There will always be time for cake, don’t you think? A cake where you know it tastes amazing. A cake that you know you can whip up for a school bake sale and know will be a success. Or just one that will be perfect for your morning coffee. This Romanian Walnut Cake is exactly that for me.

Growing up, my mother would make a cake every weekend, to have for the first few days of the new week. It would vary from brownies to apple pie, from plum cakes to this wonderful walnut cake. Last time I was home to visit her, I was looking through an old cookbook when I found a handwritten recipe on a stained yellow piece of paper, called “Cake Mari”. This walnut cake is in fact the recipe of her work colleague Mari, who gave it to her over 20 years ago.

There isn’t much more I can say about this Romanian Walnut cake, other than it is absolutely delicious and one you have to try. It is moist and super tasty, and it takes almost no time to make.

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The Ingredients Needed for the Romanian Walnut Cake

A side view of the three slices of cake, with a teaspoon of jam next to them. They are arranged on a wooden board.

This Romanian walnut cake is so easy to make. It only needs a few ingredients, which you can adjust to your taste. I usually like to use a little less sugar than the recipe asks for, because I don’t like super sweet cakes.

There are two main groups of ingredients that make this cake: the dough and the topping. The dough is a simple sponge cake, with a sticky consistency that will raise in the oven. It is made from flour, sugar, egg yolks, butter and, the secret ingredient that will keep the cake moist, sour cream. Make sure to buy your sour cream from a Romanian/Polish/Turkish shop, or from the Polish section of your local supermarket, as you will need one with at least 18% fat.

The topping is what makes this cake so delicious. There is a layer of jam, which you can pick based on your preference. The original recipe asks for plum jam, but I use strawberry because it’s a bit acidic and tones down the sweetness of the sponge.

How to Make the Romanian Walnut Cake

A close-up of a bowl with small pieces of butter covered with sugar, and a spoon in it.

Making the Romanian walnut cake doesn’t take a lot of time. I use a mixer because it’s less messy and it cuts the time in half. For the dough, I first cream the sugar with the butter, then add the eggs, mix well, before lastly adding the flour and the baking powder.

The base of the cake, the sponge, is going to be very sticky and a bit hard to maneuver. Don’t worry, that is how it’s supposed to look like. Make sure you line your tray with a parchment paper and level the dough as much as you can to look uniform.

A close-up of a stainless steal mixer bowl with white, shiny, meringue in it.

My tip is to mix the jam very well in the jar before layering the bottom layer with it. This is so that it’s easier to spread without mixing it with the base. You may think that the quantity of meringue is a lot more than you need, but keep in mind that the cake is going to raise in the oven.

For the full method of making this walnut cake, check the recipe box below.

Recipe Notes and Tips

The first part of be the cake being put together in a rectangular tray. The dough is covered with the red strawberry jam. Underneath the dough there is parchment paper

Sometimes recipes can be simple, other times they can appear a little complex. This is where I hope to help and guide you through this recipe with some helpful recipe notes and tips. Romanian cooking is wholesome and full of flavour, and I want to help you create that. Here are some of the helpful recipe notes and tips that will help with this Romanian cake recipe.

Using a stand or hand mixer will make it much easier to make the cake dough. These two appliances will also help when making the meringue to enable you to get the egg whites to stiff peaks.
I mentioned earlier that you should look for sour cream with at least 18% fat content. You can find good sour cream in the Polish cold section at Sainsbury’s or Asda. Or you could try one of the Turkish, Polish and Romanian shops.
Make sure that before you start making the cake, all the ingredients are at room temperature.
It is advisable to use a kitchen scale when possible for all of the ingredients. This is quite a precise recipe so calls for exact measurements.
Once you have the stiff peaks you need to be careful and fold in the other ingredients when making the meringue. It is quite fragile and you want the end result to be light and airy. Beating it too much will make the meringue heavy and dense.
You can replace the jam with any other flavour you like. Just make sure you don’t pick a runny jam by mistake, as that will leak all over the tray. You need a marmalade-like consistency.

A wooden tray with three slices of the cake on it. Next to it there is a brown old fashioned ceramic pot filled with coffee. On the other side there is a teaspoon with jam on it. Around the wooden board there is a teatowel with a white and yellow pattern

Romanian Walnut Cake

This Romanian walnut cake surprises you at every bite. The soft, moist base melts in your mouth whilst the walnut loaded meringue gives the cake a perfect crunch. There's even an extra surprise in the middle!

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Prep Time 20

Cook Time 1

Course Dessert

Cuisine Romanian

Servings 8 people

Ingredients

For the sponge:

300 gr flour
150 gr butter
140 gr sugar
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp sour cream at least 18% fat
1 pack baking powder Dr Oetker

For the topping:

1/2 jar plum/strawberry jam
200 gr sugar
4 egg whites
2 tsp vanilla essence
200 gr walnuts finely chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
Cream the butter with the sugar in a food processor, then add the egg yolks. Mix the flour with the baking powder and add it to the food processor.
Once you have combined them all together, you need to spread the dough into a rectangle tray. It will be a very sticky dough, so no worries, that is how it should look like.
Next up, take your jam and carefully spread it across the cake dough.
Mix the 4 egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then add the sugar and the vanilla essence until you get a meringue.
Fold in the walnuts, with a lot of care, so you don’t break the meringue. Spread the walnut meringue over the jam.
Bake the cake for 50-60 minutes. Check to see if the cake is done with a toothpick. If it comes out clean it is ready. Let the cake cool down before cutting it into squares and serving it.

FAQs

The meringue added on top of the cake, before going into the oven.

There will always be questions about recipes so I hope to answer some of them below. However, please get in touch if you have a question that isn’t covered here or in the recipe notes section.

Can you make this ahead of time?

This is a recipe that you can definitely make ahead of time. It does need sufficient time to cool before you would cut it up and serve it. You could make this a day ahead of when you need it., but not more than that as it will dry. The next question covers how to store the cake if you do decide to make it ahead of time.

How do I store the Romanian Walnut Cake?

The cake should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. It will be at its best for 2-3 days. You could also refrigerate if you prefer, but I think this will be down to personal preference and the ridge can dry out the cake mix a bit faster.

I hope you enjoy this Romanian walnut cake recipe.

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How to Make Romanian Walnut Cake