Whisky and Walnut Cakes for Father’s Day

Just in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s Father’s Day tomorrow and if you’re still wondering how to celebrate this or what to give the man in your life, Dr Oetker has the ideal solution. These whisky and chocolate cakes are quick and simple to make and taste quite delicious. You can find the original recipe here on the Dr Oetker site. Containing more than a dram of whisky, made with ground walnuts and covered in dark chocolate, these cakes are manly fare.

I didn’t have the mini loaf tins stated in the recipe, so used muffin moulds instead. The only whisky I had to hand was a high quality Scottish malt, so these cakes really did taste extra special. I used my usual half wholemeal and half white flour mix and decided to toast the walnut decorations for extra flavour.

This is how I made:

Whisky and Walnut Cakes

• Melted 125g unsalted butter in a pan over low heat. Allowed to cool a little.
• Ground 100g walnuts in a coffee grinder then mixed with 100g golden caster sugar in a large bowl.
• Sieved in 200g flour (half wholemeal, half white) with 2 tsp Dr Oetker baking powder and stirred into the walnuts.
• Made a well in the centre and broke in three small eggs. Started to stir this from the inside out, adding the butter, 45ml whisky and 45ml milk as I went along until just mixed.
• Divided the mixture into 8 large unlined silicone muffin moulds and baked at 180℃ for 22 minutes when they were well risen and a skewer inserted into the middle came out clean.

• Dissolved 75g golden caster sugar in a pan over low heat with 45ml water, then bought it up to a boil and simmered for 3 or 4 minutes to give a syrupy consistency.
• Left to cool slightly, then stirred in 45ml whisky.
• Poured this over the hot cakes and allowed them to absorb the liquid and cool in the moulds for 5 minutes or so, then turned out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
• Melted 75g Dr Oetker 72% dark chocolate in a pan over low heat with 25g unsalted butter.
• Stirred until homogenised and glossy, left to cool slightly, then spooned over the cooled cakes allowing the chocolate to dribble down the sides.
• Toasted 8 walnut halves in the oven, then placed these on top of the melted chocolate and left to set.

True to my assertion that these cakes were manly fare, CT was quite enamoured and he doesn’t even like whisky that much. The cakes rose high and resembled volcanoes without the craters when they emerged from the oven. This made adding the melted chocolate a little tricky, but I was pleased with the final result. The cakes were quite substantial, but had a great texture and flavour and were not overly sweet. I found I too was not averse to having seconds.

This is the second Dr Oetker Father’s Day recipe I’ve made and I’ve been really pleased with how both of them turned out. If you haven’t already seen them, do take a look at the coconut chocolate bars I made a couple of weeks ago.

I am sending these over to Made with Love Mondays over at Javelin Warrior’s Cookin w’Luv – a weekly event where everything must be made from scratch.

As a celebration of Father’s Day, these are also being sent off to Bake Fest – a month long feast of all baked goods over at Cook’s Joy.

This month’s Baking with Spirit is all about reinventing a classic. Well this may not have been me that’s reinvented it, but I reckon this is a very good take on the classic Coffee and Walnut Cake. Janine of Cake of the Week has allowed Craig of The Usual Saucepans to take over the reins this month.

These may not be biscuits, but they could possibly be squeezed into a Biscuit Barrel, so I’m sending these off to Laura of I’d Much Rather Bake Than … who has chosen summer as this month’s theme. As Father’s Day falls in June, it must surely count as summer.