Cheonan Station · Walnut-Shaped Cake
Cheonan Hodu-gwaja (Walnut Cake)
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It isn't an actual walnut in a shell — it's a small cake baked in a walnut-shaped mold from batter mixed with ground walnuts, then filled with sweet red bean paste and topped with a single walnut half.
Batter made from wheat flour and ground walnuts is poured into walnut-shaped molds, filled with sweet red bean paste, and baked until golden, producing a small cake that looks exactly like an oversized walnut. Vendors near Cheonan Station and along the city's streets sell them warm in paper bags, a dozen or two at a time.
Why it's made this way: A couple, Jo Gwi-geum and Sim Bok-sun, first baked the snack in Cheonan in 1934, and it stayed a local secret until the 1970s, when a deal to sell it on passing trains carried the recipe — and Cheonan's name — across the country.
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