Hungarian Walnut Torte
Rich walnut cake with luxurious frosting!
Servings Prep Time
12pieces 2.5hr
Cook Time Passive Time
35min 2hr
Servings Prep Time
12pieces 2.5hr
Cook Time Passive Time
35min 2hr
Ingredients
Cake
Walnut-Custard Buttercream
Assembly
Instructions
Cake
  1. Preheat the oven to 177°C (350°F), rack in the middle.
  2. Fine grind walnuts in a rotary drum grinder. Transfer ground walnuts to a medium size bowl and mix with flour, set aside.
  3. Butter 22.5 cm (~9 “) spring form cake pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Dust the form with bread crumbs and tap out excess crumbs. Note: Use two 9” spring form pans if you can. This way you don’t have to be concern about cake collapsing or overmixing. Alternatively use one pan and then later cut the cake.
  4. Use hand held or standing mixer to beat eggs. Start at medium speed and add sugar in increments. Increase mixer speed to high and beat until mixture is thick and forms a slowly dissolving ribbon, approximately 6-10 minutes. Note: Carefully watch the mixture to avoid overmixing! Once the mixture is pale yellow and fluffed up check the ribbon. If you mix too long your mixture will start losing strength and will start shrinking by volume.
  5. Add ground walnut mixture in two parts and gently fold in by using a silicone spatula.
  6. Pour the batter to the spring form pan, level off and smoothen the top. Note: If you can use two spring form pans and fill each with half of the batter.
  7. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  8. Transfer the spring form pan to a cooling rack, let cool off and unmold after 5 minutes. Use a sharp knife to separate the cake layer from the mold’s side. Remove spring form side, invert the cake and remove form bottom and peel off parchment paper. Reverse the cake onto cooling rack and let cool completely.
Walnut – Custard Buttercream
  1. Process the walnuts and confectioner’s sugar in a food processor until walnuts are very finely chopped, powder like.
  2. Add milk to a medium size sauce pan. Sprinkle cornstarch over the milk and whisk until fully dissolved.
  3. Whisk in the yolks. Cook over medium low heat (3 out of 10) whisking constantly until mixture is thick as pudding. The mixture has to come to a boil temperature.
  4. Strain the custard in a separate bowl, stir in vanilla and rum. To cool off hold the bowl set in the ice water, stir occasionally.
  5. Transfer the custard into the standing mixer bowl and mix at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
  6. Maintaining medium speed add softened butter in increments, one tablespoon at the time. Increase speed to high and beat butter until smooth.
  7. Beat in walnut-confectioner’s sugar mixture, set aside.
Assembly
  1. Transfer about 1 cup of buttercream to a pastry bag fitted with 9/16″ star tip, set aside.
  2. Use serrated knife or cake cutter to horizontally slice cake into 2 equal layers. Note: If two pans were used for baking you already have two equal cake layers and can go to next step.
  3. Place the bottom layer onto a serving plate. Use an offset metal spatula to evenly spread about 1 cup of buttercream on top of it.
  4. Top it up with the second layer and spread about 1 cup of butter cream on top. Use remaining buttercream to coat the sides of the cake.
  5. Use offset metal spatula to press chopped walnuts onto the side of the cake.
  6. Pipe twelve rosettes on top of the cake, around cake perimeter, place walnut half on each rosette.
  7. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Take out of refrigerator 1 hour before serving.