Walnut Cinnamon Cake with Candied Walnuts
Book Clubs have been a large part of my adult life. When my kids were young the few hours at the monthly meeting was one chance to be me, Sandra, person of interest, not me, Mrs G, mother of three.
Busy work years meant no time for Book Club let alone reading for pleasure, but after I gave up paid employment it became a priority again. Around the same time I met a wonderful group of older single retired women at regular group fitness sessions at our local recreation centre. Our conversation often centred on books and film, exhibitions and theatre so our common interests led us to forming a book discussion group.
This is not a group of zipped up staid old maids. They are thinkers, feisty, opiniated and outspoken, interesting and interested woman who embrace life with gusto. We are all left leaning with a strong sense of social justice and are subject to political outrage. These are well travelled women who love the theatre, food, wine and a good belly laugh. I’m the baby of the group and these women are my role models for the years ahead.
Our December meeting and Christmas dinner this year was also an 80th birthday celebration and I volunteered to bake a birthday cake. The birthday girl is our pavlova queen so meringue cake was out of the question and it was too hot and humid for chocolate, so I resurrected this walnut cake recipe as a vehicle for the candied walnuts I was inspired to make, a bit back to front I know, but judging my the oohs and aahs, an inspired decision.
I set aside 12 perfect candied walnut halves for decoration then blitzed half the remaining batch into a crumb to press into the sides of ganache coated cake. Sparklers added birthday bling.
I love this cake and don’t know why the recipe has been shelved for so long. It’s dense and moist, solid enough that it handles easily, but light to eat. The cake cuts cleanly and tastes of walnuts with just a hint of cinnamon.
Happy birthday to my dear friend Jane, 80 years young!
Walnut Cinnamon Cake
30g dried breadcrumbs
30g brown rice flour
225g shelled walnuts
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
225g unsalted butter at room temperature
180g castor sugar
6 eggs, separated, at room temperature
3 tablespoons castor sugar extra
Preheat the oven to 150C fan forced.
Grease a deep sided, 20cm springform cake tin and line it with baking paper.
Blitz the walnuts breadcrumbs and rice flour together in the food processor to a very fine crumb.*
Cream the butter and sugar until white and fluffy, then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.
Stir the walnut meal into the butter.
Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks then whisk in the extra sugar to stabilise the egg whites.
Fold the egg whites into the walnut mixture 1/3 at a time.
Tip the cake batter into the tin, smooth the top.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours or until a skewer comes our clean when poked into the centre of the cake.
Cool for 10 minutes in the tin before releasing the sides.
Allow to cool completely before decorating.
* including the rice flour and breadcrumbs with the walnuts in the processor prevents the nuts from turning to a paste.
Ganache
1/2 cup cream
125g dark chocolate couverture pellets
Bring the cream to the boil, remove from the heat then stir in the chocolate with a clean metal spoon.
Continue stirring gently until the chocolate has melted. the ganache should be smooth and glossy.
Spread the ganache over the top and sides of the cooled cake.
Candied Walnuts*
2 cups of shelled walnut halves
50g butter
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Line a tray with baking paper to tip the finished nuts onto to cool.
In a saute pan melt the butter, sugar and lemon juice. Allow it to simmer until it starts to caramelize. It will only take a couple of minutes.
Add the walnuts, toss to coat in caramel and continue cooking until the caramel is well coloured. Stir in the cinnamon, then immediately tip the nuts into the middle of the tray and spread into a single layer while still hot.
You need to work quickly as even on a warm day I found the caramel hardened within a few minutes.
Use the walnuts whole to top cakes and brownies, chopped in a salad with radicchio, or as I did, processed to a crumb and used as a sweet crumb sprinkled on ice cream.
* this recipe makes double what is needed to decorate a 20cm cake, but making caramel in very small quantities is tricky because it burns easily.
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Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
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There is so much to love about this post, Sandra, starting with that opening photo. Wow! No wonder it was so well-received. Love the flavors in this cake and the candied walnut coating must really set off the cinnamon. I’m pinning the recipe with the hope that one day I’ll have the courage to bake it. 🙂
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Aw thanks John, it was a fabulously photogenic cake, but best of all it was indulgent without being rich or cloying. It’s quite a sturdy cake, and no great skill is required to make it, i urge you to give it a trial run!
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Holiday Worthy! It’s going on my to bake list…
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I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Thanks for dropping by..
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Sandra, What a beautiful cake! Candied walnuts on top? Absolutely gorgeous the way you have placed them. You made Jane forget she has turned 80, but how you made her day special. 🙂
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Oh cinnamon! ❤
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Matched with walnut too, sigh…
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Now, that’s a book group I’d love to be in!
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Its a lot of fun, but also very intellectually stimulating…
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‘Not zipped up staid old maids’ made my day! So relate!! Know a few!! With that and the interests and the leanings – wish I lived in the ‘Four-Seasons-in-a-Day’ city: would ask to be a visitor 🙂 ! And am seriously looking at ‘that’ beautiful cake – don’t bake but that one is not so sinful, especially around Yule . . . and it surely looks moreish!
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We have overwhelmed a few newcomers over the years, but visitors are always welcome. I think the walnut cake would be too
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What a beautiful looking cake Sandra! Jane must have felt so very special when you brought this out to celebrate her Birthday. Such a lovely combination of flavours.
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I believe she did. We sent Jane home with the leftovers then she sent an email to my husband the next day apologising for eating his share!
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That’s a seriously beautiful cake. Ooh, ah is right.
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I can see why it got oohs and aahs. Good to hear about the left leanings 🙂
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It was right up there among the best cakes i’ve ever made Glenda, a bit of decadence for my bolshi mates!
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Sounds like a brilliant group of ladies. My folks are in a social group in Melbourne – we call it the youth club. I just love the sound of this recipe – walnuts and chocolate are perfect partners.
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There is a certain irrepressible dynamic in a bunch of like minded seniors, idle and bored, never!
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Yum! I see you took the inspiration and ran a mile… in the right direction! Fabulous cake. Miss the wonderful book club and its members, it was an honor be a part of so many of those impassioned discussions 🙂
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It was timely inspiration and it worked a treat, the cake was truly fab! They always ask after you😃xxxx
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Very, very yum! Beautiful festive cake 😄
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Thanks Cathy & Chucky it’s a super celebration cake! Enjoy…
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Still managed to get that chocolate in there! I want to be one of those feisty women when I grow up (I’m still in age denial). They sound like excellent role models! Fantastic that you have this group, Sandra. I’m sure you will put those candied walnuts to other diverse uses.
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We have heated discussions on all sorts of topics, including the book we have read, no one holds back, but we always part friends. The candied walnuts are so simple to make and have many many uses. Tonight we had them with radicchio and parmesan, delicious,
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Well Mrs Recipe, this is just gorgeous. Have added it to my ‘list to cook’ list. Those candied waltnuts make my mouth water. Keep on busting those ageist myths to pieces….rock on women! 😁
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I feel like a groupie in the company of these women Cheery, they are seriously out there……the walnut cake is amazing and if Mr Yak likes walnuts, he’ll love this cake, as will anyone else you feed it to!
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and Gluten free?! I’m in love!
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A special occasion cake with French origins, I adapted to fit into a gluten free diet, it’s seriously good!
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