Karydopita – Greek walnut cake soaked in syrup

Preheat the oven to 180°C with conventional top and bottom heat. Grease the base and sides of a leakproof 23 × 23 cm metal pan, at least 5 cm high, with the reserved 10 g of butter; do not dust with flour. Finely chop the walnuts or briefly grind them into crumbs, not an oily paste. Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Gently melt the remaining 210 g of butter and set aside until still liquid but no longer hot.

The eggs should be at room temperature. Weigh all 200 g into a bowl and add the 60 g of sugar for the batter. Beat with a mixer for about 5–7 minutes until the mixture increases noticeably in volume and becomes pale and fluffy. When you lift the beaters, the falling ribbon should remain on the surface briefly. Do not separate the eggs into yolks and whites.

Gently fold the prepared dry ingredients and all the walnuts into the beaten eggs with a spatula, preferably in two batches. Separately mix a few spoonfuls of the mixture with the lukewarm melted butter, then return it to the bowl. Fold briefly from the bottom, just until combined. Do not beat with the mixer again and do not add hot butter, so the mixture does not lose its lightness.

Transfer all the batter to the pan and level it. Bake on the middle rack for about 35–45 minutes; the time plan allows 40 minutes. The top should brown and the center should be set and slightly springy. A skewer inserted into the center must not have liquid raw batter on it, though a few moist crumbs may cling to it. Set the pan on a rack and immediately start making the syrup. The cake should stay warm; do not keep it in the switched-on oven.

Combine the 250 g of water, the remaining 250 g of sugar, all the lemon juice and the wide strips of yellow peel in a saucepan. Heat, stirring at the start until the sugar dissolves. Once it boils, simmer gently without a lid for about 7–8 minutes. The syrup should remain clear and fluid; do not cook it until it caramelizes or forms a stretchy thread. Remove from the heat, take out the peel and discard it. Do not add alcohol.

Lightly score the still-warm cake in a 3 × 4 pattern without removing any pieces from the pan. Spread the hot syrup evenly over the entire surface and around the edges with a spoon or small ladle, in 2–3 passes. Wait briefly between passes until the previous addition has soaked in. All the prepared syrup should go into this pan. Do not serve any syrup separately and do not add cream or other decorations.

Leave the cake in the pan for about 2 hours to absorb the syrup and cool to room temperature. If it is still warm, wait longer. Finish cutting and serve 12 portions without extra cream. The whole process takes about 3 hours and 20 minutes: 25 minutes of work, about 55 minutes of melting butter, baking and cooking syrup, plus 2 hours of final resting. Cooling the butter and preheating the oven overlap with preparation, so do not count them again.