Greek walnut & olive oil cake (karidopita)

A lusciously moist Greek walnut cake flavored with orange, cinnamon and cloves. Traditionally served at Christmastime but equally delicious year-round.

Prep Time25 mins

Cook Time30 mins

Keyword: 30 Minutes or Less, Dairy-Free, Desserts & Treats, Gluten-Free, Keto, Low-Carb, Vegetarian

Servings: pieces

Calories: 159kcal

Ingredients

7 oz walnuts raw
6 eggs separated into two large mixing bowls (see note below)
¾ cup sugar or a keto sweetener like allulose, monk fruit sweetener or erythritol; suigar works, too (see note)
½ cup olive oil extra virgin
¾ cup ground almonds
finely grated zest of 1/2 orange untreated, organic
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon depends how much you like cinnamon
a pinch ground cloves
a pinch salt
1 tsp baking powder
smidgen butter to grease the baking tin
½ cup fresh orange juice roughly the juice of 1 large orange
1 tbsp honey preferably local; the most fragrant you can find

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325ᵒF/150ᵒC. Butter a 9-by-13 inch rectangular cake tin and line it with parchment paper.
Tip the walnuts onto a baking sheet and roast for 6 minutes (set timer). Remove from the oven and tip onto a plate to cool.
Once cooled, tip into a food processor and pulse into a coarse powder (like coarse breadcrumbs) in an electric food processor. (Don't over-process or you'll get nut butter.) Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar/sweetener with an electric whisk until pale yellow and foamy (about 5 minutes). Add olive oil, almonds, orange zest, cinnamon, cloves and the ground walnuts. Don't over-mix or the mixture will get dense and sticky, making it harder to fold in the egg whites.
Whisk the egg whites until firm. Spoon ⅓ of the beaten egg white into the walnut mixture and whisk to loosen up the batter. Then fold in the remaining whites, using a spatula or a large serving spoon, taking care not to crush the air out of the whites.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for 30-40 minutes. To test for doneness, a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake will come out dry. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes in the tin. The center of the cake will sink as the hot air escapes.
While the cake is baking, place the orange juice in a small pot and bring to a boil. Cook at a steady simmer, uncovered, to reduce it by half; this takes about 10 minutes. Once it has thickened, add 1 tbsp honey, stir to dissolve, remove from heat and set aside.
Once the cake has cooled for 10 minutes, pierce its surface with a wooden skewer or toothpick roughly 15-20 times. Spoon the orange syrup over the holes to allow it to soak through the cake. Let sit for at least 1/2 hour so the syrup can evenly soak the cake.
Once it has completely cooled, cut the cake into whatever shapes you like -- squares, rectangles or the traditional Greek-style lozenges. Serve, accompanied -- if desired -- by a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream.

Notes

If you have (pre)diabetes or some other manifestation of insulin resistance, non-glycemic (keto) sweeteners can help you keep your sugar intake down. These include allulose, monk fruit sweetener or erythritol. If you don't like the taste of these (some have a slightly bitter aftertaste), you could use a combination of sugar and keto sweetener. I sometimes use a 35:65 mix of sugar to keto sweetener.
Low-carb/keto variation: If you use a keto sweetener, one slice of cake provides 3 g net carbohydrate and 140 calories.

Nutrition