real German nut cake

[Kali]

from my very good friend, Silvia C. (translation complicated by me)

grease and "flour" with breadcrumbs 2 cake pans (I use a bundt and a bread loaf)

cream:
400 gr Sugar (1 3/4 cup)
500 gr Butter (4 sticks, maybe a couple Tbsp more - I don't bother)
10 eggs
2 spoons vanilla (tsp)

stir in:
500 gr flour (2 1/4 or 2 1/2 cups) - I'm trying 1/2 whole wheat today
2 Tbsp baking powder (I also use salted butter and add less than a tsp more salt, if you use unsalted add a couple tsp salt)
500 gr ground nuts - walnuts, hazelnuts, combo - I use pecans

bake 350 F for about one hour
do the usual cool for 10 min, turn out on a rack

while still warm drizzle (smear top) with very thick powdered sugar/lemon juice glaze so that it runs and drips down the sides like candle wax from the remaining warmth

decorate with a few nut halves I forgot to tell you to reserve at the beginning of the recipe:P

this seems to be basically a NUT pound cake, and it is VERY easy to eat too much - careful!

[yellerpup]

1. I love nuts in practically everything

and this looks delicious. Is there any reason I couldn't make half a recipe? If I needed to bake for gifts I might make two cakes at once, but feeding only 2 people I have to invite people over if I'm just making one! Looks good, though! :hi:

[Kali]

2. I don't see why not! It seems pretty flexible on things to me.

I didn't write sugar when she told me the recipe and then it was a couple years before I tried the recipe so the first batch was sugar free except for the glaze! :o :rofl: It was OK but kind of needed a bit of glaze in each bite.

It IS kind of a fall/winter/x-mas sort of cake but my oven was defunct and today is my younger son's birthday. I still had pecans I bought last fall for pie and he said hmmm nut cake for birthday sounds good, so there we are.

Oh it freezes GREAT. So if you do make both just freeze the second (or half of the first too, for that matter) It actually is better if you let it sit a couple days or freeze it anyway!

Watch the timing at the end of baking time - mine got a little too done this time. Working oven has its drawbacks.

too late to edit but I forgot to write in the OP to only fill the pans about half or a bit more - it does rise quite a bit with all that baking powder.

[yellerpup]

3. Thanks.

I'll try it!

[eleny]

4. Does this cake have a very dense consistency?

We used to get nut cakes from a German bakery when I was little. They were really good. Seems like the only difference is that the ones we got had granulated sugar on top. And they had some nuts around the rim of the top. So good.

I went looking for pictures of German Nut Cake and also found a recipe that I think is one I've been looking for for a long time. It's a German Apple Cake. The ingredients and height are spot on so I'm going to try this one next time I bake. I always keep a sack of apples around.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5337696_bake-traditional-german-apple-cake.html

[hippywife]

5. Thanx for posting this, kali.

Sounds like something good to try for the hubband's breakfasts. :hi:

[clear eye]

6. Best use w.w. pastry flour rather than the regular kind

if you're trying whole wheat. The added flavor from 1/2 whole wheat might make this delicious-looking cake even more magnificent. Have you ever tried traditional eastern European sour cream cake w/ cinnamon & walnuts? Though a little less rich than the recipe you posted, it reminded me of it. I'll bet a half recipe can even be baked in a rectangular pyrex dish in the toaster oven. (The pyrex evens out the on-off nature of toster oven heat.) I often bake brownies that way.

[hippywife]

7. I almost forgot to come back and post!

I did make this Saturday. I did a half batch and used two loaf pans. I cracked a bunch of hazelnuts and threw in some almonds. Didn't make the glaze since it was gonna be a breakfast thing, but rather eat it with a schmear.

I doubt that it came out the way it was supposed to because I think lighter when I think "cake." But it is German baking so maybe it is supposed to be this dense and have this course a crumb. Or maybe I over-baked it. I already knew it wasn't going to be overwhelmingly sweet. We had a neighbor when I was growing up who was from Germany. She would bring over monster cookie trays. Everything was really good but not overly sweet.

Bill really loves it and is asking for it to be placed in the breakfast rotation. I've been enjoying it, too. Very different and understated, but very good.

:hi:

[Kali]

8. oh yes - dense

My German friends make fun of our "air cakes" and of course our commercial bread too.

You can up the sugar to go sweeter, won't hurt anything - and like I said I made it without any sugar the first time, so that works too.:rofl:

I'm thinking chopped dried apricots or cherries.:think: }( :9

[hippywife]

9. I think it would be great

with either apricots or even dates in it. It's pretty good just like it is and I wouldn't really want it any sweeter.

[The empressof all]

10. I've been watching this thread and I'm gonna make this cake soon

SO and the kid really like marzipan so I'm going to use Almonds and add a hit of Almond extract. I'd also like to add a bit of a chocolate element. What would you think about adding a few chocolate chips or a ganache like glaze? Too much?

[hippywife]

11. Go for it.

I probably would do a glaze on it rather than chips in it, but that's just me. :hi: