For many years now, this cake has accompanied every celebration in my family home. A sponge cake, one half made with ground walnuts, the other left plain, with a filling of rum, vanilla and lemon. It is only fit that it follows my third blogiversary. 🙂 I’m sure my mum would approve.
Sorry about the atrocious photos. They were taken with very little light coming from a very weak tungsten bulb, handheld.
Mum’s Walnut
Cake
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SOURCE: Mum, recipe adapted from the one she got off a family friend
PREPARATION TIME: about 1 h
COOKING TIME: about 30 min for the filling, and 1 h for baking
CUISINE: Croatian
SERVES: A crowd!
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INGREDIENTS:
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PLAIN SPONGE
6 medium eggs
6 tbsp of sugar, heaped
10 g vanilla sugar, or 1 tsp of good quality vanilla extract
6 tbsp plain flour, heaped
6.5 g baking powder
a pinch of bicarbonate soda
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WALNUT SPONGE:
6 medium eggs
6 tbsp of sugar, heaped
10 g vanilla sugar, or 1 tsp of good quality vanilla extract
7 tbsp finely ground walnuts, heaped
2 tbsp plain flour, heaped
6.5 g baking powder
a pinch of bicarbonate soda
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FILLING:
7 dl milk (full fat, or semi-skimmed)
3 tbsp corn flour, heaped
3 tbsp flour, heaped
250 g butter, at room temperature
300 g icing sugar
20 g vanilla sugar, or 2 tsp of good quality vanilla extract
Juice of 2 lemons
2 tbsp rum, or to taste
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TO DECORATE:
About 20 – 30 whole walnut halves
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METHOD:
Note: It’s a good idea to start with the filling, so it has time to cool while you prepare the sponge cake.
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I. FILLING
1. Stir in the corn flour and plain flour into the milk, until smooth, and with no lumps.
2. Put the milk to boil, stirring constantly, avoiding lumps to form. When it thickens, leave to cool. (It’s supposed to be fairly thick, barely leaving the spoon when you tap it.)
3. Meanwhile, beat the icing sugar, butter, vanilla and lemon with an electric whisk until smooth. Add rum to taste, and possibly more lemon if you like it more lemony.
4. Combine the butter and milk mixtures, and mix well together.
5. Leave to cool again. (Mum says this makes it easier to spread later on.)
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II. SPONGE
Note: both the walnut and the plain sponge are made in the same way. Ground walnuts are added at the same time as the flour.
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1. Preheat the oven to 180 C, and grease and flour a 25 cm tin, or two. Sift the flour and baking powder and bicarbonate soda together.
2. Place the eggs, sugar and vanilla into a mixing bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until the volume doubles in size, and when you lift the mixer out of the bowl, the egg mixture that drops from it traces a ribbon on its surface.
3. Add the flour to make the plain sponge, or flour and walnuts for the walnut sponge. Fold in with the mixer turned off, and then switch the mixer back on and mix briefly, until combined.
4. Pour the mixture in to the prepared baking tin, and bake until the cake is risen, and a toothpick or skewer inserted inside it come out clean. This should take about 20 – 30 min.
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Repeat the process to make the walnut sponge, using flour and walnuts in place of flour only.
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III. ASSEMBLING THE TORTE
1. When the sponge cakes have cooled, cut them both in half, and then spread the filling on top, alternating the the brown and yellow cakes. Decorate with the remaining walnut halves, and chill.
This cake gets better with keeping, and can ‘survive’ in the fridge for about 4 – 5 days, provided it’s not eaten before that!
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Notes:
Instead of walnuts, you could use almonds or hazelnuts, but we usually use walnuts. I think the original cake might have had 1 chocolate layer, 1 walnut, one hazelnut and one plain.
Photos updated 7 May 2014.
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More sweet Croatian recipes on this blog:
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For this year’s 
4. Leave the dough to stand, until it almost doubles in size. The mixture is going to be warm, but it mustn’t be too warm otherwise it will ruin the yeast (says mum). If your pot/bowl is cold, put it in another bowl/pot filled with warm water. 
9. Take them out in batches and put on some tissue paper which will soak up some of the oil. 
What a great bowl to lick! Yummy! 
Blackberries and I 