For your festive season, chef and writer Nina Parker shares a family recipe that’s as rich in memory as it is in flavour. The star of this story isn’t just chocolate and walnuts – it's Bubi, Nina's grandmother.
Bubi was the glamorous one, who wore stacks of gold rings and bracelets as she baked. Nina tells us: "She would chop the walnuts for this very cake by hand. It took forever, but she never rushed – her jewellery clinking in time with her knife! It's a dessert that would sit out all Christmas long and somehow only get better with time."
Today, Nina blitzes the nuts in a blender instead of chopping them by hand, but the spirit of the recipe stays the same: festive, generous, and made to be treasured.
The recipe is taken from a chocolate walnut the cake that my Polish grandmother used to make for me. It’s naturally gluten-free – I hope you love it as much as I do.
Ingredients:
Serves 12
- 130g walnuts, blended into a flour consistency (like ground almond ), plus a handful of extra chopped walnuts for garnish
- 100g ground almonds
- 280g unrefined caster sugar
- 6 medium eggs, separated
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules, passed through a sieve
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the chocolate ganache:
- 300ml double cream
- 150g dark chocolate
- 100g unrefined caster sugar
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, soft
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp Amaretto optional
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line a cake tin with baking paper.
Put 5 of the egg whites into an electric mixer and whip until they form soft peaks. Start adding in the sugar until just combined. Do not take it to a meringue stage.
Mix the 5 egg yolks, plus 1 whole egg, into a large mixing bowl and then add both your ground nut flours. Spoon in 1/4 of the whipped whites and mix well into the yolk mix. Try to get rid of any lumps. Then gently fold in the next 2/4 and continue with the rest in this way. Fold in the vanilla extract and coffee granules. Try not to knock out too much air.
Use a spatula to gently pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and place it into the middle of the oven for about 35-40 minutes.
The top should be golden, and the cake should be coming away from the sides slightly. A skewer inserted should come out clean. Leave to cool on the side before removing from the tin to cool completely.
While the cake is cooking, you can begin on the ganache. Set a saucepan on medium heat and add the double cream and sugar. Let these combine and heat up, but do not let them boil.
Prepare the chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Slowly start to mix the ingredients together.
The chocolate will start to melt – continue stirring until everything is combined. Add the butter, vanilla and Amaretto (if using) and combine.
Leave to cool completely.
You can help it along by putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes – but don’t let it freeze.
Once the cake is cooled, you can ice it with the ganache using the back of a spoon to create beautiful swirls. Add some leftover chopped walnuts.
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