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
Units
Scale
For the Cake
- 1 cup (240 ml) of chopped walnuts
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) of freshly grated coconut
- 1 cup (240 ml) all-purpose flour
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp of baking powder
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup (320 ml) of granulated sugar, powdered
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) of lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) of milk
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) of sunflower oil
For the tamarind sauce
- 2 tbsp tamarind pulp
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) water
- 2 cardamom pods with seeds, crushed
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) 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
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Indian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 340