Comments on: walnut jam cake

By: Isabel

Isabel — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:09:34 +0000

love it! very tasty, didn’t even get round to the jam topping and it was scrumptious all the same

By: Victoria

Victoria — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:56:07 +0000

A friend of mine made this with a few tweaks, one of which was using pecans instead of walnuts. I made it that way as our Thanksgiving dessert, with a little whipped cream and some Fruit of the Forest preserves.

It was delish!

By: Nigel

Nigel — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 02:30:43 +0000

Not sure if you’ll ever see this note, but I have to let you know that this is one of the best (and easiest!) cakes I’ve ever made. So good I’ve made it twice in the past week and a half. Can’t wait for your book.

By: NickS

NickS — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:58:41 +0000

Having read your Vermontucky Lemonade recipe, and confirmed that you like bourbon, I definitely recommend trying the walnut-bourbon cake idea.

Part of what makes it work so well, in addition to the fact that it’s a good flavor combination, is the general richness/density of the cake helps it stand up to a strong flavor without being overwhelmed.

By: NickS

NickS — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:19:25 +0000

I made this yesterday for a 4th of July party, it was the first time I’ve made a recipe from Smitten Kitchen, it was fantastic, and I ended up changing the recipe in a way that turned out so well I wanted to share.

I knew that I didn’t want to serve it with a topping so I wanted to add fruit flavor to the cake. I took ~1/4 of a cup of finely chopped fruit (mix of dried apricot and candied ginger), packed, soaked it in bourbon for 24 hours (just enough to cover the fruit ~2tbsp), and added that to the batter.

The fruit was nice, but not that strong a flavor, but the bourbon was fantastic!

We ate the cake just after if had finished cooling, about 4 hours out of the oven, and the whole cake tasted like bourbon, without having much alcohol in it at all.

It was a bit of an accident, I was just trying to add a fruit flavor, but the walnut-bourbon cake was better than I could have expected.

Also I cut the butter and eggs by a third and didn’t miss that at all. It was still a rich cake, with the walnut base, but a little lighter which was good since with six people we finished it off pretty easily.

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:04:03 +0000

An update, in case others out there are plagued with similar food allergies: though the food chemistry expert did not appear, I tried it anyway with quite good success and the following substitutions:

For the butter: 1 stick crisco butter flavor baking sticks + 2 TBSP water
For the flour: 1/2 cup rice flour
For the baking powder (contains corn starch): 2 parts cream of tartar to one part baking powder
corn-syrup free raspberry preserves
whipped cream on the side

The only downside was that, I think, rice flour is not as effective as normal flour when flouring a pan, because the cake fell out in two pieces even though it was almost completely cooled. Nothing that some squishing together and a layer of jam couldn’t fix, though. And it was DELICIOUS! And my friend was DELIGHTED!

By: Laura

Laura — Thu, 19 May 2011 20:05:17 +0000

I’ve been ogling this recipe for weeks, saving it up for a special occasion. Tonight’s special occasion is a friend visiting from out of town who I haven’t seen in years… and who is a poor soul unable to eat gluten, dairy, or corn products (or xanthum gum)! And I’m thinking of attempting this cake!

So could someone tell me:
(1) If I can use a 1/4 cup GF all purpose flour WITHOUT xanthum gum?
(2) Can I use a stick of shortening instead of butter or margarine? Even Earth Balance margarine has corn products in it. :(
(3) Or should I *really* just not press my luck with this one?

Thanks folks! Hopefully someone with a masters in food chemistry will serendipitously happen to see this in the next few hours!

By: Katharine

Katharine — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 18:52:42 +0000

I finally tried making this cake after drooling at the pictures for about three months straight, and while it was absolutely wonderful it wasn’t quite what I expected. I was anticipating something a little more dense and – how dare I – less buttery. Could it maybe have to do with my lack of a food processor, and instead grinding the nuts in our blender? I don’t know how fine they’re supposed to be, but mine were like a very coarse meal, not quite into tiny-pebble territory. Any other suggestions to arrive at my different texture idea?

By: Christina

Christina — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:39:25 +0000

I absolutely loved this – it was such a unique little cake, and really tasty. I’m not big into whipped cream, but the addition of the sour cream made it just right. Best of all, it was SO easy and came together in just a few minutes with simple ingredients and ONE bowl! I’ll definitely be making this one again.

By: Melange

Melange — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:28:43 +0000

Deb–I’ve made this several times now, and can attest that it works with multiple kinds of ground nuts (i.e. whatever is lurking at the back of the fridge), and it also behaves well in my fancy European pan–the one that curves between side and top. Even better, Europeans who don’t like American cakes think that this one is Just Lovely.