are. We want to keep some good texture from different sized pieces. If you use a food processor be very careful that you don’t end up with pecan flour – go slowly.

Cream the butter and half the sugar using a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks and beat until incorporated. Dissolve the coffee in the hot water and add to the creamed mixture. Beat well.

In a clean bowl, whip the egg whites until firm peaks form. Add the remaining sugar a bit at a time over about a minute. Once all the sugar is in whip for another minute to make sure all the sugar is dissolved.

By hand, gently fold the flour and chopped pecans into the creamed mixture. Add about a quarter of the whipped egg whites and fold in. This bit of egg white will lose a lot of it’s volume but you will see that it softens the rest of the mixture a lot. This will make it much easier to fold in the rest. Very gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Be as careful as you can because the finished cake will be about the size it is when the batter goes in the oven. Scrape into the prepared pan and gently smooth the top.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until it springs back when pressed gently. It will have risen a lot and it will fall back. Don’t panic! Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing beat all the ingredients except the pecans together until fluffy. It doesn’t look like a lot of icing but it will just cover the cake. Decorate with extra pecans.

Cook’s Notes:

• Replace the pecans with walnuts if you prefer.

 – This cake will stay moist and delicious for 3 to 4 days in an airtight container – 

Adapted from Taste Magazine.

© 2015 The Winsome Baker. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or link back to this post for the recipe.