Pine Nut Weekend Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

April 20, 2023

Pine Nut Weekend Cake #TheCakeSliceBakers

Pine Nuts are called piñones where I'm from.

The piñón tree is actually the state tree of New Mexico (because out here, it's important to make things like that official. The state cookie is a biscochito, and the state question is "Red or green [chile]," in case you're wondering. Our tax dollars at work!)

I'm originally from Santa Fe, and there's nothing like the smell of piñon wood burning in fireplaces at Christmas time. And piñon penuche fudge from a local candy maker is *maybe* one of the best things ever.

So, when I saw the Pine Nut Weekend Cake as a choice for this month's Cake Slice Bake, the decision was easy. Check out the links below to see what the other bakers chose!

This recipe from Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes is also one of the more interesting (interesting-er?) methods for making a cake that I've seen-- it calls for whipping heavy cream instead of using butter. You then add granulated sugar, extracts, and eggs and beat.

Maybe it looks duvet-ish?

Aleksandra Crapanzano, the author, describes the resulting mixture as

"hav[ing] an appealing fluffy volume, like that of a duvet that's just been shaken."

As a chronically sleep-deprived mother of young children, this is one of the more enticing descriptions I've ever heard

The cake comes together quickly, and in one bowl-- which is also a plus.

The batter is divided in half, half the pine nuts go in the middle, and the remainder are sprinkled over the top. As you can *kind of* see in the above picture, many of my piñones sank down the center and the cake fell slightly.

But as they say in France ~~"C'est la vie"~~ "Whatevs."

The recipe calls for a soaking syrup made from kirsch. I really only occasionally cook with alcohol, and I didn't want to go buy a bottle of kirsch (that stuff's expensive!). So I made the syrup out of some like 15 year old cheap brandy in the back of my pantry that I bought for some recipe ages ago. It was nice and subtle and gave a lovely texture to the crust. However, I think a simple syrup of sugar and water would have been sufficient if you don't have brandy or kirsch on hand.

So give this Pine Nut Weekend Cake a try... it's easy enough for any day of the week.

Pine Nut Weekend Cake

from Gateau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes

Cake:

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 T plus 1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups heavy cream

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs, room temp

1 cup pine nuts

1. Heat the oven to 350F. Butter two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip the cream at medium high speed until the cream holds its shape. Add the extracts and sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is fluffy like a comforter.

4. Fold in the dry ingredients until no streaks of flour remain.

5. Pour 1/4 batter into each prepared pan. Sprinkle 1/4 of the pine nuts over each pan. Smooth the remainder of the batter over the top, and sprinkle with the remaining nuts. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. While the cake bakes, prepare the soaking syrup.

Soaking Syrup:

2/3 cup kirsch or brandy

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1. In a saucepan, reduce the liquid by 1/2. While still hot, mix in the sugar. While the cakes are still warm, brush the syrup over the cakes. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before putting on a wire rack to finish cooling.

Enjoy:)

Each month The Cake Slice Bakers are offered a selection of cakes from the current book we are baking through. This year it is Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes by Aleksandra Crapanzano. We each choose one cake to bake, and then on the 20th - never before - we all post about our cake on our blogs. There are a few rules that we follow, but the most important ones are to have fun and enjoy baking & eating cakes!

Follow our Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest pages where you can find all of our cakes, as well as inspiration for many other cakes. You can also click on the links below to take you to each of our cakes. If you have a blog and are interested in joining The Cake Slice Bakers and baking along with us, please send an email to thecakeslicebakers at gmail dot com for more details.

The Cake Slice Bakers also have a new Facebook group called The Cake Slice Bakers and Friends. This group is perfect for those who do not have a blog but want to join in the fun and bake through this book.