Albanian walnut cake with lemon glaze

Sunday at Moosewood Restaurant: ethnic and regional recipes from the cooks at the legendary restaurant, 736pp.
by the cooks of the Moosewood Collective
Simon and Schuster/Fireside, New York, 1990
Cooking on pages 232–33

For almost 50 years, cookbooks from Moosewood Restaurant have been a global guide to eating vegetables, introducing generations of people to mostly vegetarian diets that include fish and seafood.

They’ve sold more than five million cookbooks and I own three.  This is the first one of their recipes that I’ve posted.

Albanian walnut cake with lemon glaze

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/3 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup buttermilk (or additional 1/3 cup yogurt)
2 cups unbleached white flour (all purpose or plain flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp freshly grated lemon rind
1 cup walnuts, toasted and finely chopped

Ingredients for glaze
3/4 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cinnamon stick (or 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground allspice
dash of ground cloves

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F. For the cake, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and then mix in the eggs. Blend the yogurt with the buttermilk. Sift together the dry ingredients and add them alternately with the yogurt mixture into the egg mixture. Stir in the lemon rind and walnuts. Pour the batter into a buttered 9 x 13 inch baking pan and bake for 30–40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. The cake should still be moist.

Meanwhile, make the glaze by simmering together all the ingredients, covered, for about 15 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick (if used).When the cake is done, remove it from the oven, turn the oven off, pour the glaze over the hot cake, and return it to the oven for about 10 minutes. Cut the cake into squares and serve it warm or cool.

For the rich at heart, a dollop of freshly whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream may add just the right touch. Serves 12–15.

How it played out
I started making more cakes during the pandemic. It seemed a thoughtful and nourishing thing to do. I’ve made this one three times, following the ingredients and instructions (using buttermilk and ground cinnamon).

Oh wait, that’s not quite true. The second time I cut back on the glaze by one-third. That was a mistake—it needs all the glaze.

Also, I always weigh flour, so for me 2 cups of flour is equal to 250 grams or close to 9 ounces.

Verdict
Oh gosh, I guess we liked it because Poor John asked for it a second time. The family thought it was one of the best recipes of the pandemic ‘season’, so I guess I’ll be making it for a fourth time again soon. 

Travel
We haven’t done a lot of travel since the rise of Covid (more planned later this year), but I fondly remember the divine wedding cakes we saw in Germany.