Wednesday 20 March 2013

Walnut Oil Cake

Just recently I found myself with a surfeit of walnut oil and some aging buckwheat flour, neither of which have a particularly long shelf life. Around the same time Simon pointed out a recipe by Dan Lepard that he thought looked rather interesting.

Ingredients for Walnut Oil Cake. 

Dan indicated that the ingredients for what he called Spiced Olive Oil Cake were fairly flexible, so I merrily substituted my way through the recipe. My list of ingredients was as follows: 3 eggs, 150 g dark brown sugar, 150 ml walnut oil, 30 ml cold water, 2 handfuls chopped walnuts, 100 g almond meal, 100 g buckwheat flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp quatre épices. To make the cake I followed Dan's method.

To serve the cake I first dribbled a tablespoon of liqueur de noix over the top. Then I mixed 1.5 tbsp liqueur de noix into 50 g icing sugar. Once smooth I added a box of cream cheese (fromage à tartiner) and beat it in. Rather than use it as frosting, I simply cut the cake into wedges and served a dollop of the cream cheese mixture on the side. This meant I didn't have to refrigerate the leftover cake, just the cream cheese, and the cake stayed fresher for longer (refrigeration doesn't do baked goods any favours). Like all oil based cakes, this one improves with keeping a day, and keeps very well for several days.

Coeliacs will notice that my version is friendly.

5 comments:

Tim said...

This looks gooey!!
Nice...

melinda said...

does it have a gingerbread flavor?

Colin and Elizabeth said...

That looks really good. And you method of serving the cream separately is so much better than ending up with a cake covered in dodgy cream because it's been out of the fridge too long. Will try that one - but better wait till Colin can enjoy it too! - or had I???

Jean said...

It looks delicious, very moist and moreish. I like the idea that you can ad-lib with the ingredients.

Susan said...

Melinda: it would if you made it with powdered ginger as the spice, which is what Dan Lepard did in his original.

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