Dense Coffee Walnut Cake

Our answer

Nigella's Coffee And Walnut Layer Cake (from KITCHEN) has a sponge that includes ground walnuts. When ground nuts are incorporated into a sponge it will make the sponge moist, but the texture may not be quite as light and open as a traditional plain Victoria sponge.

Otherwise sponge cakes can get a little heavy if they curdle while they are being mixed, though the method of alternating the dry and wet ingredients should help to reduce the risk of this. Over mixing can also make cakes a bit heavy. You could try adding one third of the flour mixture, then half of the eggs, another third of the flour then the remaining eggs. Mix the final third of flour mixture in by hand and then fold in the milk as doing this by hand can help to keep the cake a little lighter.