Portions

8-10 Portions

Difficulty

Easy

Prep. time

10+30 minutes

Cooking time

40 minutes

I created this recipe, because I wanted a cake with all the winter flavours, that could be prepare not only for Christmas, but also to enjoy it for the rest of the season. In Chile it’s tradition to eat “Pan de Pascua” for Christmas. In Europe they eat something similar, the famous italian Panettone. This recipe it’s inspired in these types of sweet Christmas breads, but I really wanted something slightly different, much more moist and soft, and with my favourite ingredients. I hope you enjoy this easy but delicious recipe!

Ingredients

For the cake:

1/2 cup or 60 g of nuts mix (I used 1 tbsp of each of these nuts: pistachios, walnuts, sliced almonds and pecans)
15 ml Cognac
30 ml Amaretto
100 g butter (room temperature)
Orange zest
50 g brown sugar
10 g white sugar
2 tsp Vanilla sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
1 tbsp manjar/dulce de leche or caramel
130 g flour
1 tsp baking powder

For the glaze:

15 ml fresh orange juice
60 g icing sugar/ powder sugar

Instructions

For the cake:

Put the mix of nuts to rest on a small bowl together with the alcohol (if the nuts are too big, use your hands to crushed them in smaller pieces). Let them soak for a min. of 30 minutes. You can use the nuts you wish, but the mixture of pistachios, walnuts, almonds and pecans it’s really delicious. Also you can replace the cognac for rum.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a ø 17 cm mold/mould with soft butter and then add a bit of flour, dust in it lightly around the inside of the greased mold. Knock the mold gently to remove any excess flour.
In a bowl mix the soft butter with the brown sugar, white sugar, the orange zest and the spices (clove, vanilla sugar, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg). You can use a hand mixer or a kitchen machine, mix until you get a smooth texture.
Add two eggs and continue mixing.
Add now the nuts and the alcohol, mix one more time.
Mix then 1 tbsp of manjar/dulce de leche or caramel, this will give the cake a special taste and creaminess.
Add the flour and baking powder and mix for the last time until you get a smooth batter.
Pour the batter on the mold and put it on the oven. Bake it for approx. 40 minutes.
Use a toothspick to check if the cake is done. You should insert it in the center of the cake and it should come out clean, if not, then leave it for a few more minutes.
Remove the cake out of the oven, let it rest for a minute before you take it out of the mold. Let the cake cool down completely before you put the glaze.

For the glaze:

Use a small bowl to prepare your glaze. Use a sieve for the icing sugar and then add the orange juice. Mix well with a whisk or a spoon until it’s smooth (it shouldn’t be too runny, if it is, add more sugar).
When the cake it’s cold, pour the glaze to decorate it with the design you like.