The Jamie Ding Cake

This cake is to celebrate something fun:

My friend Jamie Ding has now, as of this writing, won 24 games in a row on Jeopardy!, and has won over $660,000 in the process. This puts him in the top 5 of all contestants ever on the show.

Jamie is a dear friend who I have known since I was 13. It is absolutely thrilling to watch someone so awesome become one of the greatest game show winners in American history. He is also a great person and quite a foodie. For my and my spouse’s wedding, Jamie gave us two bottles of his homemade nocino – walnut extract.

So, to celebrate, I decided to make a cake in Jamie’s honor, incorporating his nocino and two other things he loves: orange and chocolate.

This, readers, is the Jamie Ding Cake: an orange walnut cake with dark chocolate ganache.

This is a fairly simple cake. I based the recipe loosely off a lemon sour cream pound cake recipe by Michelle from Smart Savvy Living. If you are not lucky enough to be Jamie’s friend, store-bought nocino will do. This recipe also works well with almond extract and almond flour.

The Jamie Ding Cake

makes one 9-inch/23 centimeter cake

Cake

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp nocino
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Zest and juice of one large orange (1/3 cup juice)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup ground walnuts or walnut flour, plus additional ground walnuts for garnish
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Ganache

• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp nocino

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Grease a 9 inch/23 cm round cake pan.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, sugar, eggs, nocino, sour cream, zest, and juice until thoroughly combined.
3. In another bowl, mix the flour, walnuts, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until thoroughly combined.
4. Fold the flour mixture into the oil mixture until combined.
5. Pour the batter into a pan. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Let the cake cool in the pan for 20 minutes, and then on a rack until cooled completely.
7. For the ganache, melt the chocolate by your preferred method – I use 30 second bursts in the microwave in a medium microwave-proof bowl, stirring each time.
8. When the chocolate is melted and still hot, stir in the sour cream and nocino until combined.
9. Spread the ganache over the top of the cake in an even layer.
10. Garnish the cake with a sprinkling of walnut pieces if desired and allow the ganache to set.
11. The cake keeps for 3-4 days covered at room temperature. 

Thank you to David Ouziel, AJ Faust, and the congregants of Mishkan Torah in Greenbelt, MD for conducting repeat user acceptance testing on this recipe