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Orange Honey Walnut Cake

9 April 2009 2 Comments

Have you ever collected a whole bunch of something without knowing how you did it? Recently, I realized that I had somehow stockpiled a huge amount of walnuts. Three giant 2 pound bags, to be exact. Why? How? I don’t even use walnuts that often. I can only assume that every time I went to the store, I thought I was out and bought another bag. I don’t remember doing that… but there the walnuts sit to prove it.

So, having this glut of walnuts, I’ve been casting around for ways to use them up. Whenever I am trying to use a lot of something up, it seems as though I can find tons of recipes, but each recipe only uses a tiny bit. True to form, that’s how it was with walnuts. 1/4 cup here, a handful there. It would take me forever to use up my 6 pounds at that rate.

Finally, I found one that used a bit more, and sounded yummy besides – Orange Walnut Cake. As has been my latest trend, though, I couldn’t leave the recipe alone. For some reason, that combination of orange and walnuts just really needed some honey with it. I couldn’t leave the idea alone.

After some tinkering and adjustments, I made my recipe and crossed my fingers. Apparently, the planets were in alignment, as the cake came out wonderfully. It is a moist and rich cake flavored with orange and honey, but not too sweet. This could almost be used as a breakfast cake, definitely as a snack cake and of course, as a dessert cake with a nice dusting of powdered sugar.

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Orange Honey Walnut Cake

Serves 6-8

Orange Honey Walnut Cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 pinch salt
4 large eggs
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup applesauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon orange zest, finely grated
Powdered sugar for garnish

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9″ springform pan, tube pan or cake pan with cooking spray (I used a tube pan).

Grind walnuts in food processor until finely ground, but not powdery. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and pulse briefly to combine.

In mixer, beat eggs until frothy, 2 minutes or so. Add sugar and honey, and continue to beat until thick and pale, 3-4 minutes. Lower speed and add walnut / flour mixture in steps until just mixed. Add orange juice, applesauce, orange zest and olive oil and beat just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Place pan on baking sheet lined with foil and bake until tester comes out clean, approximately 40 minutes.

Cool cake completely on rack. If desired, dust with powdered sugar before serving.

http://www.dontforgetdelicious.com/2009/orange-honey-walnut-cake/

Nutritional Info calculated with BigOven Recipe Software

Calories: 401

Fat: 18g, Sat Fat: 2g

Fiber: 2g

Sugars: 32g

Protein: 11g

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2 Comments »

Cake Ideas said:

B E A U T I F U L… recipes..

since, i really love honey, can we fully subtitute sugar with honey..? so, it will be sugar free and also full of honey

# 6 September 2009 at 12:33 am

Digigirl (author) said:

You could try subbing all honey – I haven’t done that so I’m not sure exactly how that would work out. It would definitely make it softer as sugar contributes some of the “crispness” to the texture of baked goods. It might make it too wet. You might want to find some articles on subbing honey for sugar and see what they say about proportions.

Good luck!

# 6 September 2009 at 8:27 am