Description
A walnut cake and coconut cake with a very delicate crumb, a caramelized top and soaked in a sweet-tart tamarind sauce. The cake was inspired by an Orange-Walnut Cake from Bon Appétit Desserts.
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 cup of chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup of freshly grated coconut
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp of baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup of granulated sugar, powdered
- 1/2 cup of lemon juice
- 1/2 cup of milk
- 1/2 cup of sunflower oil
For the tamarind sauce
- 2 tbsp tamarind pulp
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cardamom pods with seeds, crushed
- 1/4 cup honey
Instructions
For the Cake
- Pre-heat oven to 175 °C.
- Grease a 8-9? round tin and line with parchment paper. Grease the paper as well.
- Toast the walnuts and coconut dry in a non-stick skillet till the coconut is light brown in colour.
- Blitz the mixture up in a blender till it resembles a coarse meal. Lumps and hard bits are OK, the mixture doesn’t have to be too fine.
- Cool the mixture and in a medium bowl mix it with flour, salt and baking powder. Lightly mix with a fork.
- In a larger bowl, whisk the eggs with electric beaters till frothy (for about a minute or two).
- Gradually add the sugar while whisking till fully incorporated.
- Dump in the walnut-flour mixture and stir a couple of times with a whisk.
- Pour in the lemon juice, milk and oil and gently fold with the whisk till just combined. Do not overwork the batter.
- Pour it into the tin and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour till the center is springy to the touch and the toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Cool completely in tin on rack before taking it out.
For the tamarind sauce
- Heat the tamarind pulp, water, cardamom and honey till the mixture comes to a boil.
- Lower the heat and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.
- Strain the mixture into another bowl and let it rest in the refrigerator till it thickens into a syrup.
- Pour on top of cooled cake and serve.
Notes
Use olive oil in place of sunflower oil for a fruitier flavour. Tamarind is very tart and the cake already contains lemon juice which adds a slight tang to it. I like my tamarind sauce to be slightly on the tart side, but if you prefer it sweeter add a couple more tablespoonfuls of honey to the sauce. It’s important that the sauce and cake both be cool before you pour the sauce on top, because you don’t want the sauce to soak through the cake really. I’ve also noticed that the top of the cake colours up quicker than the rest of it, so if you notice the top turning colour too quickly, loosely rest a piece of aluminum foil on top of the cake tin to cover the top. This prevents the top from burning.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 30 mins