Calabrian Walnut Cake
As many of you know, I’m an almond cake guy. So much so, if were I given the opportunity to take three recipes into my next life, one of them would absolutely be the almond cake from Cooking for Mr. Latte.
You’ll find it funny, then, that when I finally set out to make a walnut cake instead of an almond cake — turning over a new nut leaf, so to speak — I suddenly ran out of walnuts and had to improvise. So I added some almonds.
Really, I wanted to go all-walnut here. And it would’ve been a different cake, to be sure (and lived up to the title of this post… sorry new visitors who Googled “walnut cake”!). But the big surprise for me here was that almond or no almond, grinding nuts into a flour and then folding them into a batter makes for a more pure-tasting nut cake than the nut cake I’m taking to the afterlife. Maybe I’m a nut cake myself, but does this walnut/almond cake give my favorite almond cake a run for its money?
In terms of ease of construction, the two are almost neck-in-neck. On the one hand, the Amanda Hesser almond cake requires only one tool: your KitchenAid mixer. On the other hand, this Calabrian Walnut Cake requires a food processor (to grind the walnuts) and possibly a KitchenAid mixer to whip up the egg yolks and sugar, though you could probably do that by hand. I definitely beat the egg whites by hand, my workout for the day.
As for flavorings, the almond cake is just almond paste and then a hit of almond extract. This walnut cake is supposed to have lemon zest, but seeing as I didn’t have any lemons, I did the next best thing. I added some booze.
That goes into a pan, the pan goes into the oven, and it bakes for 45 minutes or so. It’s when it comes out of the oven that the differences between the two cakes become abundantly clear. Whereas the famous almond cake rises up from the sour cream combining with the baking powder, this cake stays pretty flat. Keep in mind it only has three basic ingredients: walnuts, sugar, and eggs.
Frankly, I found this cake a bit suspect when I took it out of the pan and dusted it with powdered sugar. It looked like a glorified pancake. What would my dinner guests think when I served this up after our lamb shanks Rogan Josh? Would they storm out in disappointment, never to return again? Writing up a furious review on Yelp?
Turns out, I had nothing to worry about: this cake is a marvel. It’s got so much going on. There’s the coarseness of the nuts, the richness from the egg yolks, a little depth from the whiskey, and the levity from the egg whites. Plus I added a pinch of salt to give it a little edge.
Comparing this “walnut” cake to the classic almond cake is like comparing… almonds and walnuts. It’s a pointless exercise. Sometimes you feel like a walnut, and sometimes you feel like an almond. And in my unintentional version, you get a little of both.
Next time, though, I plan to do something radical. I’m going to make this walnut cake with… walnuts.
Calabrian Walnut Cake
An extremely simple Italian dessert (Torta di Noci) adapted from a recipe on Food52.
Ingredients:
340 grams shelled walnuts (use a scale!) — if you don’t have enough walnuts, throw in another nut
4 eggs at room temperature, separated
1 cup sugar (the original recipe calls for superfine sugar, but regular granulated sugar worked fine for me)
Lemon zest from 1 lemon (original recipe) OR a splash of whiskey (my alteration)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375. Prepare a 9-inch cake pan by spraying it with non-stick spray, lining with parchment, and spraying that too.
In a food processor, pulse the nuts for a while until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Don’t go too far, or you’ll wind up with nut butter!
Either in a stand mixer or by hand, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy (it should almost look like mayo). Add the lemon zest or whiskey and the walnut meal, stirring to combine.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a whisk until you get to stiff picks (meaning they stand up on their own). Mix 1/3rd of the egg whites into the batter to lighten it a little; then fold in the remaining egg whites with a rubber spatula, trying not to lose any air (this will give your cake height).
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, testing around 40 minutes with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean. Let cool in the pan completely before tipping out, removing the parchment, and placing on a cake stand. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
