Walnut cake: a delicious autumn treat that will win you over.

The summer is now over and with it has passed the desire for watermelon and slush. With the arrival of autumn, we seek flavors that warm us, such as the walnut cake, soft and fragrant, perfect for breakfast but also great as a dessert after dinner. The walnut cake is a dessert that will surely win you over, light and delicious, perfect for those who love dried fruits. The walnut cake is part of traditional Italian pastry, but it can also be revisited with original recipes. Discover how to make it with us.

Walnut cake, the classic recipe

The first thing you need to make a walnut cake is, of course, the walnuts, ideally of excellent quality. Like the Lara walnuts from Eraclea that you can find on Spaghetti e Mandolino. The walnuts are supplied by Sa.Ma. and come from Venice, more precisely from Eraclea, and are harvested from Tenuta La Spiga. In this corner of the countryside in Eastern Veneto near the sea, in a still pristine landscape just a step away from the lagoon of Caorle, the estate produces and collects top-quality walnuts. This is a very particular variety: its name is Lara, and they have a milder and sweeter flavor compared to other types of walnut.

Here are the ingredients:

130 g of walnut kernels

80 g of all-purpose flour

100 g of butter

100 g of sugar

2 teaspoons of baking powder

2 medium eggs

The first thing to do to prepare the soft walnut cake is to shell the walnuts and chop them finely, then add 30 grams of sugar. Now, take the remaining sugar and work it together with the butter until you create a creamy mixture. Then add the eggs and the chopped mixture, and finally the flour and the baking powder, working everything until the mixture is nice and frothy and free of lumps. Pour the batter into a well-buttered mold of at least 20 centimeters in diameter and bake at 180°C for at least 40 minutes. When the walnut cake has reached a nice golden color, it will be ready; now all you have to do is take it out of the oven and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Walnut cake, the delicious variations

Now that you know how to make the walnut cake, it’s time to let your imagination run wild. Starting from this simple yet delicious dessert, numerous very tasty variations can be made. For example, why not indulge in a nice walnut cake with chocolate? Perhaps the one from Modica that you can find on the Spaghetti e Mandolino portal, just like the dark chocolate produced by Domori.

If you’re looking for something lighter, then you can try making the walnut cake without butter, using oil instead. The flavor will be different but still very tasty.

Another type of very appreciated walnut cake is the grandmother's, soft and delicious like the ones grandmothers used to make for us when we were little!

But the variations don’t stop there: there is also walnut and ricotta cake or with honey, or why not, apples and almonds. In short, there are countless recipes to try to discover what your favorite is!

Walnut cake: here are the famous ones not only in Italy

Among the numerous types of walnut cake, there are some very famous ones. This is the case of the Engadine walnut cake, a typical sweet from the Swiss canton of Graubünden. A delicious shell of shortcrust pastry enclosing a filling of walnuts and caramel cream. Simply perfect for an afternoon break with a cup of tea or coffee, this walnut cake is ideal to serve as a dessert. Another well-known dessert is the delicious Grenoble tart, a true paradise for nut lovers. This sweet treat is very simple: a shell of shortcrust encloses a delicious filling of walnuts and caramel. Perfect for the early autumn days, great in winter especially if you treat yourself after a long walk or at a time when you need to recharge your energy.

At this point, all you have to do is choose the walnut cake recipe that suits you best and get to work!

Francesco Scuderi