My first attempt at the Armenian nutmeg cake was a disaster. It gushed. It oozed. It bubbled over and just wouldn't solidify. I turned the temperature down and baked it for longer... No such luck. Sometimes, it's ok to just give up and try again another day.
My second attempt saw me use 1 tsp less baking powder, and success! It turned out wonderfully. The end result is a warm moist nutty cake that goes beautifully with a mug of tea or coffee, and is a perfect (and easy) finish to a cool autumn day.
Not surprisingly, the cake took less time to disappear than it did to make.
Rewritten from instructions from DailyCandor.com for a gluten free version. This recipe works particularly well with gluten free flour, as the cake mix is quite moist and therefore stays moist after it's cooled.
Preheat oven to 350oF or 175oC
Mix in a small bowl or measuring jug,
1 cup milk and 1 teaspoon baking soda.
In a mixer, blend together
2 cups plain gluten free flour
1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
before adding in
3/4 cup butter, preferably unsalted, cubed, room temp.
When nice and crumbly, take out half and press into a springform pan to form a crust. (I like to line my pans with baking paper for easy clean up)
In the mixer, add in 1 egg and 1 1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg and blend. Add in the milk and bakign powder mix and blend again.
Pour into pan over crust.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup walnut pieces over the batter.
Bake for 40 minutes, before removing and cooling.
The Daring Bakers’ April 2012 challenge, hosted by Jason at DailyCandor.com, were two Armenian standards: nazook and nutmeg cake. Nazook is a layered yeasted dough pastry with a sweet filling, and nutmeg cake is a fragrant, nutty coffee-style cake.
