Chocolate Chip Walnut Cake
SERVES 24 | LEVEL: BEGINNER
If you love it, share it!
This is an easy cake that doesn’t require a mixer and comes together easily in a 13 x 9” brownie pan. The cake is moist and the walnuts and chocolate chips play so well together. The ganache on top is a beautiful finish. It’s the perfect cake to take somewhere if you need to show up with a dessert because you can travel with it easily by leaving it in the pan and cutting it up when you arrive. It’s a perfect ending to a meal, relatively light for a dessert, crumbly, moist and the walnuts give it that little bit of crunch. Perfection!
Chocolate Chip Walnut Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 24 servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 cups flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 3/4 teaspoon Kosher or coarse salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips
- 6 oz. good quality chocolate (around 55% cacao), chopped
- 6 oz. heavy whipping cream
- 3 tablespoons mini chocolate chips (for topping)
- 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts (for topping)
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°. Move the rack to the center of the oven. Line a 9 x 13” baking pan with enough parchment paper to have some overhang.
- Brown the butter. Melt over medium heat until golden brown and nutty-smelling, with a few visible solids. Scrape butter and any solids into a bowl. Cool 10 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cooled brown butter with sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk and sour cream.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Fold into the wet mixture, along with the walnuts and chocolate chips.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until the top springs back and a cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack, covered with a clean towel.
- While the cake is cooling, make the ganache topping.
While the cake is cooling, make the ganache topping.
- Make a double boiler. Fill a saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. While the water is warming, place a heat-proof bowl over the saucepan (a stainless bowl works great for this). The bowl shouldn’t be touching the water.
- Add the chocolate and heavy whipping cream in the heat-proof bowl and stir until the chocolate has melted and combined with the heavy cream to make a ganache. Set aside to cool.
- Once cooled, use a butter knife, back of a large spoon or an offset spatula to spread the ganache onto the cooled cake, covering the whole cake.
- Sprinkle mini chocolate chips and chopped walnuts on top.
- Grasping the overhang of parchment paper, carefully remove the cake and set on a cutting board.
- Using a large knife, cut into squares and serve. Cover and refrigerate any leftover cake for up to 5 days, or freeze.
Notes
Recommended tools & equipment: 9 x 13″ baking pan, heatproof bowl, parchment paper, balloon whisk, battery operated sifter, cake tester, wire rack, offset spatula, 6″ or 8″ chef’s knife.
- Prep Time: 35
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Category: dessert, cake
- Cuisine: American