Espresso Cake with Chocolate and Nuts

Coffee is something you either hate or can’t live without, and I’m most certainly a top member of the latter group. Right now, my one year old loves helping me make my morning coffee. He loves to “scoop the beans” and press the grinder button. It’s been the greatest addition to my morning routine.

So for coffee lovers like me, I developed a new way to get my daily dose of caffeine, and that is, as you can already imagine, inside a cake. I hope you enjoy this espresso cake recipe as much as we do.

Ingredients Used

• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Ground cinnamon , optional
• Salt
• Unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• Dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• Pure vanilla extract
• Very strong espresso or brewed coffee, cooled to room temperature
• Yogurt or sour cream
• Chopped dark chocolate
• Chopped pecans, plus more for sprinkling

How to make espresso cake (coffee in cake)

• Combine the dry ingredients. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
• Mix the wet ingredients together. In a separate bowl, combine the sour cream and espresso. Set aside.
• Cream together the butter and sugar. In a large mixing bowl (stand mixer) fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the room temperature butter for about 2 minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat together for another 2 minutes until completely combined.
• Add the eggs. One at time, add the eggs to the mixing bowl and beat to combine. Be sure to use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides to make sure all the batter is combined evenly.
• Add the dry and wet ingredients. Alternatively add the dry ingredients and the sour cream and espresso mixture to the mixer, combining slowly between each addition until everything is incorporated. Lastly, fold in the chocolate chunks and pecans, either with a rubber spatula or slowly with the paddle attachment.
• Bake. Pour batter into a parchment lined loaf pan with overhang so you can pull the cake out of the pan easily. I like to garnics the top with chopped pecans, but this is completely optional. Put into the oven for 45-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the cake looks golden brown.
• Cool. Once the cake is cool enough to handle, you can lift it out of the loaf pan and place it on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Tips for perfect espresso cake

• Coffee Flavor. You can control the amount of coffee used so that the flavor is either strong or subtle. Speaking of which, don’t be afraid to use strong coffee here because even with a double shot espresso, my final cake ended up with a pretty mild coffee flavor. Last time I made it, I added coffee granules in addition to the espresso, and liked it even better.
• Making strong coffee. I find that espresso yields the best flavor, but you can replace it with (very strong) freshly brewed coffee or use instant espresso powder dissolved in ¼ cup boiling water. Use the ratios on your instant espresso to figure out how much you’ll need.
• Mix-ins. Crunchy pecans and chocolate are my favorite add-ins to this cake, although sometimes I only use pecans. The bittersweet flavors combine perfectly with one another, so I definitely recommend using both.

More of my favorite loaf cakes

• White Chocolate Raspberry Loaf Cake: One of my all time favorite cakes! Juicy raspberries and rich white chocolate come together for the ultimate dessert.
• Coffee Loaf Cake: If you’re looking for another coffee flavored cake to try, this coffee loaf cake is a must! It’s moist, tender, and amazing.
• Mom’s Honey Cake: This light and delicate cake is bursting with honey flavor!
• Chocolate, Dulce de Leche, and Vanilla Marble Cake: Three rich flavors are swirled together for a sensational taste explosion.