Vegan Coffee and walnuts Cake by Chiara Saitta

Chiara Saitta is well known here in Brighton for her amazing pastries and deserts and we in the Greener Beauty offices, have been known to travel to vegan fairs with a sole intention of visiting her stand and stocking up on yummy treats! And they never disappoint! So it is with great pleasure that I introduce this months guest blog by Chiara. We love seeing the pictures of you creating our monthly recipes so don’t forget to keep tagging us in them this month!

Vic x

Chiara

“A fluffy and creamy cake that mixes the two incredible flavours of coffee and walnut. Perfect for a special occasion or for a tea time treat!”

INGREDIENTS

For the Cake:

14g baking powder

150g unrefined sugar

200g all purpose flour

1/8 tsp bicarbonate

A pinch of salt

75g chopped walnuts

225ml soy milk

9ml apple vinegar

67ml sunflower oil

1 cup of espresso coffee

For the Buttercream:

300g vegan butter (my preference Naturlì)

400g icing sugar

A pinch of salt

2 cups of espresso coffee or more if you like

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees and grease an 8 inch cake tin.

In a measuring jug mix the soy milk with vinegar and let it rest for 10 minutes.

In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients well.

Add the sunflower oil and the coffee to the milk and whisk together.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix well.

Pour the batter into the cake tin, tap the tin on the worktop to remove any air bubbles.

Bake for around 30 – 35 minutes. To check the cake is ready put a skewer in, if it comes out clean the cake is cooked.

In the meantime make the coffee butter cream.

Put the butter in a food processor and whisk at high speed until the consistency is like cream.

Add sugar, coffee and a pinch of salt.

Let it rest in the fridge.

When the cake is cooled cut the cake in half, horizontally.

Wet the middle layers of the cake with a small amount of coffee.

Spread the middle layers with the buttercream and sandwich them together then cover the whole cake with the remaining coffee buttercream.

Leave it in the fridge for 1 hour to set.

Decorate as you wish, I like to transfer the leftover buttercream into a pipping bag with a star nozzle attached and pipe swirls of cream onto the cake, then I add some coffee beans and walnuts.

Once ready it can be served straight away or it can be stored in the fridge for 2/3 days.

About Chiara Saitta

Chiara was the founder of Wani Vegan Bakery UK in Brighton, East Sussex and Wani.bio in Rome, Italy.

Chiara has recently stepped away from Wani Bakery UK to dedicate her professional journey to a more focused growth as a pastry chef and currently has the amazing job of the official pastry chef of the fantastic Erpingham House Brighton.

You can follw Chiara and her journey on Instagram here.