- 4 oz. walnut pieces
- 3 tbsps sugar
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 tbsps butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tbsps kirschwasser
- pinch salt
ingredients
directions
1. Preliminaries: Preheat oven to 350˚. Prepare cake pan. Grind half the nuts with half the sugar in the blender, turn out onto the waxed paper; grind the rest of the nuts and sugar, and add to the first half. Sieve the flour over the nuts and mix well with rubber spatula, smoothing out any lumps in the mixture. Soften the butter in the bowl and beat to a creamy mayonnaise-like consistency. Set aside. |
2. The cake batter: Beat the sugar and eggs with the kirschwasser and salt for a moment at low speed to blend, then increase speed to high and beat several minutes (7 to 8 with a hand-held machine) until mixture is pale, fluffy, doubled in volume, and holds in soft peaks. Remove bowl from stand. Scoop a 2-spoonful dollop of egg mixture into the softened butter and mix with rubber spatula; set aside. Sprinkle 1/3 of the ground nuts over the egg mixture and delicately fold them in with a rubber spatula, being careful to deflate thugs as little as possible. When almost incorporated, add the same amount again, fold, and sprinkle on the remainder. When that is almost incorporated, add the creamy butter and rapidly fold in. Turn batter into cake pan, which will be about 2/3 filled. Tilt pan to run batter up to rim all around, bang lightly on table, and set immediately in middle level of preheated 350˚ oven. |
3. Baking - about 30 minutes at 350˚: In about 20 minutes the cake will have risen to the top of the pan; in another 10 minutes it will have sunk slightly, and will show a very faint line of shrinkage at points around the edge of pan, indicating that the cake is done. Remove from oven, and let cool 10 minutes. Run a knife around cake, and reverse onto a rack; in 5 minutes or so, cake will drop out of pan. Peel paper off bottom of cake in a few minutes, when it has loosened. |
Notes
 Serve with Crème Chantilly. |
