Holiday Recipe 2008

walnut-orange cake

from the WILLIAMS-SONOMA OUTDOORS cookbook picnics and tailgates by Diane Rossen Worthington, 1998, Time-Life Books, San Francisco.

[I first made this cake the day before Thanksgiving.  Cooking is a sensory, motor and cognitive activity.  My commentary,  verbal-spice for this page, is included within brackets.]

Ingredients

1½ cups (6 oz/185 g) chopped walnuts

1 cup (5 oz/155 g) all-purpose (plain) flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 eggs

1½ cups (12 oz/375 granulated sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 orange (about ½ cup/4 fl oz/125 ml juice) [I added enough prepared orange juice to make ½ cup.]

[I had the perfect assistant for the very-sensory-grating-and-squeezing of the orange – my home-from-first-semester-at-college ManChild. No, I am not a hyphen-a-philia.  I do like to make-up words or redefine common terms.]

½ cup (4 fl oz/125 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

confectioners’ (icing) sugar for dusting

[Let’s talk about the nutritional merits of this cake…(specific calorie information at the bottom). Yes, this cake has SUGAR! However, the confectioners’ sugar topping is optional. There are always ways to make a recipe more healthy.  Like no icing.  That COUNTS.

AND! Olive oil is one of those GOOD fats – mono-saturated and all.

AND! Walnuts are VERY good for you, micro-nutrients and all. I’m sure it is the walnuts that help the digestive system work so, erm, efficiently.  After you eat this cake.

Ahem.

WITH the zest and juice of a WHOLE orange, this cake is practically raw bran and a vitamin pill rolled together – certainly off-setting the sugar.  Eat this cake with abandon!]

* Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees Celsius). Lightly coat a 9-inch (23 cm) spring form pan with olive oil.  [I used 2 regular round cake pans.  I am daring for modifying directions.  I take full liberties in my own kitchen.  It's because I am old.]

* Process the walnuts in a food processor until finely grown, almost to the consistency of bread crumbs. In a bowl, combine the ground walnuts, flour, and baking powder. [The directions fit with my habit of mixing all dry ingredients separately from the liquid, dry first.  I also use the same measuring cup without rinsing in between - dry ingredients first, sugar next, then oil, last orange juice.]

* Place the eggs in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until frothy. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture is light, thick, and lemon colored. Slowly add the walnut-flour mixture, beating continuously. Then, with the mixer on low speed, add the orange zest and juice and the olive oil and mix until just combined.

[Notice my metal mixing bowl? I received the largest one, with a handle as a wedding gift over 20 years ago. Immensely useful. What I like most about these bowls (compared to ceramic) is that they are lightweight. My hands are kind-of-small, and so to pour from a bowl with one hand while mixing with the other, well, it works for me.

Notice my mixer and how I store the cord. I received this mixer as a gift when I was in college, over 30 years ago. See how things last if you take care of them? No, I am not channeling your mother.  I'm channeling mine.  Sigh.]

*Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. [‘Round here, we call them ‘toothpicks’. The other method I learned at my mother’s elbow for doneness-of-cake is to lightly tap the surface. If the dent stays - not done. If the surface bounces back to smooth - done. This might take some practice (motor skill).

A good cook knows her oven, too. Mine tends to run hotter than the dial indicates. So I use an oven thermometer AND I set the time for 30 minutes to check early. Since my old oven is slightly uneven for heating, also (sigh) I reversed the position of the two pans midway for more even cooking.  Many judgment calls are necessary while cooking.  Many aspects are not intuitively obvious.  If you have ever tried to teach a child or a man how to cook, you get this.

While the cake was baking, I prepared some fruit accompaniment. The photo in the cookbook shows strawberries, but fruit from the strawberry capitol of the world, Poteet, Texas is not in season right now. So I made a yummy combo of canned-and-drained mandarin oranges, dried cranberries and fresh kiwi. Warning, this relish multiplies the nutritional content about eleventybillion times. Tastes good, too.]

*Set the pan on a rack to cool. [Really, did I have to tell you that? I’m leaving-off the rest of the serving instructions, except to say that you can make it pretty by stenciling the powdered sugar on top, as seen in the photo in the cookbook.
I have a lot of experience cooking but this is the first recipe I have posted online.  I’ve come a long way from my earlier insecurity about being a domestic diva.]

Serves eight. Per serving: calories 541 (kilojoules 2,272), protein 8 g, carbohydrates 64 g, total fat 30 g, saturated fat 4 g, cholesterol 106 mg, sodium 217 mg, dietary fiber 2 g.  

Comments

[Carey]

Sounds yummy!

[Vicki]

Now that might just be something my "not crazy about dessert" husband would like.

[Sandi @ Life with Jessica]

Thanks for sharing the recipe Barbara, this sounds really good! And as always, your "verbal-spice" had me chuckling :-)

I'll have to look for metal mixing bowls...lightweight sounds good, I too have small hands (wish the rest of me were!) and it can be tricky trying to scrape and pour batter.

Have a wonderful holiday!!