In the winter months, we love nothing better than to stay indoors and whip up a cosy, heart-warming cake. This boozy twist on a walnut cake is one of our favourites (at any time of year, for that matter)!

It’s spongy and moist and brimming with nutty, spicy, citrusy, boozy flavours that never fail to make us smile. If you like our Gin-soaked Carrot Cake recipe then you will love this, they share a lot of the same characteristics, however, this walnut cake is given a more complex fruit flavour with the use of fresh apple in the cake batter.

It also has another secret ingredient that adds a wonderfully moreish depth to the cake recipe: coffee. Coffee is added to the cake batter and is used to make a ginny syrup to lace the baked sponge with. Yum!

Spice Orange Gin & Walnut Cake

For the cake:
4 large eggs, free-range
200ml vegetable oil
200g self-rising flour
2 large apples, cored and grated
200g light muscovado sugar
250g walnuts, roughly chopped
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 shot of espresso
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

For the icing:
150g softened, unsalted butter
250g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
1 tbsp orange gin

For the syrup:
25ml coffee
25ml water
50g sugar
2 tbsp gin

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160 fan/ Gas 4 and then make the wet mixture by whisking the eggs, orange zest and espresso with the oil then mix in the grated apple and walnuts. Make the dry mixture by combining the flour, sugar, spices and baking powder.

2. Sift the dry mixture into the wet and fold the two together. Fold until no dry mixture or lumps are visible, being careful not to overwork the batter. Pour the mixture into a cake tin line with butter and greaseproof paper. Bake for around an hour or until you can pull a skewer out clean. Leave to cool on a cake rack.

3. Make the syrup by adding the coffee, water and sugar to a saucepan. Heat on medium and stir until all of the sugar is dissolved. Add the gin and leave to cool.

4. Make the icing by whisking together the icing sugar and the butter. Fold in the cream cheese and the gin.

5. Cut the cake in half and drizzle inside of both halves with the syrup. Then half the icing mixture to the bottom half and place the top half over to make a sandwich. Use the remaining icing to decorate the top and edges of the cake.

   Enjoy!

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