Traditional Walnut Easter Lamb Cake with Chocolate Glaze
·Prepping the fragrant nuts and tin
Start by toasting the walnuts in a dry pan until fragrant. Once cooled, grind them finely. Generously grease a lamb-shaped tin (about 2.4 litres) with softened butter and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 170 °C.
Mixing the dry ingredients
In a bowl, combine the fine plain flour with the baking powder, ground walnuts and grated lemon zest.
Whisking the egg yolk base
Separate the egg yolks from the whites. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks with the sugars for at least 5-8 minutes, until thick and pale. While whisking slowly and continuously, drizzle in the oil, milk and rum. All ingredients should ideally be at room temperature.
Bringing the batter together
Fold the walnut flour mixture into the yolk mixture in two batches. Finally, whisk the egg whites with the salt into very stiff peaks and gently fold them into the batter with a spatula. This keeps the air in and stops the batter from becoming dense.
Baking and turning out
Pour the batter into the tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 55-65 minutes. Check occasionally, and if it starts browning too much, cover with foil. Once baked, leave it in the tin for 10 minutes, then carefully turn the lamb cake out onto a wire rack. Let it cool completely, otherwise the glaze won't set properly.
The chocolate finishing touch
Melt the chocolate with the cocoa butter in a water bath to around 45 °C (follow the guide on the packaging). Then cool it down to about 27 °C, and briefly reheat it to a working temperature of around 31 °C. Pour this tempered mixture over the lamb cake. The glaze will set perfectly glossy and firm.