Chocolate Cake with Nuts
Secrets Revealed

Tested chocolate nut cake recipes and tips on baking with nuts  

My mom baked once a chocolate cake with nuts.  She made it for my brother’s birthday and since then it became “The Birthday” cake in my family. 

The recipe has changed over the years, and you can find one variation of it on my page called “chocolate almond cake.”  

She has added pitted sour cherries to that chocolate nut cake, skipped the icing, substituted hazelnuts for the almonds or tried walnuts. When she used walnuts, she had to adjust the sugar and the butter, creating a completely new cake recipe.

 

Nuts can be easily swapped, and like my mother, you could try different types of nuts.  Here are some guidelines, which you might want to follow when baking with nuts:

1. Almonds can be used interchangeably with pistachios or hazelnuts and vice versa.
2. Pecans can be swapped with walnuts.
3. Peanuts, macadamia nuts, and cashews can be swapped as well.

Below are some of my chocolate cakes with nuts.  I hope that you will like them and that you will come back for more great chocolate cake recipes.  If you like, I ask you kindly to drop me a comment on Facebook, share my page, or just send me an e-mail with your thoughts.  I love getting feedback from my visitors.  Big thanks in advance,

Barbara

PS.  Don’t for get to read all my tips on baking with nuts.  You’ll find them just under the chocolate nut cake recipes.

Find your chocolate cake with nuts here:

Baking with nuts has one disadvantage.  The nuts need to be grinded into flour, and if you can’t buy it ready-made, you have to make it yourself.  My mom used to grind her nuts with a manual meat grinder that had a special nut attachment.  Now-a-days she uses a food processor.  First she uses the grating disk, then she switches to the metal blade and pulses the nuts until they resemble coarse flour.  This works well for her.  I, on the other hand, use my manual Tupperware grinder.   For some cakes though, when I have to grind chocolate as well, I use my attachment on my table-top mixer. 

Whenever you have to grind nuts, here is a tip:  borrow a tablespoon of cornstarch, flour, or powdered sugar from the recipe and add to the nuts.  It will absorb the oils and prevent the ground nuts from clumping. 

One more important word of wisdom before you make your chocolate cake with nuts:  try the nuts beforehand.  Nuts are high in fat and they spoil easily.  I once used old nuts and the cake ended up in the garbage…

Tips on storing nuts:

1. Store nuts in shells for freshest taste.
2. Always store them in a resealable plastic freezer bag or an airtight container. 
3. Shelled nuts can be stored in a dry location for up to 3 months or refrigerated for up to 6 months.
4. If you like, you can freeze the shelled nuts to extend shelf life for up to 1 year. 

 

Sometimes a chocolate nut cake requires finely chopped peeled hazelnuts.  Have you ever tried peeling hazelnuts?  I did once.  I used the boiling water method that works well with almonds.  Well, it didn’t go too well.  I did my best, as the skin on hazelnuts is bitter and it is advised to remove it before baking.  Couple of years ago, I stumbled upon a way of getting rid of that skin.  The secret is revealed in the Cake Bible, a must have book for any baker.

A great way of removing the skin of hazelnuts as described in the Cake Bible:

1. Use 1 ½ cup of boiling water for ½ cup of nuts. 
2. Add 2 tablespoons of baking soda. 
3. Boil for 3 minutes. 
4. Take 1 nut out and submerge in cold water. 
5. The skin should slip off easily.  If not, boil for few more minutes and test again. 
6. Rinse well the nuts under cold running water and toast them at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.  Watch them carefully, so that they don’t burn.

Some more useful tips on baking a chocolate cake with nuts:

1. Toast the nuts before using whole in a cake.  Toasting makes them less likely to sink in cakes, it also improves the taste.
2. If your chocolate nut cake recipe calls for coarsely chopped nuts, chop them to pea size chunks. On the other hand, if the recipe calls for chopped nuts, then the size meant is about ¼ inch big.  If your chocolate nut cake needs finely chopped nuts, then use pieces that are 1/8 inch big.
3. Sometimes chocolate nut cake recipes call for chopped nuts and sometimes for nuts, chopped.  There is a difference in volume, so make sure you read accurately.  If a recipe calls for chopped nuts, chop first, then measure it.  If it calls for nuts, chopped, then measure first and chop after.
   

I hope that my tips for baking with nuts will help you next time you need to bake a chocolate cake with nuts. 

 

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