Name: Walnut Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 8 servings

Frosting

Cake

Elizabeth Poett is passionate about preserving and maintaining her family’s ranch while growing healthy, fresh foods to share with loved ones.


Elizabeth Poett

In our area, there are many walnut groves. The funny thing about walnuts is once I start eating them, I can’t quite stop. I developed this recipe to celebrate the sweet fragrance of fresh walnuts in the form of a light fluffy cake. The browned butter frosting is a frosting that can be put on many different cakes but brings such a rich layer of flavor to the sweet walnut cake.

Elizabeth Poett's Walnut Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting

Walnut Cake with Browned Buttercream Frosting

Meet The Creator

Chicken Marsala is one of my dad’s favorite dishes. I learned to make this recipe by cooking it for him over time. This recipe has a really delicious balance of Marsala, mushrooms, garlic, and lemon. It’s an easy stovetop meal that can be made quickly, but is satisfying and rich in flavor.

Chicken Marsala

I love to cook with fish—especially after Austin goes fishing—and I developed this recipe because I was looking for something that would be rich tasting but also really simple to make. For this recipe, I make a sauce out of white wine, cream, and fresh dill, then just slip the fillets into the pan and put the whole thing in the oven until the fish is tender and infused with the bright, creamy sauce. I like to serve it with saffron rice, which has a flavor that reminds me of food that I enjoyed when I studied in Spain as a student. Put the kettle to a boil while preheating the oven and the rice and fish will be ready about the same time.

White Fish with Dill Sauce and Saffron Rice

This episode is an ode to all things biscuits—because this is a food that epitomizes so much of what I love about getting creative and having fun in the

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Episode 6

While some evenings call for dishes that are quick and easy, on nights when I have a little extra time, this is the type of meal I can’t wait to get into the

Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines: Season 2, Episode 2

Our children’s book, We Are the Gardeners, is finally here! The kids and I have been working on this project for a little over a year, and I’m excited to be

The Making of We Are the Gardeners

The first step to this recipe is to make a rich mushroom stock, which packs enormous mushroom flavor intensity, adding depth to any recipe where stock is used. When sourcing the fresh mushrooms, look for larger ones because they’ll hold up to the braise. Clusters of lion's mane, oyster mushrooms, and maitake mushrooms can often be found at specialty grocery stores (but white button mushrooms can be substituted). To prep them, pull apart the clusters into 3-inch chunks. The final product is an umami-filled dish with brightness from the orange juice. Enjoy it as a veggie-forward main or a hearty side dish.

Katie Button's Orange and Honey Braised Mushrooms

Orange and Honey Braised Mushrooms

“There are some meals you know are special because of the time they require or the long list of ingredients they call for. Other times, I find joy in recipes that can be as creative or straightforward as I want. The base of this recipe offers that flexibility. Flatbread is delicious with a simple, traditional hummus or dip, but I also love piling on veggies from the garden, or as this recipe calls for, a little bit of prosciutto and arugula.” — Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Joanna Gaines' Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

Balsamic-Glazed Prosciutto Flatbread

This is my great-grandmother’s chocolate cake recipe. I was never able to meet my great-grandmother, but I have learned so much about her by studying the recipes she has handed down for birthdays, anniversaries, and other special occasions. The cake is both decadent and light as a result of separating the eggs and folding in beaten egg whites at the very end. I added the fresh raspberries because they lend a lovely layer of flavor and brightness to the cake.

Mrs. Hart's Chocolate Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

Mrs. Hart’s Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

This cake is light and airy and fresh! It’s lemony but not overwhelmingly so. I love buttercream frosting and I love lemon curd, and so I decided to try combining them. The result was a frosting that is a dreamy blend of these two favorites: a fresh lemon flavor and a smooth, buttery frosting all in one. If you don't have time to make the lemon curd, it can be store-bought, but it’s fun to make. If you make it you’ll end up with a little bit of extra curd to enjoy on toast. My dad loves everything lemon so I make this cake for him on his birthday every year.

Elizabeth Poett's Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

Lemon Cake with Lemon Curd Buttercream Frosting

"A dish that looks fancy but is secretly simple will always have a place on my table. Wedge salads in general are great at pulling this off—and fortunately, everyone in our family enjoys them. I like to slice the iceberg wedges beforehand, then serve the toppings family-style so everyone can tailor their own. The kids and I like to dress our salad with ranch, but Chip always prefers blue cheese. Since this is one of Chip's favorite salads, that classic take is what I've shared here." – Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Joanna Gaines' Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing

I stayed up too late (again) last night, eyes heavy but fixed on the softly-lit tree that sits in the corner of our living room. I was thinking about how

O Christmas Tree

Making a pan of focaccia is one of quickest ways there is to get fresh bread on the table. And with a little creativity, your loaf can also be pretty enough to serve as a centerpiece. Once my dough has risen, and I’ve rolled it out and patted it out into a pan, I use edible flowers, vegetables, and herbs to make a kind of nature-inspired mosaic on the surface that bakes into a beautiful, flavorful topping.

Herb Focaccia with Edible Flowers

Roasted carrots are a crazy-simple side dish. There are a couple of things to remember to make them delicious: keep the oven hot enough to develop some caramelization; look for carrots that are consistent in size so they cook at the same rate; don’t worry about peeling them — a little scrub under running water does the trick. This recipe dresses the simple roasted carrots with a tasty sauce that’s tangy from vinegar and orange juice, with depth and sweetness from maple syrup.

Katie Button's Orange and Maple-Glazed Carrots

Roasted Carrots with Orange-Maple Glaze

Roasted mushrooms are one of my favorite dishes to make when hosting friends for dinner because it's so easy to throw them on a sheet pan and let the oven do the work. You can really build on the richness of the mushrooms by pairing it with a simple vinaigrette. As with the Honey Mustard-Glazed Pork Tenderloin, this was inspired by a dish in The Fresh Honey Cookbook by one of my dear late friends, Laurey Masterton. Laurey was wildly passionate about a lot of things, and one of those was bees and honey. It was an honor to be able to recreate some of Laurey's dishes for a dinner on From the Source, incorporating a few of my own touches along the way.

Katie Button's Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Roasted Mushrooms with Honey Vinaigrette

Where I live, there are beautiful carrots at the farmers’ market year round, and I am always trying to find ways to cook and bake with them. When I was a child, I called carrot cake “healthy cake.” I remember not really liking the lumps of nuts and all of the different textures in the cake, but I loved the sweet, rich flavor. This is my rendition of a carrot cake with all the flavors without the interruption of so many different textures and crunches. It’s a light, fluffy cake that’s also rich and moist. I love the crunch and flavor of nuts, so instead of mixing them into the batter, I put them on the outside of the frosted cake. Carrot cakes can look rather drab, all brown and white. I love to decorate the top of this cake with a few edible orange flowers and a few green sprigs from the carrot tops to add some brightness to this delicious cake.

Elizabeth Poett's Four-Layer Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Four-Layer Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

Everyone needs a perfect burger recipe, and this is my go-to. The fresh honey buns are soft, delicious, and simple to make. The Worcestershire sauce and fresh garlic add just the right combination of sweetness and flavor to the ground chuck. I like to offer a wide variety of toppings on burger night so each person can assemble their own favorite burger.

Elizabeth Poett's Ranch Burger on a Honey Bun

Ranch Burgers on Honey Buns

I often make these hearty, flavorful sandwiches when friends and family come to help out on the ranch. I can prepare most of this meal ahead of time—the meat and coleslaw can be made the day before I need to serve them (see Cook’s Note)—and the sandwiches are big and meaty enough to fill everyone up on a day full of hard work. (They’re also a favorite of Austin’s, because he loves sandwiches so much that he thinks of them as his favorite food group.) This recipe feeds six, but I usually double it to serve a crowd.

Pulled Brisket Sandwiches with Coleslaw

Here you can read Chip's thoughts from our summer issue of Magnolia Journal on identifying the things in your own life that are worth the

Chip's Column: fear-less

"An easy way to gather vegetables for this recipe is to keep a baggie in the freezer and whenever you have leftover vegetables you can just toss them in. That way, as soon as you cook a recipe that leaves you with chicken bones, you have what you need to make the stock—you can just put it all in a large pot on the stove and let it simmer. I always try to make as much of this stock as possible so that I can freeze at least half the batch. There is satisfaction in using every last bit of food you can, and knowing that nothing is going to waste." – Joanna Gaines, Magnolia Table, Volume 3

Homemade Chicken Stock

Every once in a while, when our family is in the mood for a nice meal, but doesn't feel like going out to a restaurant, I like to plan a meal for a special