Easy and delicious cinnamon, clove, and walnut cake, perfect for fall!

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Karidopita is a classic Greek spiced walnut cake soaked in aromatic honey syrup. It’s a moist, not-to-sweet cake perfect for fall and the holidays. The warm spices of cinnamon and cloves make it so delicious. Plus, it’s pretty easy to make. The syrup allows for room for error because it will moisten the cake even if you accidentally overbake it. So, get ready for your house to smell amazing!
Why you’ll make this even after fall
Soft, moist cake
Warm cinnamon, clove spice
Slight walnut crunch
Perfectly spiced sugar-dusted topping
A moist and delicious classic Greek spiced walnut cake that’s easy to make!

Everything you need
Ingredients for walnut cake:
- Light olive oil –or your favorite light vegetable oil
- Eggs –room temperature if you remember
- Whole milk
- Granulated sugar
- Pure vanilla extract –good quality for the best flavor
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon –I like to add heaping spoonfuls
- Ground cloves
- Salt
- Coarsely ground walnuts plus one tablespoon of flour –finely ground if you prefer
Honey Syrup:
- Sugar
- Honey –Greek honey is the best!
- Water
- Whole cloves –no need to break them us because we’ll strain them out
- Cinnamon stick –whole
- Vanilla extract
Garnish:
- Coarsely ground walnuts –finely ground if you prefer more of a dusting
- Powdered sugar
- Ground cloves
- Ground cinnamon

Baker’s Tips!
We had a bakery for ten years, and I learned a lot of tips along the way. For this recipe, make the syrup first, so it has plenty of time to cool. Start the cake by measuring your dry ingredients so you’ll have fewer things to clean. And measure your honey after measuring the oil for the cake. Doing this makes the honey slide out of the measuring cup much easier.

How to make Karidopita: Greek Spiced Walnut Cake
Make the syrup first
- Combine the sugar, water, cloves, and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- As soon as the sugar dissolves, remove the pan from the heat and add the honey and vanilla extract.
- Stir together and set aside to cool completely.
The spiced walnut cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F, 180 °C, and grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until thick and pale.
- Then, add the olive oil and milk and beat well to incorporate.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt into another bowl.
- Slowly add the dry mix to the egg mixture while gently whisking until just incorporated and most of the batter is smooth. **Do not over-mix! Otherwise, your cake will not be light and fluffy. **
- In a separate bowl, toss the ground walnuts with a tablespoon of flour. This will prevent the walnuts from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- Then, fold the walnuts gently into the batter with a spatula.
- Pour the batter into the already prepared baking dish.
- Bake it for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- As soon as the cake is done baking, remove it from the oven and poke holes all over with a toothpick.
- Pour all the cooled honey syrup over the cake slowly, allowing it to be absorbed.
- To garnish, combine the walnuts with the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cloves and sprinkle over the cake.

Serving
I need nothing but a hot cup of Greek coffee to eat this delicious cake. You can call over some friends to share or try to eat just one piece a day. It will stay fresh for a few days at room temperature or about five days in the refrigerator. I think it tastes even better the day after you bake it, so try not to eat it all in one day. Kali Orexi!

More cake recipes
- Apple Olive Oil Cake: Greek Milopita Coffee Cake
- Chocolate Nutella Cake Slices
- My Favorite Carrot Cake Recipe
- Greek Walnut Cake (Vegan)
- Spiced Pumpkin & Olive Oil Loaf Cake
- 3 Fall Swirl Loaves

Karidopita: Greek Spiced Walnut Cake
Ingredients
The cake:
- 1 cup light olive oil
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup (220g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (280g) all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 cups coarsely ground walnuts plus 1 tablespoon flour
The Honey Syrup:
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup honey
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 teaspoon whole cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
The garnish:
- 1/2 cup ground walnuts
- 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 °F, 180 °C and grease the bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- *Tip: Begin by measuring out your dry ingredients so that you will have fewer things to clean 😉 Also, measure your honey after measuring the oil for the cake. Doing this makes the honey slide out of the measuring cup much easier.
- Make the Syrup: Combine the sugar, water, cloves ,and cinnamon in a saucepan and bring to a boil. As soon as the sugar has dissolved remove the pan from the heat and add the honey and vanilla extract. Mix together and set aside to cool completely.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together for a few minutes until thick and pale. Add the olive oil and milk. Beat well to incorporate.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt. Slowly add them to the egg mixture while gently whisking just until incorporated and most of the batter is smooth. Do not over mix! Otherwise your cake will not be light and fluffy.
- Add the ground walnuts with the tablespoon of flour to a bowl and whisk together. This will prevent the walnuts from sinking to the bottom of the cake.
- Fold the walnuts gently into the batter with a spatula.
- Pour the batter in the already prepared baking dish.
- Bake it for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
- As soon as the cake is done baking, remove it from the oven and poke it all over with a toothpick. Pour all of the cooled honey syrup over the cake slowly, allowing it to be absorbed.
- Combine the walnuts with the powdered sugar, cinnamon and cloves and sprinkle over the cake to garnish.
- Enjoy!!
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Hi Dimitri! Hope you are having a great vacation if you’re still gone. I want to make a honey cake in my beehive cake mold by Nordic Ware it’s in two pieces if you could look it up and let me know if I could use this recipe or not I would sincerely appreciate it. Thanks!
Bea
True flavors of Greece! This will knock my husband’s socks off!!
This cake was fluffy and very light, Amazing cake Dimitra, thank you.
I have made a lot of your recipes and they’re delicious
From London with love
Sophia xxx
I followed this perfectly, the cake looks fine but I used half of the syrup and it’s pooling on the sides. I poked like crazy with a tooth pick as well. What am I doing wrong?am I to use all of the syrup? Seems a lot
Hi Elizabeth. The syrup will pool on the sides until it is all absorbed by the cake. It might take a bit longer than expected. Enjoy! You can use less next time if you prefer 🙂
Hello, how should I store this? Will it keep unrefrigerated?
It’s best stored at room temperature in an airtight container. You can also refrigerate it if you’d like 🙂
Hi I usually separate the eggs to get a fluffy airy cake, if I use this method with the karidopita do I add the walnuts after the egg white meringue or before, I’m thinking I put them in last basically after I’ve incorporated half the meringue somewhat, that’s just me if I were to do it but your feedback would be greatly appreciated, love your dishes Dimitra, cheers from OZ🇦🇺
Dimitra, If we don’t want to purchase a whole jar of cinnamon sticks and whole cloves, is there any way to use ground cinnamon and cloves in the syrup?
You can leave them out of the syrup and flavor it with vanilla and orange peel instead. It’ll be lovely!
you mention 10 whole cloves for the syrup. could you use ground cloves; and how much?
Sure, you can add less than a quarter teaspoon to the syrup but if you can use the whole cloves they will be better 🙂
I see in your previous response from Aliya Cheskis-Cotel that you stated that you could use vanilla and orange peel to flavor the syrup if not using cinnamon and cloves. how much of each would you use?
Yes, you can add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract once the syrup is off the heat. The peel of an orange can be added at the beginning. Hope that helps!!