Olive Oil-Walnut Cake With Pomegranate Recipe (2024)

I added a little flour to the food processor to avoid the walnuts turning into a paste. When the walnuts were the consistency of a coarse flour, I added the rest of the flour and the salt and baking powder to the processor pulsing once to distribute. This worked well and avoided dirtying another bowl.

Yes, with caveats. Because the recipe calls for baking powder rather than baking soda, the acid from the buttermilk isn't essential to ensure that the cake rises. You're fine there, but you'll still change the cake's texture. The acid in the buttermilk helps keep the cake tender, and causes it to brown more slowly, so you'll want to be extra-careful not to overmix, and you might want to tent the pan with foil partway through baking if you're not especially fond of browned flavors.

Possible to ease back on the sugar? I love the sound of this but prefer desserts on the less-sweet side? Could I cut it down to 1/2 cup?

I cut down the sugar by a 1/4-1/3 in almost every single recipe I bake and it's never ruined the recipe. USA recipes tend to have a heavy had on the sugar!

So I thought this was way over complicated. I put all the cake ingredients in a bowl and mixed with a spatula. Then I baked it and it turned out great. It rose, it was delicious and I never separated the whites and whipped them into peaks. Then I make the syrup and my dinner party guests (all 2, it is a pandemic) loved it. So if you want to save a ton of time, go ahead! I also used whole wheat flour. It was really good.

The pomegranate seeds are simply a garnish. Swapping them for anything else you'd rather eat with your cake (blueberries, stewed dried apricots, cranberry compote...) won't change anything else about the recipe.

Do we really need a food processor, a stand mixer and whisk attachment? Good chopping by hand and using a hand mixer with regular beaters won't work?

I have made olive oil cake numerous times (Cook's Illustrated recipe)...trust me, it's delicious. You do NOT taste olive oil--you just taste moist richness. I love butter too, but oil-based cakes, e.g., chiffon, stay fresher longer--they don't dry out as quickly as butter cakes.

Sure, a hand mixer works. Just holding it up for 5-10m is a bit painful ...

added a little flour to the food processor to avoid the walnuts turning into a paste. When the walnuts were the consistency of a coarse flour, I added the rest of the flour and the salt and baking powder to the processor pulsing once to distribute. This worked well and avoided dirtying another bowl.

I made this for the first time with only very minor changes (8.5" pan, used 1 extra egg white to the yolks because I broke one :)). It was very good - dense but light. A few notes based on comments:First, I would not reduce the sugar. It may seem like a lot but walnuts are bitter/powdery and you need to balance that. I would not use butter with the walnuts - olive oil is right. I poked holes before adding syrup. The prils are great- a sweeter fruit may not balance well.

Simply use 1/4 cup of plain/greek yogurt and milk mixed!

This looks overly sweet to me, too. I haven't made it yet, but when I do, I'm going to halve the sugar.

Sooo soooo good. Honestly better without the fixings. Should hand whip whites

Excellent, very pretty presentation

Also: I toasted the walnuts for 8 min at 350 in my cast iron and let them cool in the skillet.

I made this pretty much exactly as written, except for the parchment paper, which would have helped. It turned out perfectly, VERY light and tasty.

This was perfect (sugar quartered) for an alternative thanksgiving dessert!

We make the recipe as written, but substituting pecans for walnuts. It is lovely, and even better on the second day.

I used 2 tbsp. Sugar and two maple syrup and it really was a mellow sweetness. We don’t eat egg yolks so I also used more egg whites…a half carton to whip stiffly and a quarter carton to sub for the yolks. Honest the cake rises beautifully and is both gorgeous and so yummy!

The cake had a lot of flavor from the walnuts and orange zest and looked and tasted great with the pomegranate seeds and greek yogurt. I tried to make the orange syrup but 10 minutes is not enough time to thicken the ingredients into a syrup consistency. I don't know how long that would take? I wished that part had been more successful. I used the thin version of this that I made and it was nice to add the flavor and moisture. Also, I wonder if you really have to separate the eggs- more work?

Has anyone made this recipe using walnut oil?

Looks delicious. If you are gluten intolerant is it possible to make with hazelnut - or some other type of nut - flour? Walnut flour seems would be too oily.

Great recipe. Reminiscent of a hazelnut torte my wife's family has been making for decades. Followed exactly as written except substituted regular milk with some lemon juice added since I didn't have buttermilk. Can easily be eaten without the syrup just fine and goes great with tea/coffee.

I used toasted pine nuts rather than walnuts because we didn’t have any...cake was great. Slightly sweet and pretty.

Very good, dense, subtly flavored cake. My family liked it a lot. Not that sweet so my son enjoyed some for breakfast as well. Easy to make.

This was an amazing cake and such a crowd pleaser. It’s worth the extra step to whisk the egg whites separate- you can do other steps while it’s in the stand mixer; the result is a light and fluffy delicious cake.

Delicious and moist. The syrup and pomegranate seeds make it elegant and party-worthy (for someday). The cake stayed fresh for 2 days, then got slightly dry but still very good. It froze well too.