Armenian Nutmeg Cake
Armenian Nutmeg Cake is a traditional simple cake that is aromatic and rich. With a brown sugar crust, plenty of fresh grated nutmeg and fresh walnuts, this cake looks simple but tastes heavenly! A perfect easy dessert for all occasions.
Simple cakes with tons of flavor are my favorite. You don’t need sky high cakes with tons of decorations to be unforgettable. This Armenian Nutmeg Cake is a gorgeous example of what a few great ingredients can do when allowed to shine.
This easy cake recipe is one of my favorite desserts, and one that I think about often. I originally posted this way back in 2012, and have not stopped thinking about it since.
This Armenian Nutmeg Cake has a dense and crumbly brown sugar infused crust that reminds you of a buttery biscuit and an airy and soft upper layer with a smattering of walnuts on top. This coffee-cake style dessert is delectable and delicious without being overly sweet.
Other Simple Cake Recipes You Will Love:
- Basbuosa Cake Recipe – Basbousa Cake is an Egyptian cake with yogurt, coconut and nuts soaked in a flavorful simple syrup. A one bowl moist semolina cake recipe, this easy dessert is a great one to bake with kids!
- Kladdkaka – This easy swedish cake recipe is a fudgy, rich and decadent one bowl dessert that will be your new go-to recipe. Also called Kladdkaka, this sticky cake is reminiscent of a underbaked brownie – gooey center and a crisp crust on the top.
- American 17th Century Gingerbread – This easy to make historical 17th century gingerbread cake recipe is flavorful, dense, and moist, and still as perfect today as it was back then.
- Chocolate Tres Leches Cake – This decadent and moist cake is sooo good you will be making it again and again!
How to Make an Armenian Nutmeg Cake
This recipe is simple to make! For the full set of directions, please scroll down to the recipe card below. This is just a general overview on how to make it to help you plan.
This recipe is so easy that I wish that I could call it a “one bowl”, but it’s not. You actually use 3 bowls. BUT, you don’t have to get out your stand mixer, and you only need a springform pan to bake in, and so the ease of it makes up for the amount of bowls you will dirty. Trust me! Three dirty bowls is worth it!
- In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda and milk and set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the baking powder, flour, and brown sugar until combined.
- Cut the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture until you get a uniform crumbly mixture. You can use your fingers or a fork.
- Press half of this brown sugar mixture into the bottom of a springform pan to form the crust. Set aside, and keep the other half in reserve for later.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the egg and nutmeg together until frothy.
- Pour the milk mixture into the bowl with the eggs and whisk until combined. Pour the combined wet ingredients into the brown sugar mixture. It will be very liquidy.
- Pour the liquidy batter over the crust.
- Gently and evenly sprinkle the crushed walnut pieces over the batter.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Allow to cool, and then release the springform pan before enjoying.
How to Serve Armenian Nutmeg Cake
This simple cake is perfect to serve as is – you don’t need anything else with it!
If you wanted to, however, you could serve it with some vanilla ice cream or some fresh whipped cream.
You could also serve it for breakfast, and no one would bat an eye!
Kids in the Kitchen: How Your Kids Can Help You Cook
Getting your kids in the kitchen is an amazing way to help them be more interested in trying new foods and become confident in their own abilities. This Armenian Nutmeg Cake recipe is great because it helps kids practice measuring, whisking, and cracking eggs!
This recipe is perfect for beginner bakers because it is simple and has straightforward steps! And it is a great recipe for kids to experiment and become more comfortable with new flavors – which means they are more likely to eat it!
- Kids aged 1-3 can help you measure and mix all the ingredients, as well as sprinkle on the crushed walnut pieces.
- Kids aged 4-6 can do everything above, plus help you grate the fresh nutmeg and press the crust into the pan. They can also help you crush the walnut pieces.
- Kids aged 7-10+ can help you do everything above, plus help you pour the batter into the pan.
*Please note that these recommendations are generalized, and to please use your personal discretion with your child’s skill level. And always, always supervise! Read more about how to have your children help you in the kitchen.
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Armenian Nutmeg Cake
Ingredients
- ¾ cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, cubed and cold
- 1 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 cups brown sugar firmly packed
- 1-1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg you can also use cinnamon and/or cardamom as a substitute, or use a combination
- 1 egg
- ½ cup walnut pieces break them up with your hand, you don’t really want them chopped, but you don’t want them whole, either
Instructions
- Cut the butter into cubes and place in the freezer or the back of the fridge to make it very cold. It needs to be COLD for this recipe.
- Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- In a small bowl, mix together the milk and the baking soda. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and the baking powder.
- Whisk in the brown sugar to the flour mixture until combined.
- Using a fork (or your fingers) mash in the cold butter cubes until you get a more-or-less uniform crumbly mixture.
- Press HALF of this mixture into the bottom of a springform pan to form a crust. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and the nutmeg for 2-3 minutes, or until it is mixed well and frothy.
- Pour the milk with baking soda into the bowl with the eggs and whisk until combined.
- Pour this egg mixture over the remaining half of the crumbly mixture in the bowl, and whisk until it is incorporated (it will be very liquidy).
- Pour the liquid over the crust in the springform.
- Gently and evenly sprinkle the walnut pieces on top.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan, and then release.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
The Armenian Nutmeg Cake sounds absolutely delicious! With its aromatic nutmeg, rich flavor, and the added crunch of fresh walnuts, it’s a simple yet heavenly dessert. Perfect for any occasion and sure to impress!
The temperature of the butter is the reason. Don’t say you followed it to a tee if you didn’t.
Hi, Tried this recipe today and have no idea why it partially failed. The cake baked for an hour, and a lot of the butter seeped out of the pan onto the oven floor. I would never use a spring form pan, or one without a pan underneath it. I followed the recipe to the tee, and only found one difference. My butter was room temperature instead of cold. The cake seems kind of greasy so I would also reduce the quantity of butter.
Any idea, why this happened?
Hi Dana! Actually, using room temperature butter vs cold butter will have a BIG effect on how a cake turns out! For a lot of cakes you do want to use a room temperature butter so that when you cream it with the sugar you create lots of air bubbles to create the texture and density of the cake. In this recipe, we are not creaming the butter and sugar together. Instead we are cutting cold butter into the flour mixture, much like you would with a biscuit recipe. We then use part of this to create the crust. The crust then holds in the rest of the cake batter so that it doesn’t leak out of the pan. As a cake bakes, the pieces of cold butter slowly melt and help to create the texture we want in this cake, vs room temperature butter that melts much faster and results in what you described as a greasy texture and a messy oven! Hope that helps!
My 12 year old son found this recipe and was super excited to try it. We made it today with a few minor changes – reduced brown sugar to 1 1/2 cups and omitted walnuts. We loved it, thank you for sharing this recipe.
This looks like to one my mum used to make! I’m planning on making this for my dads birthday.
What size springform did you use?
I used a 9″ but a 10″ would work, too! Just watch the time because it will be a little thinner and cook faster.
I agree, simple cakes are some of the best in my opinion too. And I LOVE nutmeg. I don’t think I’ve ever had it in a cake though. It must have such an amazing flavor. Yum!
Great job on the challenge ! What an adorable little food stylist 🙂
Great job on the challenge ! What an adorable little food stylist 🙂
One more addict over here, especially the biscuit crust. Yum! Your cake looks beautiful, and I love your photos – especially the one with the hands and the paws! Your helpers are very sweet. 🙂
I love the photos! And I can just imagine the fight over the plate! I will definitely be making this again too. 🙂
hah, your cake looks like I wanted mine to look! I love the chubby hand photos – I'm very familiar with that kind of assistance!
Count me in when you find an addict meeting!
Love your cute helpers, especially love the picture with the cute little hand
Lovely cake and great helpers! }:P
Thank you for your lovely comment on my blog. I absolutely loved this challenge. Your cake looks so yummy! Definitely try the Nazooks, they're just as delicious but very different.
Very cute chubby fingers! I love that age when there is no wrist, just arm to chubby little hand. 🙂 I made both and loved the nutmeg cake more. Nice job on the challenge!
Your cake and photos look amazing! I really love the ones with chubby, toddler fingers in them. Please don't ever leave those out 🙂 I hope to be back to DB in May..I miss it so much! I need to start baking again. That said, beautiful job on the nutmeg cake!
Your Armenian nutmeg cake looks perfect. I like your helpers. I enjoyed making them too.
You made perfect Armenian nutmeg cake, it is new dish I love making them.
Wow!
Nutmeg and nuts?
That sounds great!
I'm on a nut addiction right now..
Just made and posted about a giant batch of hazelnut macarons I made.
Beautiful cake! Nice looking helpers too…
Love this, I might just make try this recipe out, it looks so good. And the pictures are beautiful.
I didn't get a chance to try the Nazook either. I hope to soon, though. I love your photos of your cake and helpers! Have a great day 🙂
This was an amazing cake – and the Nazook were pretty great too. Definitely get around to trying them.
Love the "helper" pictures…
First and most importantly, LOVE that picture with your two helpers 🙂
Second, count me in when you find the nutmeg cake 12 step program – SO tasty! Yours looks awesome!!
I agree this is delicious! Yours looks much prettier than mine 🙂 as usual.
The Nazook is definitely worth trying. I didn't think it was too time consuming, so you could just whip it up one day.
You're an addict? We'll be going to the same meeting soon! Mine was a little gooey in the centre but I love how our cake looks.
Your photos are brilliant! Yes, I do love your helpers! I like the cake ( a bit too sweet, though) but I thought the nazook were amazing – you must try them!