Hazelnut Coffee Cake (Easy & Egg-Free)

A bag of hazelnut flour sitting silently in the pantry for three months, judging every cabinet reach for something else, is exactly what finally produced this hazelnut coffee cake on a random Sunday morning. Caving out of pure guilt turned into a cake so good the three months of neglect got forgotten almost instantly.

Nutty, not too sweet, and topped with a coffee buttercream that tastes like something worth eight dollars at a bakery, this recipe uses no eggs at all, which still feels surprising every single time a slice comes out clean. Here is exactly how I do it.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• No eggs, no drama. This eggless coffee cake works great for anyone baking egg-free, and one less ingredient means one less thing to run out of at 9pm.
• Make-ahead friendly. The cake and buttercream both hold up well, so the work splits easily across two days.
• Genuinely impressive-looking. A springform pan plus a swirl of coffee buttercream frosting makes this look far more advanced than it actually is.
• Flexible nut situation. Hazelnut is the star of this hazelnut cake, but almonds work in a pinch if that is what the grocery store actually has in stock.

Tools You’ll Need

Nothing fancy, I promise.

• 8-inch springform pan. This makes unmolding the cake stress-free compared to a regular round pan.
• Stand mixer or electric whisk. This handles the coffee buttercream far more easily than a hand whisk.
• Food processor. Only needed for toasting and grinding hazelnuts from scratch, since store-bought hazelnut flour works as a completely valid shortcut.

Ingredients

For the Cake

• 240 ml milk – Dairy or a plant-based milk like almond or oat both work fine here.
• 2 tsp white vinegar – This curdles the milk into a quick buttermilk substitute. Lemon juice works the same way.
• 145 g light brown sugar – Adds moisture and a faint caramel note.
• 50 g cane sugar – Regular granulated sugar is fine if that is what you have.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 80 ml vegetable oil – Any neutral oil works.
• 195 g all-purpose flour
• 190 g toasted hazelnut flour – The whole point of this cake. Store-bought or homemade, see the toasting notes below.
• 2 tsp instant coffee granules – It is subtle, not a coffee-flavored cake, just enough to make the hazelnut taste deeper.
• 3 tsp baking powder – Doing a lot of heavy lifting here since there are no eggs. Make sure yours is not expired.
• ¼ tsp salt

For the Coffee Buttercream

• 150 g butter, softened – Dairy-free butter works if needed.
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 60 ml whipping cream
• 3 tsp instant coffee granules

How To Make Hazelnut Coffee Cake

None of this is complicated, it just has a few steps that happen in order. Read through once before you start so nothing surprises you.

1. Toast your own hazelnut flour (optional): Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and toast whole hazelnuts for 7-8 minutes until fragrant. While still warm, rub them in a kitchen towel to knock most of the skins off, then pulse in a food processor with a tablespoon of sugar until finely ground. Stop before it turns into hazelnut butter – that happens faster than you think.
2. Preheat and prep: Set the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease your 8-inch springform pan.
3. Curdle the milk: Whisk the milk and vinegar together and let it sit for 5 minutes until slightly curdled. It will look a little wrong. That is correct.
4. Build the wet mix: Add the brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, and oil to the curdled milk and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
5. Add the dry ingredients: Mix in the flour, hazelnut flour, instant coffee, baking powder, and salt until the batter is smooth. Do not overmix, or the cake gets a little tough.
6. Bake: Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If it is still gooey at 45 minutes, give it more time rather than pulling it early to hit some arbitrary deadline.
7. Cool completely: Let the cake cool in the pan for 1 hour on a wire rack, then move it to a serving dish. This part requires actual patience, which I do not have, but I do it anyway because a warm cake melts buttercream instantly.
8. Make the buttercream: Beat the softened butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in two additions, beating until smooth each time. In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee in the whipping cream, then add that to the butter mixture and beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
9. Assemble: Spread the coffee buttercream over the cooled cake with an offset spatula, or the back of a spoon if that is what is clean. Top with chocolate shavings, chopped hazelnuts, or a dusting of cocoa powder.

Make it yours

• Nutella swirl version. You swirl a few spoonfuls of Nutella into the batter before baking for a true Nutella coffee cake twist.
• Pecan version. You fold chopped pecans into the streusel for extra crunch alongside the caramel.
• Chopped hazelnut crumb version. You sprinkle toasted chopped hazelnuts over the buttercream for a hazelnut crumb cake finish with extra crunch.

Perfect Pairings

This hazelnut coffee cake for Sunday breakfast suits two specific pairings particularly well.

• Fresh berries on the side let anyone pretend this counts as a balanced breakfast.
• A brunch spread with something savory nearby, like eggs or bacon, keeps nobody questioning why cake showed up at 10am.

Hazelnut Coffee Cake

This hazelnut coffee cake proves that a forgotten bag of pantry flour can turn into a genuinely impressive bakery-style bake with almost no advance planning. This hazelnut coffee cake recipe layers a rich coffee buttercream frosting over a tender, eggless nut-flour crumb, delivering everything a proper hazelnut crumb cake should taste like. Whether served for a Sunday breakfast or dressed up as a Nutella coffee cake with a chocolate swirl, this moist hazelnut coffee cake recipe earns a permanent spot in the regular rotation.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 5 minutes mins

Servings: 8 slices

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

For The Cake:

• 240 ml milk
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 145 g light brown sugar
• 50 g cane sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 80 ml vegetable oil
• 195 g all-purpose flour
• 190 g toasted hazelnut flour, see the toasting notes below.
• 2 tsp instant coffee granules , not a coffee-flavored cake, just enough to make the hazelnut taste deeper.
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt

For the Coffee Buttercream:

• 150 g butter softened – Dairy-free butter works if needed.
• 150 g powdered sugar
• 60 ml whipping cream
• 3 tsp instant coffee granules

Equipment

• 8-inch springform pan
• Stand mixer or electric whisk
• Food processor

Method

 

1. Toast your own hazelnut flour (optional):

   Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and toast whole hazelnuts for 7-8 minutes until fragrant. While still warm, rub them in a kitchen towel to knock most of the skins off, then pulse in a food processor with a tablespoon of sugar until finely ground. Stop before it turns into hazelnut butter – that happens faster than you think.
2. Preheat and prep:

   Set the oven to 350°F (175°C) and grease your 8-inch springform pan.
3. Curdle the milk:

   Whisk the milk and vinegar together and let it sit for 5 minutes until slightly curdled. It will look a little wrong. That is correct.
4. Build the wet mix:

   Add the brown sugar, cane sugar, vanilla, and oil to the curdled milk and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
5. Add the dry ingredients:

   Mix in the flour, hazelnut flour, instant coffee, baking powder, and salt until the batter is smooth. Do not overmix, or the cake gets a little tough.
6. Bake:

   Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If it is still gooey at 45 minutes, give it more time rather than pulling it early to hit some arbitrary deadline.
7. Cool completely:

   Let the cake cool in the pan for 1 hour on a wire rack, then move it to a serving dish. This part requires actual patience, which I do not have, but I do it anyway because a warm cake melts buttercream instantly.
8. Make the buttercream:

   Beat the softened butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in two additions, beating until smooth each time. In a small bowl, dissolve the instant coffee in the whipping cream, then add that to the butter mixture and beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
9. Assemble:

   Spread the coffee buttercream over the cooled cake with an offset spatula, or the back of a spoon if that is what is clean. Top with chocolate shavings, chopped hazelnuts, or a dusting of cocoa powder.

Recipe Notes

Hazelnut flour: I use store-bought most of the time, since toasting and grinding my own only adds a slightly deeper flavor for a lot more effort.

Milk: I use dairy or a plant-based option like almond or oat, since both curdle fine with vinegar for this eggless coffee cake.

Instant coffee: I always use instant granules instead of ground coffee, since instant dissolves cleanly into both the batter and the buttercream.

Butter: I use dairy-free butter in the buttercream when I need a dairy free hazelnut coffee cake, and it whips up just as smoothly.

Vinegar: I use white vinegar to curdle the milk, though lemon juice works exactly the same way.