The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking
Walnut Cake with Coffee Syrup
Page 516
Cuisine: Greek | Course Type: Cakes
View photos (1)Tags: honey spices cake walnuts coffee challenge cakes and pies with nuts
Recipe Reviews
This is my second time through this recipe and the wow factor is kind of gone. It's still very good. However, because there is actual Greek yogurt available I have used this instead of following the thickened yogurt recipe for the sweetened yogurt. The second time that I made this I used a US brand name Greek yogurt which had an after taste. That is a mistake that I won't repeat.
friederike from Berlin,
A very nice cake, goes well with coffee (haha :) ). I used zwieback and normal (not toasted) walnuts; you can probably tweak this recipe to make it suitable for people on a gluten-free diet as my guess is that it's easier to substitute the zwieback than it would be to substitute flour. I forgot to measure the quantity of the syrup and just poured everything over it, but luckily that wasn't a problem. I really liked the structure of the cake.
Because of the spices, it reminded me very much of Christmas and I'm considering making the cake again in December, though I would then probably use another syrup, i.e. vanilla, cinnamon or cardamom syrup, and perhaps even coat it in a layer of chocolate.
(edited 25th May 2017) (0) comment (1) useful
Queezle_Sister from Salt Lake City, UT
We loved this cake! It contains very little flour, and instead the body is largely composed of chopped walnuts and the crumb of your choice. Like Peckish sister, I used Panko. This mixture also contains separated eggs, with the whites beaten and folded in. I was quite skeptical, it looked different from almost every cake I've ever prepared, but my worries were unfounded.
Like PS, the most difficult part, we found, was waiting. First you wait for the cake to cool, then you slice and apply syrup. Then you wait for the syrup to penetrate - over night. I will confess to snitching a small piece for breakfast, and it went very well with a cup of strong coffee.
Peckish Sister from Central, FL
This seems more like a torte than a cake. I toasted the walnuts and skinned them as much as possible to reduce any bitterness. The directions worked well here. I like coffee, but not coffee flavored anything else, so I made a lemon flavored syrup instead of the coffee syrup. It was delicious, the flavors felt Greek and went together well. It was hard to wait the specified time, but it was worth waiting for. Be careful and only use the amount of syrup specified, it is perfect.
(edited 26th February 2013) (3) comment (4) useful
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