What is a dacquoise cake?
It is a cake traditionally made with egg whites, powdered sugar, and almond flour, sprinkled with powdered sugar and baked in the oven. It can be used as a one-layer cake dessert, or it can be used as a part of a more elaborate French layer cake.
You can make it using many different nuts, as hazelnut, walnut, or even coconut, by replacing a part of the almond flour by the nut flour of your choice.
How to make this walnut dacquoise recipe?
To make this walnut dacquoise cake recipe you must simply:
- If you don't have walnut flour (I didn’t), you can place the walnuts inside a Ziploc bag and using a rolling pin tap them until you have completely crushed them. You should obtain a crunchier walnut flour.
- Mix the powdered sugar, the almond flour and the crushed walnuts.
- Whisk the egg whites with a little of the granulated sugar until they are almost completely whisked.
- Add the rest of the sugar and whisk at maximum speed until the egg whites form soft peaks. About 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Fold in the powdered sugar/almond flour/walnut mixture until completely incorporated into the batter. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl, as the dry ingredients tend to go there.
Baking the dacquoise cake
- Preheat the oven to 170 C/340 F
- Place a 2O cm x 3.5 cm (8 Inches x 1.4 inches) cake ring on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Grease the sides of the ring and the parchment paper using baking spray.
- Pipe a base of dacquoise cake until you cover the bottom of the cake ring (about 1.5 cm high), then pipe an extra layer only around the inside border of the cake ring, so that the sides are higher than the centre of the cake.
- Pro tip: you don't have to go as high as the cake ring, as the cake grows in the oven and then removing the ring might prove difficult.
- Sprinkle with powdered sugar over the surface of the dacquoise cake and bake until golden and set. About 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, and place on a wire rack. Let it cool at room temperature for 5 minutes. Then cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Run a knife between the cake and the cake ring, slowly and lovingly, then remove the ring and place the cake on a serving plate.
Pro tip: you can also bake this cake without the any cake ring, just by piping the dacquoise batter onto the parchment paper. The only difference is that you will obtain a thinner cake as it will not hold its shape in the oven without the help of a cake ring. It will be delicious anyway, just a little on the thinner side.
Tips to make the best Chantilly cream frosting.
Chantilly cream is made by whipping cream with a little powdered sugar. You can flavour it with different things, as fruit jams, cacao powder or as in this case vanilla bean.
To make sure your cream looks perfect, a few tips:
- Place the mixing bowl in the freezer for about 10 minutes before whipping the cream.
- The whipping cream must also be cold, so keep refrigerated until ready to use.
- Use full fat whipping cream. Using low fat cream will make it impossible to whip the cream and allow for it to hold its shape when frosting this cake.
- Add the sugar in with the whipping cream before you start whipping it.
- It is best to whip the Chantilly cream frosting when you are ready to decorate the cake. However, if you do this a little in advance make sure to keep it refrigerated until ready to use.
How to make caramelized walnuts
For this caramelized walnut recipe, you must roast the walnuts first, they must be warm when you pour your sugar syrup over them!
To caramelize walnuts, you must:
- Roast them at 170 C/340 F for about 10 minutes. Turn off the oven and slightly open the door, keep the walnuts inside, until ready to use.
- Cook the sugar and water to 115 C°/240 F.
- Add the walnuts in with the cooked sugar. Using a spatula, mix constantly until they have turned white.
- Continue to mix. At this point, the white sugar coat around the walnuts will start to caramelize and turn brown.
- Once they have all caramelized, remove from the stove and add the butter. Mix well. This will help to separate the walnuts and avoid them from sticking to each other.
- Place over a silpad, or a piece of parchment paper and let them cool down at room temperature.
Assembling this cake
Remove from the fridge and unmould the cake. Once you have unmoulded it you can assemble the cake. Simply:
- Cover the cake with a thin layer of dulce de leche.
- Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. You can leave the cake with the dulce de leche for up to 2 days in the fridge.
- Make the vanilla Chantilly cream frosting.
- Top the cake with the cream either using a piping bag or a small spatula.
- Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Top with the caramelized walnuts and enjoy.
Make ahead, freezing, storing this cake: some tips
You can make the dacquoise cake base ahead of time, then simply assemble it when you are ready to eat it. It keeps in the refrigerator, properly wrapped, for up to 5 days. And in the freezer for up to a month.
To defrost: Let it sit in the refrigerator overnight, wrapped. Then unwrap and assemble as instructed in the recipe.
Once the cake has been assembled, you can keep it in the refrigerator, for up to 1 day, or 2 at the most. Whipped cream has a very short life 😊.
Variations
- Mini dacquoise: by using smaller size rings. Then proceed as instructed in the recipe.
- Traditional almond dacquoise: replace the walnuts in this recipe with almond powder and proceed as instructed.
- Hazelnut dacquoise: replace the walnuts by hazelnut flour or crushed hazelnuts and proceed as instructed in the recipe.
- Chocolate ganache: you can swap the dulce de leche with chocolate ganache Chocolate Mousse Pie.
If you made this recipe I would really appreciate it if you leave a rating or comment below! Also, if you share on social media please use #cookwithbelula, I would love to see what you create!
This was such a delicious recipe! I had a lot of fun trying out your recipe - I tried it with hazelnut and walnuts and made a cacao chantilly cream. My crust came out a little thin, even with the ring, but I think it was due to letting the egg white mix sit too long before baking? Maybe it lost some of the air? Definitely will be trying to refine my skills in making this because it was divine! Thank you for sharing <3
HI Rebekka!!
Thank you for this lovely message! So glad you enjoyed making this recipe! The cacao Chantilly cream sounds like a dream!! I'm making it next time!
I think that it might have come out too thin either because it was left out sitting too long before baking or over whisking the egg whites. Hope this helps! Definitely practice makes perfect :)
Thank you for making this cake! I appreciate it so much.