This Greek walnut cake is one of the evergreens on gerechtenweb, the Dutch counterpart of surprising.recipes. I published it first in 2013. And from 2014 until 2018 it was continuously one of the top 10 most popular recipes. So it was more than overdue to rework the article, and along the way also to publish it in English. Below the recipe you will find more tips for making it. And can learn about Vitaxos, the secret ingredient.
Greek walnut cake
Equipment
- 1 cake mold 26cm diameter
Ingredients
for the cake
- 300 gram walnuts
- 150 gram flour
- 150 gram butter
- 120 gram sugar
- 10 gram baking powder
- 6 tablespoons Vitaxos or a similar Greek brandy
- 4 eggs
- 2 tablespoons cinnamon
for the finishing (optional)
- 10 ml water
- 8 gram sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vitaxos
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- zest of a quarter of an orange
Instructions
for the cake
- Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, baking powder and sugar.
- Finely chop the walnuts in the food processor and add to the dry ingredients in the bowl.
- Melt the butter in a pan. Break the eggs, keeping the white and yellow separate.
- Successively add the egg yolk and the melted butter to the dry ingredients for the dough. You now have a fairly dry mixture. But no problem, the beaten egg white still has to come!
- Beat the egg white until very firm. Then gently mix it into the dough.
- Preheat the oven to 190°C. Brush a cake tin with butter.
- Transfer the dough into the pie pan. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
for the finishing (optional)
- After you have removed the cake from the oven and let it cool, you can optionally add an extra syrup.
- To do this, heat the water with the sugar. Add the Vitaxos, cinnamon and zest.
- Let it integrate for a while and then cover the cake with the syrup.
Nutrition
About Greek walnut cake
This Greek walnut pie is actually very easy to make. Traditionally I mix all the dry ingredients first and then add the rest in several steps.
Compared to other batters, this dough is quite dry. Don't let that confuse you though, everything will be fine! Especially after you have added the egg yolk, the Vitaxos and the butter, it is more like a dough ball than a liquid batter. But we still have the egg white to add. Beat this well until it is very stiff and then carefully mixed into the batter. And after that you have just the right consistency to bake the dough.
Finishing with the Vitaxos syrup is optional. It is very tasty, but of course not suitable for everyone due to the sugar. Cinnamon and orange zest give the syrup full flavor. I like to apply a thin layer of the syrup on the cake. This gives extra flavor, without being too sweet and overpowering. If you have a sweet tooth, you can pierce the cake with your fork and pour some more of the syrup over the cake. It then penetrates deeper into the cake through the holes. I however don't do this, because then the original walnut flavor suffers.
Do you like to impress your family and friends? Or are you just interested in different languages and the names of the recipes in their original language? Then you should really know the original Greek name of this walnut cake: karidópita. But I advice to exercise the pronunciation a bit before you share this with your lovely audience!
About Vitaxos
Vitaxos is a traditional Greek brandy. It has a particularly mild and soft taste, but is best known under the better known brand name Metaxa. But both names are also used interchangeably. And if you don't have this at home, you can just as well use another brandy with a soft sweet taste.
Metaxa is amber in color and is made with Muscat wine and Mediterranean herbs. It was developed in 1888 and has since been sold worldwide. Since 2000, it belongs to the Cointreau group.
More surprising.cake
There is nothing better than a surprising cake on a Sunday afternoon. Or any other time of the week. Be sure to take a look at the following original ideas to bring some variation in your Sunday-afternoon cakes:
- Biscoff-pear pie.
- Highstreet strawberry cake.
- Swiss carrot cake.
- Pineapple marzipan cake.
- Refreshing coconut-polenta cake.
More surprising.walnut
A good advice for planning your groceries for this Greek walnut cake. Buy a big package of walnuts! As they always come in handy in the tastiest dishes. You might find some inspiration in the following recipes:
- Tagliatelle with healthy Gorgonzola sauce.
- Blue cheese Brussels sprouts.
- Dates filled with goat cheese and walnuts.
- Lebanese inspired makdous with ajvar.
- Delicious banana peel curry.
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
