What is it like?

-roasted almonds and walnuts

-a rich crumb

-delicately spicy

Recipe

This recipe was adapted to be gluten free and dairy free from David Leite’s recipe ‘“Russians” Nut Cake’ from The New Portuguese Table. It’s deliciously moist and has that unmistakable aroma of roasted almonds and walnuts. It’s simple to make and stays fresh for several days. It’s a go-to in my home. See note for Paleo.

dry
1/3 cup blanched almond flour, 43g
2/3 cup ground walnuts*, 85g OR grind 1 cup (100g) walnuts with 1 tbsp (23g) flour mix)
1/4 cup flour mix, 31g (OR cassava flour for Paleo)
1 tsp baking powder, 5g
1 tsp (3g) psyllium husk powder or xanthan gum (omit if Paleo)
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground coffee, optional

wet
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar, 63g (OR date sugar for Paleo)
1/4 cup (47g) olive oil (or preferred oil) OR 5 tbsp butter
3 large eggs
1 tbsp water, 12g

Buttercream
1 cup (225g) butter, at room temperature (or use 3/4 cup Earth Balance for dairy free)
2 3/4 (343g) cups powdered sugar, or to taste
dash of salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Grease an 8x8 baking dish.

2. Grind 1 cup walnuts with 1 tbsp flour mix in the food processor. It’s fine if there are some stray walnut pieces left over as long as most of it is a flour. The walnut pieces are an excellent addition to the cake.

3. In a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.

4. In a medium bowl whisk together the wet ingredients.

5. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and whisk just until most of the lumps are gone. Pour the batter into your baking dish and bake for about 20 minutes or just until the middle springs back when pressed. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

6. While the cake bakes, prepare the buttercream. Stir together the powdered sugar and butter. If your powdered sugar has lumps you may want to sift it first. If you like your frosting light, you can use a mixture to whip it on high for a few minutes.

7. Frost a cake to a thickness you desire. Left over frosting can be frozen for several months.

8. If you like you can get creative with the frosting. I chose to cut this cake into small squares and then piped a rosette onto each square.

9. This cake will stay moist and fresh for three days if kept in the fridge.

   Note: If your food processor is large, I recommend grinding twice the amount of walnuts so that they grind finely. The ground walnuts that you don’t need can be frozen and used for another purpose. Or in may case, for another one of these cakes!