Walnut Orange Cake

So, long weekend, I know you are meant to celebrate a great man that did incredible things for our country. I am not downplaying his effect or importance to our history. But this weekend I am also celebrating having time to do two things: 1) sleep, and 2) cook.

Earlier today, whilst sipping my coffee, I flipped through Bon Appetit magazines I had on hand, and circled a number of interesting-looking recipes. There were two I decided on for today- a butternut squash soup, and a walnut orange cake. I thought I would make both and whichever ended up better, I'd post.

Well... the soup was good, all things considered, but Husband and I both thought it needed a mysterious "something". So, by process of elimination (and because it was actually really good), you get cake!



Walnut Orange Cake (Original Recipe from Bon Appetit, Oct '07)

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup olive oil

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.

Roughly chop walnuts, and then in food processer, grind until fine (stop before powdery). In mixing bowl, combine together walnuts, flour, and baking powder and set aside.

Using stand mixer, beat eggs until fluffy (about 2 mins). While contining to mix, slowly add sugar and continue to beat another 3-4 minutes. Egg/sugar mixture will lighten in color and thicken.

Slowly integrate walnut/dry ingredient mixture into batter. Add orange juice, zest, and olive oil and mix until blended. Coat cake pan(s) with butter (or olive oil, if you are happy with the lack of butter in this cake and want to continue) and flour, then pour in batter.

The article suggested a 9-inch springform pan. I however used two standard loaf pans instead, as one cake would be covered in orange mascarpone frosting and topped with birthday candles, and the other eaten almost immediately out of the oven. I topped the non-birthday cake one with a small dusting of powdered sugar.

UPDATE:
Now having made this cake on three separate occassions (can't get enough of this one!), here are a few cooking time tips. It took about twenty minutes to cook the two loaf pans, and about 35, 40 minutes for the cake in an 9 x 2 cake pan. It might have just been my oven as well, but the outsides got mighty burnt before the inside cooked all the way through when I tried it in the cakepan yesterday.

Also, this recipe works pretty nicely as well if one uses half orange and half lemon instead of all orange.