Polish chocolate & walnut cake

Name: Polish chocolate & walnut cake
Prep time: 11 min
Cook time: 19 min
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Polish
Ingredients: 150g Plain Flour; 50g Coco Sugar; 8 Egg; 200g Caster Sugar; 5 Egg White; 200g Caster Sugar; 250g Walnuts; 1 tablespoon Plain Flour; 1 tablespoon Potato Starch; 100g Double Cream; 100g Chocolate Chips

By The Spice & Simmer Kitchen · Published May 3, 2026

A one-pot Dessert recipe with Polish flavors, built for busy weeknights when you want real food without a sink full of dishes. Comes together in roughly 44 minutes, serves about 4, and uses ingredients you can find at any normal grocery store. The technique is simple: build a base in your pot, layer in the main ingredients, simmer until everything has had time to talk to each other, and serve straight from the pan. If you're cooking for picky eaters, this one tends to land — the flavors are recognizable, the texture is comforting, and there's nothing weird hiding in the ingredient list. Perfect for the kind of evening where you want dinner on the table by 7pm and the kitchen empty by 7:30.

Ingredients

Makes 4 servings · 30 min total

150g Plain Flour
50g Coco Sugar
8 Egg
200g Caster Sugar
5 Egg White
200g Caster Sugar
250g Walnuts
1 tablespoon Plain Flour
1 tablespoon Potato Starch
100g Double Cream
100g Chocolate Chips

Step-by-step instructions

Heat the oven to 170C/150C fan/gas 3½. Line a 30 x 22cm shallow baking tin with baking parchment. Sift the flour and mix it with cocoa, then set aside. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add the sugar to them in small batches. Add the egg yolks, one by one, whisking constantly. Tip in the flour mixture and gently fold everything together with a spatula. Pour the prepared batter into the lined tin and bake for 35 mins. Cool for 5 mins, remove from the tin and re-line the tin with baking parchment.
To make the meringue, whisk the whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar, one tablespoon at a time. When you have a stiff and shiny meringue, fold in the finely chopped walnuts, flour and startch. Spread the mixture into the re-lined tin and cook for 40 mins on the same heat. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
For the chocolate glaze, heat the cream over low heat, then remove from the heat, pour the chopped chocolate into it and mix it until it melts and becomes shiny.
Cut the cooled chocolate sponge cake and meringue into two layers. Put the nut meringue on top of the bottom layer of sponge and sprinkle on some of the reserved walnuts. Add another layer of meringue and then the upper layer of chocolate sponge cake and cover the top with chocolate glaze. Decorate with walnuts. Put the finished cake in the fridge for 1-2 hrs before serving.

Why this works on a weeknight

Polish chocolate & walnut cake genuinely fits a 30-minute weeknight window, which is why it earned a spot in our Sweet Finishes collection. The technique is forgiving, the ingredient list is grocery-store standard, and the active cooking time is short enough that you can answer a text message in the middle without ruining dinner.

Cleanup notes

This is a single-pan recipe, so the cleanup is exactly one pan, one cutting board, and one knife. While the dish rests, fill the pan with hot soapy water — by the time you are done eating, the residue lifts off with a single pass of a sponge. Skip the steel wool on cast iron; a stiff brush and warm water are all you need to keep the seasoning intact.

Make-ahead and leftovers

Leftovers keep covered in the fridge for up to three days. Reheat in a dry pan over medium-low with a splash of water or stock to loosen the sauce. Polish chocolate & walnut cake actually improves overnight as the flavors keep talking to each other, so doubling the recipe and packing tomorrow's lunch is a high-leverage weeknight move.

Filed under 🍮 Sweet Finishes Dessert Polish ⚡ 30-Min Dinner