I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to make this beautiful cake.  It’s such an easy bake and has very few ingredients.

Having visited the stunning Perigord region of France last Summer (see my travel post here), I couldn’t stop dreaming of the breakfasts we had at this little B&B tucked outside the medieval town of Sarlat-la-Caneda. The lovely Martine has since shared the recipe with me; for which I am eternally grateful.

It never fails to amaze me how a taste and smell of something can instantly transport us to another place and time:

As a pre-cursor; when I first looked at this recipe I thought I was missing something as I just couldn’t figure out how a cake with so many nuts and so few other ingredients could possibly hold together, but it does! The great thing is that it has so little flour in it that it can easily be made gluten-free without compromising on flavour or texture. (If you aren’t gluten intolerant just add the same amount of wheat flour.)

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees. I used a 20cm diameter round, lined baking tin.

Ingredients:

150g Walnuts

150g White sugar

110g Unsalted Butter

3 Large eggs

40g Flour (I used Doves Farm self-raising and have also used cornmeal on a separate occasion, which also works well.)

1 Tablespoon of Cognac or Armagnac (I didn’t have any but used Amaretto instead)

A pinch of salt

Mix the softened butter and sugar:

Add one of the eggs and mix in:

Finely chop the walnuts (in my experience, it’s best to do this yourself rather than to buy pre-chopped or put them in the blender; this way they don’t get dry or too bread-crumby in texture):

Add the nuts to the mixture:

Add the flour, salt, 2 other eggs, alcohol and combine:

Pour into a lined or buttered tin:

Place in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes or when a cake-tester comes out clean.

Leave to cool. It really is that simple to make!

It’s delicious with creme fraiche and a fruit salad or just enjoy it with a cup of tea. My eldest declared it his favourite cake today and has already requested another one even though we haven’t finished it yet!

Happy baking and do let me know if you make it.

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