Nana’s Walnut Torte

Name: Nana’s Walnut Torte
Cuisine: United States
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon instant espresso crystals; 1 tablespoon hot water; ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature; 3 cups confectioners’ sugar; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; ½ cup heavy cream; 2 tablespoons all-purpose ground chocolate or cocoa; 2 tablespoons all-purpose ground chocolate or cocoa; 1 cup chopped walnuts; 2 cups walnuts; 2 cups sugar; 9 eggs; ½ teaspoon salt; Juice of 1 lemon; ¾ cup cake flour; ¼ teaspoon ground cloves; Grated zest of 2 lemons; 2 teaspoons baking powder

Preparation info

Serves
16

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

Thanksgiving Dinner

By Anthony Dias Blue and Kathryn K. Blue

Published 1994

About

This cake, handed down by Mary Powell’s great-grandmother, is an old-fashioned masterpiece. It is big and dramatic and incredibly delicious. This is the cake you would imagine your grandmother making—if your grandmother was a good cook.

Ingredients

The Cake

2 cups walnuts
9 eggs
2 cups sugar

Americas
United States
Dinner
Cake
Dessert
Vegetarian

Method

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter three 9-inch cake pans and dust with flour.
Using a hand nut grinder, finely grind the walnuts. (Do not use the processor for this, it will overprocess the nuts and make them oily. They sho