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Walnut & Coffee Gateau

MasterChef judge Gregg Wallace shares his recipe for a classic cake - it's much easier than it looks

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and coffee match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 289 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 8
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas 4). Grease two 20cm (8in) round cake tins with butter and line the bases with baking paper.

  2. Whisk the eggs and caster sugar until pale, thick and holding a trail, about 5 minutes. Gently fold in the flour and the very finely chopped walnuts, then trickle in the sunflower oil.

  3. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden and springy in the middle. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool fully.

  4. Beat the softened unsalted butter until smooth. Add the 300g icing sugar, milk and coffee essence and beat until light and fluffy.

  5. Whip the double cream with 2 tbsp icing sugar and the vanilla extract until it holds soft peaks.

  6. Spread half the coffee buttercream over one sponge, then spread the whipped cream over it. Top with the second sponge, cut side up.

  7. Spread the remaining buttercream over the top and sides of the gateau. Press the 100g finely chopped walnuts onto the sides.

  8. Scatter the 50g roughly chopped walnuts over the top and arrange the 8 walnut halves around the edge. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

By bbcgoodfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Walnut + coffeetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together289 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Sunflower + walnuttop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together129 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vanilla + coffeetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, sugar, flour, sunflower, walnut, cream):

  1. Coconutabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Vanillathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, sugar, flour, sunflower, walnut, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).