Nuts for cake

I have a walnut tree in my garden, and this year is the first very big crop. I love the trees, as they provide a vast amount of shade, and let the sun into the vegetable garden in the winter. The leaves have a very distinctive smell, and they say this is why there are no flies or mosquitoes under the tree. They are fast growing, drought tolerant and self-pollinating - the perfect tree really.

Every year to date, the birds have got to them before they're ripe and destroyed them. This year, I protected them from the cockatoos.

Walnuts have more oil than any other nut, and are also more likely to become rancid, so it is important to correctly harvest and store the nuts. Walnuts are the hardest nut to find in good condition because of the amount of oil they contain.

After reading up on walnuts, I have realised I picked mine a touch early. I should have left them a little longer to allow some more drying of the hull on the tree, but that would have also lengthened the battle with the cockatoos. Now, the job of getting the hull off has become a little more fiddly, but it's the only way to stop the nuts being attacked by mould, which has already started.

Hull the walnuts as soon as possible after harvest, wearing rubber gloves. Walnut hulls contain phenols that stain your skin and can irritate it. Also wash the nuts after hulling to prevent the shell staining. Allow the nuts to air dry for two weeks - to test for dryness, remove several nuts from the shell. There is a small bit of shell separating the two halves of the walnut meat, and if this snaps easily the nuts are ready.

The best thing to do is crack some walnuts and eat them fresh. If you do this as soon as they are picked from the tree, they are called "wet walnuts". For me, they are a new discovery this year and a bit of a treat, although I reached that conclusion after finding out what is involved in drying them. The fresh nuts have a minimal bitterness, and are even sweet and milky. The older the nuts, the more bitter they are, and the more tannin develops in the skin.

I like the absorbing rituals of preparing some foods, and the peeling is quite meditative. After my walnut education, I've decided the best thing is not to cook with them at all, and instead share some time cracking them with friends, and eat them with hard cheese.

Some walnut recipes suggest taking the time to remove the inner skin. I did this and made a cake and can say that it is an absolutely different result. You remove the skin by pouring boiling water over the nuts, and after about a minute, you grab a pointy and knife and scrape off the skin. Although laborious, it is worthwhile, despite the many people who wondered why on earth I was peeling the skins from the intricate shapes of the walnut. There was a day there where the peeled nuts were on the bench, the pile slowly diminishing every time my husband walked past. He thought my anger was disproportionate to the crime, but he has since recanted after tasting the walnut cake.

I've made this cake a couple if times, but only went through the process of skinning the walnuts once. It is worth it, though, if you have the time - giving the cake a fresher taste, with less bitterness. (You might up the sugar a little if you don't skin the nuts.)

The cake is not too sweet, good enough to be eaten by itself at "elevenses", or in the evening with a night cap. It is at its best served with cream, or a mascarpone cream that goes in a tiramisu. It also brings back memories of the slightly drier, nutty cakes I enjoyed during a stint in Piedmont in northern Italy. The recipe is based on one in the classic Italian cookbook, The Silver Spoon.

Kate McKay is co-owner of Lynwood Preserves.

Walnut cake

150g softened butter,

plus extra for greasing

4 eggs, separated

175g caster sugar

200g shelled walnuts, skinned if you like, then finely chopped or processed

150g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

grated rind of 1 lemon

pinch of cinnamon

1 tbsp rum (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C, and grease a cake tin with butter.

Cream the butter (in an electric mixer if you like), then beat in the egg yolks one at a time.

Stir in the sugar and the walnuts, sift in the flour and baking powder and mix well.

Add the lemon rind, cinnamon and rum, if using.

Beat the egg whites until stiff in a clean, grease-free bowl, and fold into the mixture.

Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven, leave to cool, then turn out.

Serve with whipped cream or a mascarpone cream (see recipe below), as Anna Del Conte suggests with her walnut cake.

Mascarpone cream

2 eggs, separated

60g caster sugar

500g mascarpone

Beat the egg yolks and the sugar to the ribbon stage. Then fold in the mascarpone, a heaped tablespoon at a time. Whisk the egg whites and fold into the mascarpone mixture lightly but very thoroughly. Chill.