Black Walnuts

The basket full of Black Walnuts wait for me to smash them to smithers with my 6 1/2" cast iron skillet.

I took my zipper bag full of black walnuts out into the driveway and smashed them against the concrete with the skillet. Thankfully the day was warm enough to have melted the snow and exposed hard concrete surface. These nuts are tough to crack, so I now understand the special cracker required.

At this point I started to feel very excited about the components of my cake. Shredded Carrots were retrived from the freezer. Once again a reminder for me...this year grow more carrots. Applesauce came up from the pantry. Black Walnuts have been coerced from their shells and I'm ready to bake a cake!

Really this post is not about the cake, although, the cake was most delicious.

After all of the hardwork of removing the green husks from the nut, drying them, and smashing them, I yielded less than a half cup of shelled walnuts. I supplemented the recipe with English Walnuts.

I say the pairing of the black walnuts with carrots, applesauce, and cinnamon was seamless.

Buttermilk Glaze was poured over the entire hot cake. This glaze has a sweet almost caramel goodness that made the moist cake all the more richer. To top it all off, I drapped orange zest across the still warm bundt and glaze. This prove to be the crowning zip the whole thing needed.

I will invest in the Black Walnut Cracker for next year. Sorry Squirrels! The unique almost woodsy flavor to the Black Walnut is to distinct not to go the extra mile for. In this cake, using English Walnuts alone would have left me wanting a little something more. The Black Walnuts are worth that little something more.