Walnut Cake Recipe (Karidopita)

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Try this Walnut cake recipe (Karidopita) or Karithopita and bake a fluffy yet crunchy syrupy cake perfect for family and guests.

What are the ingredients for this Walnut Cake Recipe?

Start this walnut cake by gathering all your ingredients. Now you may ask what are the ingredients for a walnut cake?

Karidopita ingredients

The ingredients are few and very easy to remember : 4 cups of flour, 3 cups of sugar, 2 cups of chopped walnuts, 1 cup of milk, 8 eggs, vanilla and  ammonia carbonate or baking powder. This walnut cake is infused with syrup giving it an extra sweet taste.

Syrup ingredients

The ingredients for the syrup are equally easy to remember: 5 cups of water, 4 cups of sugar, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and lemon zest.

What is the secret of this fluffy Walnut cake?

The secret to this fluffy walnut cake is to pour cold syrup onto a hot walnut cake. So make a start on the syrup first and let it cool down. In a sauce pan pour water and add sugar with lemon juice and lemon zest. Bring the boil for 4-5 minutes. Let it rest and start preparing the walnut cake.

How can I make this Walnut cake?

First and foremost make the syrup as it needs to be cold when added to the Walnut cake. In a sauce pan pour water and add sugar with lemon juice and lemon zest. Bring the boil for 4-5 minutes. Let it rest and start preparing the walnut cake.

To prepare the walnut cake start by whisking the egg whites with half of the sugar until stiff peaks (meringue). In a stand mixer bowl  cream the butter with rest of the sugar. Once you have done this add slowly each egg yolk at a time and whisk. Add also a few drops of vanilla. Replace the Balloon whisk for the Flat beater and carry on with adding half of the flour. Dissolve ammonia in milk and add them in the cake mix. Continue by adding the rest of the flour. Beat until all the flour is nicely incorporated into the mix.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and start folding the meringue into the cake mixture. The meringue will add air and thus the desired volume in this delicious walnut cake. The correct equipment to fold meringue with is the spatula. The correct way to do this is way. Simply place the spatula in the centre of the bowl, run it to the side and fold the mixture from the bottom up. Repeat a few times.

When you have finished folding in the meringue, add half of the chopped walnuts. Bake into a buttered and floured tin for 60 minutes/ 1 hour at 180C or 356F.

Finally sprinkle the rest of the chopped walnuts on the top of the walnut cake.

What can I serve walnut cake with ?

You can serve this Walnut cake with whipped cream or a scoop or two of ice cream.

Other walnut based recipes

If you like walnuts in cake then why not try this traditional Fanouropita (Phanouropita) cake recipe. This delicious Lenten cake is made in the honour of St Fanourios or St Phanourios who is celebrated every 27th of August.

If you like the combination of walnuts wrapped in phyllo pastry soaked in syrup, then try this traditional and authentic Gianniotiko / Giannotiko (Syrupy  Phyllo and Kataifi pastry with walnuts). This delicious syrupy dessert originates from Ioannina or Giannena and hence its name. It combines two traditional syrup desserts, baclava (Baklava) and kataifi.