Black Walnut Redux

As promised in the blog “Squirrely”, I made this black walnut cake. Extracting the nuts proved to be quite difficult, a task only to be considered by the most devoted of foragers. If you are a wimp, look for this treat at the market or online. A cup of black walnuts will cost you over $5.50 but it’s not as if you are making this buttery delight daily. The nuts were surprisingly fruity, with the cake bordering on bananas. The nuts that I collected tasted fresher than the store-bought ones, but both were fruity.

Black Walnut Tea Cake
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
5 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup black walnuts, finely ground
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F. In an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well combined. Add the vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Alternate adding a third of the milk and flour mixture and beat until well blended. Add the walnuts and beat until just combined. Pour batter into a 10″ cake pan (I used a spring form pan) and bake for 50 minutes until a wooden skewer comes out clean. Cool on a rack for 20 minutes. Remove the cake from the pan, cool completely and dust with confectioners’ sugar.

There are many recipes out there that pair cream cheese frosting with this cake, but I chose to make it plain, only dusted with powdered sugar, to go with a strong cup of tea. Add an additional 1/4 cup of milk if you want a moister cake to slather with frosting.

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