Walnut Variation of World's Best Cake

My best friend is leaving. She is going to Morocco, a place I am truly excited for her to go. Luckily, I'll get to visit and eeeaatt. But to hail our temporary parting, for I'm sure we shall each other again, we had a surprise outdoor hippy dinner party. This was not just any surprise outdoor hippy dinner party though. We had live music with karaoke, a low long table covered in fabric, fairy lights, and plenty of cushions and blankets. This is all without mentioning the food. In the following post, I'll probably give you all the recipe for the curries I made, but for dessert, we had a truly magnificent cake that most of us dug into with renewed vigor.

This cake involves a moist espresso cake, topped with billowy chewy meringue, topped with sweet light cream and toasty scented nuts, and then entirely doubled. 

I have tried to make the original "Word's best cake", but it wasn't successful in the form I made it in. I remember a burned meringue, and an overbaked base and mealy bananas. That day, I did not buy the whole "World's best cake" hype. Making this variation however, makes me more hopeful I can make the original recipe. 

World's best cake with walnuts 

*you can also make this cake in a 9x13 inch baking pan and then split it. However, if you do this, please make 1.5 times this recipe because once, I made this cake and it was just not tall enough to split cleanly. /you also do not want to chance messing up the pretty meringue. 

Also, The cake in the pictures is 1.5 times this recipe, something I do not recommend doing if you are baking it in two round cake pans. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

10 1/2 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened

2/3 cup brown sugar packed

1 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

4 teaspoons espresso powder

1 teaspoon salt

5 eggs separated

1/3 cup milk

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 walnuts chopped and roasted 

1 Tablespoons maple syrup 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and butter pans. 

In a large bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until fluffy. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, espresso powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter in three additions, incorporating fully after each addition. 

Whisk the 5 egg yolks and milk until combined. Add to batter in three increments, incorporating fully each time. Spread batter into prepared pans. 

In a clean bowl, with a clean whisk or clean electric beaters, beat egg whites until foamy. Add granulated sugar and cinnamon. Whip until soft peaks form 

Spread the meringue over the batter and bake until meringue is crackly, about 30 minutes. Do not overbake. Five minutes after its out of the oven, run a knife around the edges of the cake. Let cool completely before flipping out. 

When cake is cool, make cream. Whip cream, vanilla, and maple syrup until soft peaks form. 

To assemble cake, spread one layer of cake with cream then sprinkle with nuts. put the second cake on top of this and spread the top layer with the remaining cream and sprinkle with nuts. 

This cake is good served immediately and also served after its had 15-20 minutes to rest in the fridge.