I’ve been making this maple walnut pound cake for years, decades really, and it’s still my favorite of its kind. It was about time I shared it with you guys again!.
Pound cakes in themselves are amazing with their dense, tight crumb.
This has a hefty dose of ground walnuts in the batter which makes it even more interesting. As far as food pairing goes, this maple walnut cake is definite proof that those two are a fantastic match.
I have a nice, constant obsession with piling up cookbooks and food magazines. When it comes to recipes, I put little marks to remember the ones I like. And I’m proud of my memory in remembering where they came from, even after decades. So I go straight to the place where I’m so certain the recipe is, completely sure of myself.
Then spend the next three days going through every magazine I own, looking for an unmarked recipe I made years ago that I just have to take another look at because, suddenly, I feel it will be perfect to bake right now, like with this maple walnut cake. So much for the hours spent putting colored bits of paper everywhere.
I did find the recipe for the maple walnut cake I remembered, and it is a great one.
Origin of pound cake
Pound cake originated in France and was made with only four ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, and eggs. A pound of each! Can you imagine that? Heavy would be a big understatement I imagine. This was before ingredients like baking powder were discovered.
It is the famous French cake quatre quarts (which means four quarts) due to the number of ingredients and the fact that it was a quarter (or pound) of each.
Maple syrup (extracted from the maple tree) is not well known here (Buenos Aires). It sometimes makes an appearance at high-end supermarkets or specialty stores, but there’s no certain availability. So, when I get my hands on a few bottles of the stuff I don’t use them thoughtlessly. It’s one of those flavors that’s next to impossible to duplicate easily.
Substituting it is fine in terms of texture, but that deep, smoky, not too sweet characteristic flavor would be missing.
And I don’t want a walnut cake. I want a maple walnut pound cake.
As with most pound cakes, this one unmolds like a charm and keeps, well wrapped, like a dream.
The glaze on top gives it another layer of maple flavor, which, in my opinion, there can never be too much of.
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Description
A wonderful pound cake, chock full of ground walnuts and maple flavor.
Scale
Ingredients
For cake:
- 1 ¾ cups 215g coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted
- 2 ¼ cups 315g cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups 280g unsalted butter, room tº
- 1 ¼ cups 250g sugar
- 5 large eggs
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ¾ teaspoon maple flavoring (optional)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
For glaze:
- ¼ cup 65g unsalted butter
- 2 Tbs pure maple syrup
- 1–2 Tbs cream
- 6 Tbs powdered sugar (sifted)
- Walnut halves for decoration (optional)
Instructions
For cake:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Butter and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.
- Finely ground walnuts in processor.
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl
- Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Beat in maple syrup, maple flavoring (if using) and vanilla extract (batter may look curdled).
- Mix in dry ingredients. Fold in ground walnuts.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until top is golden and tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour.
- Transfer pan to rack; cool cake 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.
For glaze:
- Melt butter with maple syrup and cream in heavy small saucepan. Remove from heat.
- Add powdered sugar and whisk until smooth.
- Cool glaze until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
- Drizzle glaze over pound cake. Arrange walnut halves decoratively if using.
- Let cake stand 15 minutes until glaze sets.
Notes
You can sub almonds for the walnuts, but it really is not the same.
Keywords: pound cake, walnuts, maple
barely adapted from Bon Appétit
Is it autumn in Argentina because I need an excuse to make this cake! Love the nutty goodness. Brilliant, Paula!
Yes Kim, autumn, very rainy and humid!
I love maple and I’ve made a maple pound cake too.It is ne of my favorites and now I can’t wait to try your version with the walnuts! This sounds delightful Paula!
Thanks Abbe!
Heavenly! I need to bake one too!
Wow – I have been in the mood for a bundt cake and I think this is the one. Although I might change to pecans because I have a ton of them (Christmas gift!) and I think they would be an okay substitute for the walnuts. What do you think?
I think pecans work even better? Or just as good at least. Nice gift, btw!
The cake just came out of the oven and it smells amazing. Question – how much cream is in the glaze?
Well David, I guess you went ahead without me, haha, I’m late with the answer.
I add 1 or 2 tablespoons. Thanks for the heads up, I will modify the recipe!
Wow, Paula – this looks & sounds great! I am a list maker, so your post made me laugh. I usually tear recipes I like out of magazines as soon as I see them then keep them in a file folder. Have a great weekend.
Take a look at this video about Myers-Briggs personality types: http://typetalk.com/oka/2010/06/06/type-videos/
I think I´m the worst type: a P that thinks should aim to be a J!!! Thanks for the video tip, I had a good laugh.