Flourless Walnut Cake
My Flourless Walnut Cake is a 7-ingredient treat flavored with chocolate and coffee that is delightfully different! Its slightly dense texture makes it the perfect gooey treat for a lighter dessert option!
This unique, ground walnut cake is absolutely one of my favorite desserts to make and lots of fun to share with friends and family. The rich flavors of the walnuts and bittersweet chocolate are perfectly complemented by the coffee. It’s a sophisticated combination of sweet and bitter flavors that create a cake sure to impress.
Easy to make and store, this Flourless Walnut Cake is a timeless dessert! It pairs particularly well with softly whipped cream and with vanilla ice cream. Whether you’re making this treat for a loved one or to share with a new neighbor, it’s sure to be a people pleaser!
Of course, it’s hard to go wrong with nut-laden desserts like my delicious banana nut bread and homemade southern pecan pralines. What’s not to love about walnuts, sweet chocolate, and rich coffee? Let’s get baking!
❤ Why We Love This Recipe
- This cake is gooey, nutty, dense, and sweet.
- It’s an easy seven-ingredient cake
- Pairs well with many different garnishes.
- Perfect as a light dessert or breakfast treat.
🥘 About the Ingredients
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- Walnuts – You’ll need raw, shelled walnuts (preferably halves) for the recipe.
- Breadcrumbs – Use purchased plain breadcrumbs or ones you’ve made from stale bread. To make breadcrumbs, lightly toast leftover bread and then grind in a food processor.
- Bittersweet Chocolate – The chocolate should be grated or shaved to help it incorporate into the batter. Along with the coffee, the chocolate imparts a mild mocha flavor to the cake.
- Eggs – Provide leavening for the cake since no baking powder or baking soda is used.
- Butter – Adds to the rich, chewiness of the cake.
- Sugar – White granulated sugar is all that’s needed here.
- Brewed Coffee – You’ll need only one tablespoon of brewed strong coffee or espresso.
You’ll find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe at the bottom of this post.
🔪 How to Make Flourless Walnut Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare an 8″ pan. Butter the pan well and cut a piece of parchment or wax paper to fit the bottom. Insert and butter it, too.
- Grind the walnuts and breadcrumbs together in a food processor. The walnuts should be quite fine, but don’t process too long or they’ll lose texture and become oily.
👉 PRO TIP: Watch carefully and don’t process the walnuts too long or they will turn into nut butter. When ground, nuts release their natural oils and tend to clump together. The addition of the breadcrumbs during this stage helps prevent that.
- Separate the egg whites and yolks. In the top of a double boiler, over simmering water, whisk the yolks and sugar together until they have tripled in volume and become thick and very pale yellow.
- Take the yolks off the heat and stir in the nut mixture and chocolate.
- Beat in the butter a tablespoon at a time until completely incorporated.
- Stir in the coffee or espresso.
- Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.
- Stir a small amount of the beaten whites into the batter to loosen it.
- Add the batter to the remaining egg whites and gently fold it in.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 35 minutes. Note – the cake will pull away from the sides of the pan during baking.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to the serving plate.
- Decorate with sifted confectioner’s sugar and additional walnuts, if desired. Serve with whipped, sweetened cream.
What’s not to love about this rich, tasty, dense cake? The combination of walnuts, chocolate, and coffee come together to create a nutty, sophisticated cake with a light mocha flavor that is sure to leave you wanting more.
🔀 Recipe Variations
- Got a gluten allergy? You can make this walnut cake gluten free by using gluten-free breadcrumbs, crushed gluten-free crackers, corn flakes, or rolled oats.
- Try swapping out the walnuts for your favorite nut. Pistachios, almonds, and cashews are a few of my favorites.
- Make it kid friendly by swapping out the coffee for a non-caffeinated alternative.
- I love experimenting with this recipe! Try using different types of nuts, perhaps adding some dried fruit, or making it more kid-friendly by omitting the coffee.
❗ Tips
I find that a food processor is the best way to grind your walnuts into a powder. A blender will work in a pinch but it won’t get the nuts quite as fine. Also, it’s very important that you not grind the walnuts too much turning them into walnut butter.
Swap out the coffee or espresso for a coffee substitute such as Pero or Joe’y. If, on the other hand, you can’t get enough of that delicious coffee flavor, try serving it with a scoop of coffee-flavored ice cream.
Not sure if your cake is done? Insert a toothpick into the center. If it comes out clean, the cake is ready!
🍚 Storage Information
The completely cooled cake can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap or in a reusable airtight container. Keep it in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to two months. To serve from frozen, allow the cake to thaw out in the fridge for at least 24 hours before serving. I find that this cake is best served at room temperature and that you should only add your garnishes a few minutes before serving.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
I like a simple topping of sifted confectioner’s sugar and toasted walnut halves along with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on the side. It’s also nice with vanilla ice cream, or a drizzle of warm caramel sauce.
❓ FAQs
It’s a gooey, nutty cake with the perfect balance of sweet and bitter. The texture is similar to a dense, fudgy brownie.
Some people use the terms “cake” and “torte” interchangeably. A torte is typically made with little to no flour and its texture is dense rather than light. Cakes are made with a good deal more flour and have a light texture. This cake leans more toward the classical definition of a torte because of its density and tight, moist crumb.
Yes! Some stores sell ground walnuts, sometimes called walnut meal, specifically for baking cakes and other desserts. If using walnut meal, you’d need to weigh out four ounces for this recipe.
HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?
I’d LOVE to know what you thought!
Leave a rating below in the comments and let me know how you liked it!
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📖 Recipe
Flourless Walnut Cake
Ingredients
- 4 ounces raw, shelled walnuts
- 3 tablespoons fine breadcrumbs
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- ½ cup sugar
- 4 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate grated
- ¼ cup butter at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon strong brewed coffee or espresso
For serving:
- Additional walnut halves, confectioner’s sugar, and whipped cream
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Generously grease an 8-inch cake pan and line with parchment paper. Also grease the parchment paper.
- Grind the walnuts and breadcrumbs together in a food processor. The walnuts should be quite fine, but don’t process too long or they’ll lose texture and become oily.
- Separate the egg whites and yolks. In the top of a double boiler, over simmering water, whisk the yolks and sugar together until they have tripled in volume and become thick and very pale yellow.
- Take the yolks off the heat and stir in the nut mixture and chocolate.
- Beat in the butter a tablespoon at a time until completely incorporated.
- Stir in the coffee or espresso.
- Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.
- Stir a small amount of the beaten whites into the batter to loosen it.
- Add the batter to the remaining egg whites and gently fold it in.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan.
- Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 35 minutes. Note – the cake will pull away from the sides of the pan during baking.
- Remove the cake from the oven and let cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to the serving plate.
- Decorate with sifted confectioner’s sugar and additional walnuts, if desired. Serve with whipped, sweetened cream.
Notes
- I like a simple topping of sifted confectioner’s sugar and toasted walnut halves along with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on the side. It’s also nice with vanilla ice cream, or a drizzle of warm caramel sauce.
- The completely cooled cake can be stored wrapped in plastic wrap or in a reusable airtight container. Keep it in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to two months.
- To serve from frozen, allow the cake to thaw out in the fridge for at least 24 hours before serving. I find that this cake is best served at room temperature and that you should only add your garnishes a few minutes before serving.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information is calculated by software based on the ingredients in each recipe. It is an estimate only and is provided for informational purposes. You should consult your health care provider or a registered dietitian if precise nutrition calculations are needed for health reasons.
— This post was originally published on March 30, 2012. It has been updated with additional information.
This looks so yummy. However, is there another option for the breadcrumbs?
Hi Monique. I’ve never tested this recipe with a replacement for the bread crumbs. However, I would think you could use something like crushed cereal, or oats, or even potato or tortilla chips in their place. You do need something to grind with the walnuts to keep them from clumping and turning into walnut butter.
Hi,
I’m Texan and Southern, so I really enjoy your stories and recipes. In most of your recipes you use a food processor. This isn’t something that was ever in my mother’s or grandmother’s kitchen and isn’t in mine either. So, my question is this: When you use a food processor to grind nuts (or whatever else) how would you suggest I prepare those kinds of things? I am assuming just so that they are the right texture is what I am after. Thanks so much for all the wonderful memories you evoke with your stories.
We have so many walnuts left from last year – perfect recipe! Time to get the hubs shelling.
Beautiful!!
don’t you just love a surprise like that instead of making a repeat? sometimes I get an answer just as good, as if an alien has taken over, but most of the time it is “Why do you have to always make something new?” with a mumble of never enjoying the same thing twice…
your cake must have a wonderful taste, the ingredients sound very much so…
yum look delicious, pinning for the future ;)
It looks good and only 7 ingredients WOW!
My question is salted or unsalted butter?
Thanks for the recipe.
Whichever you prefer Chantal. We Southerners tend to use salted butter in everything – both sweet and savory – but you may prefer unsalted for this recipe.
It looks lovely! My Mom would adore this, she loves walnuts:-) Beautiful, Hugs, Terra
It looks wonderful! I love cakes made like this, they tend to be very light, although as you say with the walnuts and beaten egg yolk it may not be as light, but I am sure it is a delicacy. Thanks for sharing this recipe, I am sure to enjoy it soon.
Looks amazing and I think it would probably be a good cake for Grumpy since the carbs need to be lower for him with his diabetes diagnosis. I personally think they are listening to our shows even though its proclaimed they can’t stand them…I mean after all, they are always thinking what we can put in their stomachs aren’t they? :)
Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear BeeBop……… Happy Birthday to you!
I sang that to you. Did you hear me?
Miss P
I relayed it to BeeBop for you! He says thanks :-)
Oh my.. now this is my kind of cake – it sounds and looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it!! I think husband’s do stuff like this just to keep us guessing!!
I was so surprised when he requested this one, Nancy, but it turned out to be a great choice. We’ll definitely enjoy this recipe again.
Oooh, love this! Reminds me of my great nana’s chocolate gateau, only she used almonds instead of walnuts. Just lovely!
I’m so happy I could remind you of a family favorite! That just made my day :-)
I can see why this request would take you by surprise! But it really does look like a lovely cake. I love that there is no flour in it. The egg whites must make it so light.
It’s not really as light as you might think, Katherine. I think perhaps because of the weight of the walnuts and the viscosity of the egg yolk mixture. Still – a very enjoyable cake!
This sounds divine. I am going to see if I can make a sugar free version!
Great idea – I’d love to know how your sugar-free version turns out.
Yum, sounds so good, Lana. And great photos!
Thanks, Katrina!