Tag: Butter Cream

Tort – Jadwiga

I remember my mother making this as a no-bake tort using sponge fingers.

She called it tort Jadwiga.

I have not been able to find a recipe for this other than in my notes and now I wonder whether she called it after me!

Partly because I did not have any sponge fingers and partly because I wanted to make a round cake – I decided to make this by baking two round fat free sponges.

Three are 4 parts to the ingredients list:

  • Fat free sponges – I used a quick English style version
  • Juice of a large orange
  • Rum & Almond butter icing
  • Toasted flaked almonds to decorate.

Ingredients -Fat Free sponge

  • 4 eggs
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 150g self raising flour

Method – Fat Free sponge

  • Pre-heat the oven to GM4 – 180°C
  • Grease and line the base of  two 18cm diameter baking tins.
  • In a bowl whisk the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and creamy.
  • Gently fold in the flour.
  • Pour the mixture into the tins and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Ingredients – Butter Cream

  • 110g unsalted butter
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons of rum
  • 300g icing sugar (approx)

Method – Butter Cream

  • Cream the butter with around half of the icing sugar.
  • Add the egg yolks and cream again till fluffy.
  • Add the ground almonds and the rum and whisk again.
  • Start adding the rest of the icing sugar until you have a thick butter cream.

Assembling the tort

  • Prick the top of each sponge with a skewer.
  • Place one of the sponges on the cake stand or plate you are going to use.
  • Using a spoon pour half the orange juice over the base of the tort.
  • Put a layer of the butter cream over the base.
  • Put the second cake on top and gently pour the rest of the orange juice over it.
  • Using a small spatula cover the top and sides with the rest of the butter cream.
  • Scatter the almond flakes over the edge of the top and around the sides of the tort.

 

 

Tea set by Royal Standard – Lyndale from the 1950s

Almond Meringue Cake

My mother used to buy little cakes called Japs from the English bakers where we lived in Lancashire.

We both loved them.

I now know that the name is shortened from Japonais  – which is French for Japanese style.  How they came by this name seems to be a mystery.

Traditionally they were two circles of almond meringue sandwiched together with a butter cream (often coffee flavour), covered with more butter cream and nibbled nuts.

When I came across this recipe for an almond meringue cake, lots of memories came flooding back.

The proportions for the meringue are:

50g of caster sugar & 25g of ground almonds per egg white.

I used 4 egg whites in this version.

Ingredients

  • 4 egg whites
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 100g ground almonds

Method

  • Use the loose bases of two baking tin – 20cm in diameter.
  • Lightly grease the circles.
  • Cut a 2 x 20cm circles of grease-proof paper and stick them onto the metal circles.
  • Place each circle on a large baking tray.
  • Pre-heat the oven to GM1 – 140°C.
  • Whisk the egg whites until stiff.
  • Add the sugar and whisk again till stiff.
  • Fold in the ground almonds.
  • Spoon and smooth half the mixture onto each circle.
  • Bake for 50 minutes (swap shelves half way through).
  • Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside for 20 minutes.
  • Take out and leave to cool completely before using.
  • *
  • Place one circle onto your cake stand.
  • Cover this with coffee or rum butter cream**.
  • Place the second circle on top.
  • Optional – add a few blobs of butter cream on top to decorate.
  • *
  • ** You can use a lighter cream filling of your choice.

 

 

Coffee set by Royal Doulton  – Pastorale – 1970 – 1990

Jug by Buchan Pottery, Portobello near Edinburgh –  from the early 1960s.

 

Walnut Tort

This is the same  recipe as the  Hazelnut tort only here ground walnuts  are used instead of hazelnuts.

I used the 6 egg recipe and made it in 2 x 18cm sponge cake tins.

A Little Note About Walnuts

Walnuts (Juglans regia) are native to south-east Europe and south-west China. They are the oldest tree food known dating back to 7,000 BC.

There are accounts of their cultivation in Babylon (now Iraq) in 2,000BC.

Juglans regia means means Jupiter’s royal nut.

They are the seed of a drupe (stone fruit) – not a true Botanical nut.

In Polish walnuts are orzechy włoskie –  nuts Italian – so named it is thought as they were brought to Poland by traders from Imperial Rome.

Black walnuts (Juglans nigra) are native to North America.

Ingredients

6 eggs

225g  caster sugar

225g ground walnuts

2 sponge fingers – crushed.

Optional – extra chopped walnuts for sprinkling on the butter cream or grated dark chocolate.

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Method

You will need to grind the walnuts and of course an electric grinder makes this very easy.

It is best to chop the walnuts into small pieces as this will make it easier and grind the walnuts in small batches so as not to over strain the motor.

Pre-heat the oven to GM5 – 190°C.

Grease and line 2 x 18cm in diameter tins.

Crush the sponge fingers and mix them with the ground walnuts.

 

Whisk together the eggs and sugar until they are pale and frothy.

Fold in the walnut mixture.

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Allow the cakes to cool .

Drizzle each cake with a poncz (sweetened punch). I used 50ml of weak black tea, 1 tablespoon of rum  and 1 tablespoon of  sugar.

 

Sandwich together with a butter cream & cover the top and sides also.

The following flavours are good with walnuts.

I used a rum butter cream made from 80g butter, 1 egg yolk  1 tablespoon of rum and  around 230g of icing sugar.

Cream the butter and the egg yolk and add the rum.  Mix in the icing sugar until you have the desired consistency.

More butter cream would have been better – I was trying to use the minimum this time!

I added chopped nuts to the top and sides (I used a cake stand with a small lip – a totally flat stand would have make it easier to add the nuts to the sides).

 

 

Served on – Tuscan China – Bird of Paradise – Hand Painted – 1930s

An Austrian Influence

A few weeks ago I bought an excellent Austrian cookery book in a charity shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know that there is a lot of overlap & influence between Polish & Austrian Cookery  and have enjoyed looking at this book and comparing my recipes with ones here.

On the back cover it says

“The culinary flavour of Austria is a gentle flavour. It knows of the fiery spices of Hungary and the elegance of French cuisine. It derives much of its strength from Moravia and much of its daring from Poland.”

For several of the cakes apricot or redcurrant jam is used to cover the top and sides of the cake before icing it.

For a walnut gateau, similar to my recipe, redcurrant jam is used.

I decided to do a variation of this with my walnut tort and to use raspberry jam.

The 2 cakes were made as above.

A poncz(sweet punch) was used made from 50ml of weak black tea and 1 tablespoon of sugar to drizzle the cakes.

The cakes were then sandwiched together with a raspberry butter cream using  60g Butter, 180g icing sugar & 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam which were creamed together.

 

Then the  top and sides were covered with raspberry jam, warmed slightly for ease of spreading and then this was allowed to dry.

I then made a lemon icing with the juice of 1 lemon and  icing sugar and used this to cover the top and sizes.

 

 

Served on Royal Grafton – Woodside  –  from the 1950s

However

This did not work too well – the icing I made was too stiff and I disturbed the jam underneath and got a mottled pink and white icing which  then  dripped down onto the base of the cake stand!!

However my friends thought the cake tasted wonderful and loved the combination of  flavours, so I decided to make the icing with the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam & icing sugar and see how that worked.

Storage

Do not cover the cake completely or it will go very soggy – cover it with a net or similar which will let the air circulate but keep insects off.

 

Alternative Icing 1

I decided to test out the raspberry icing over a creamed sponge cake – I used 4 eggs and equal amounts of butter, caster sugar and self raising flour and baked them in 2 x 20 cm anodised baking tins.

I sandwiched the cakes together with a layer of jam and the raspberry butter cream as above.

 

I then made a thick icing using the juice of 1 lemon, 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam & icing sugar.

 

Served on Aynsley  –  Las Palmas – 1960s

Alternative Icing 2

This icing was not as tangy as on the original cake so I tested this again with a more pouring, dripping glaze – this time using the juice a lemon, 1 tablespoon of raspberry jam & enough icing sugar to make a more pouring glaze.

I made just one 22cm round walnut cake and cut it in half &  used a poncz(sweet punch) made from 50ml of weak black tea and 1 tablespoon of sugar to drizzle the cake.

 

 

A few thoughts!

With hindsight I would not use one cake again as it was hard to cut it through evenly & there were lots of crumbs – if I only wanted to use 4 eggs,  I would make 2 smaller cakes.

I still have not got the icing quite right – this time there was too much & it was a bit too runny – maybe just the juice of half a lemon would be enough – however the taste was very good.

The cake improved over the next few days as the icing seeped into the cake.

 

 

Served on Colclough – Stardust – from the 1960s.

Storage

As with the cakes above do not cover the cake completely or it will go very soggy – cover it with a net or similar which will let the air circulate but keep insects off.

 

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Hazelnut – Tort

Corylus avellana is the hazelnut, also known as  cobnut or filbert nut.  In Polish it is orzech laskowy  – which translates as nut of the forest and as its name implies hazel trees or bushes grow abundantly in Poland.

Turkey is the largest commercial producer of hazelnuts followed by Italy.

Ferrero SpA  – makers of Ferrero Rocher and Nutella use 25% of the global supply of hazelnuts per annum.

Tort is a layer cake (in England the French word gateaux is used) – the layers of cake being sandwiched together with a butter cream (Sweet whipped cream was hardly known in Poland – with soured cream being the norm).

The word tort is originally from the Latin torta – flat cake or round loaf of bread.

A tort can be round or in a block shape – it often has very decorative piping  – my decorations tend to be more simple!

A tort is often made for celebrations and is often very large – I have recipes which call for a dozen or more eggs!

The following recipe only uses 6 eggs!

This tort recipe uses hazelnuts which have been roasted and then ground.

I often buy my hazelnuts from a  dried fruit & nut stall in Leeds Kirkgate Market.  This the largest covered market in Europe and was founded in 1875 and has around 100,000 visitors per week.

On this stall you can buy : whole hazel nuts, roasted hazel nuts and ground roasted hazel nuts.

I use either roasted hazel nuts and grind them myself or roast the hazel nuts myself and then grind them.

Roasting Hazel Nuts

To roast hazelnuts put the shelled nuts on a baking tray and put them in an oven at GM 5 – 190°C for around 10 to 15 minutes – keep checking as it is easy to burn them.

Once they are done, leave them to cool and then rub off the papery skins between your fingers and discard them.

 

 

I use an electric grinder which is very useful.

 

 

 

Ingredients

  • 6 eggs
  • 225g  caster sugar
  • 225g roasted & ground hazelnuts
  • 2 sponge fingers – crushed
  • Method

Pre-heat the oven to GM5 – 190°C

Grease and line a 23cm x 32cm baking tray.

 

 

 

 

Mix together the ground hazelnuts and crushed sponge fingers.

 

 

 

 

Whisk together the eggs and caster sugar until they are pale and fluffy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fold in the nut mixture.

Pour the mixture onto the baking tray and bake for  around 20 minutes until it is golden on top.

 

 

Take out and leave it to cool on a cooling tray.

Measure the length of the cake and cut it into 3 equal pieces.

 

 

 

 

A poncz (sweet punch for moistening the cake) is used on each layer.

I used one made from 150ml of weak black tea, 45 ml of rum and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar.

Rum Butter Cream

Ingredients

  • 120g butter
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons of rum
  • 300g icing sugar ( approximate amount)
  • Method

Cream together the butter and egg yolks.

Add the rum and cream again.

Mix in the icing sugar till you have a smooth butter cream

 

 

Using a spatulas layer up the cake first with poncz on each layer and then the butter cream.

Cover the top and sides with the butter cream.

Make fancy patterns with spatulas (or you can do fancy piping if you wish).

 

 

Little spatulas for decorating with icing.

 

 

 

Tea plates are Silver Rose by Duchess from the 1950s & 1960s.

The cake slice is Water Garden by Portmeirion.

Round Tort

The same quantities and method as above can be used for two 18m diameter cake tins.

Here the poncz was made from 150ml weak black tea and 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar & coffee butter cream was used.

Coffee Butter Cream

Ingredients

90g butter

1 egg yolk

3 tablespoons of very strong coffee

250g of icing sugar (approximate amount)

 

 

Making Strong Ground Coffee

 

Method

Cream the butter and egg yolk.

Add the coffee and cream again.

Mix in the icing sugar until you have a thick butter cream.

 

 

 

 

Use the poncz to moisten the cake & layer up and coat with the icing.

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Very useful cake lifter – from Lakeland Plastics – for moving the cake

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Another cake lifter

 

 

 

Tea set is by Spencer Stevenson Co Ltd, who manufactured in England  between 1948 and 1960.  The design name is not known.

Green Teapot is Café Culture by Maxwell Williams.

Other Cake Sizes

3 eggs with 110g of roasted hazel nuts & 110g of caster sugar for 1 – 18cm diameter cake tin.

4 eggs with 150g of roasted hazelnuts & 150g of caster sugar for 1  – 22cm diameter cake tin.

 

Biszkopt – Sponge Cake using Potato Flour

Biszkopt is a fat free sponge cake which means it does not have any butter, margarine or oil in it – just eggs, sugar & flour.

This recipe in my Polish cookery book is described as oszczędna which means economical and compared with many of the recipes which use 4 or more eggs it is.

I used this recipe to make  a cake which is very popular in Poland  –  rolada  which is a  roulade or roll.

I was really pleased with this  recipe & think I  will continue to use this the most.

Ingredients

40g potato flour

3 tablespoons of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder.

2 eggs separated

65g icing sugar plus 1 tablespoon of icing sugar & extra for dusting.

2 tablespoons of boiling water

Also you need a tin 23 x 32cms & 3 sheets of greaseproof paper

Fillings

Jam

Lemon Curd – This is very English but I am sure it would be loved in Poland –

Marks & Spencer’s Sicilian lemon curd is superb!

 

Butter Cream filling of your choice – I used coffee & rum here.

Method

Pre-heat oven to GM 4 – 180°C

There are lots of steps in this recipe &  after several trials, I have given the steps in the order I found worked the best.

Grease and line a  23 x 32cms baking tin – you can also grease the paper on the upper side – I have found this does make it easier to remove the cake.

Mix together the potato flour, plain flour and the baking powder.

Whisk the egg whites until they are stiff then add in 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and whisk again.

Whisk the egg yolks until they are pale then add the 2 tablespoons of boiling water and whisk again, add the icing sugar and whisk till the mixture is  pale and creamy.

Gently fold in the flour mixture.

Fold in the stiff whites.

Pour the mixture into the baking pan & bake for around 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and lightly dust with icing sugar then turn this out onto a sheet of greaseproof paper also dusted with icing sugar.

 

Place another piece of greaseproof on top of this and roll up the cake (starting with a short side) with the paper.

Leave this to cool.

Unroll the cake and spread with jam, lemon curd or a butter cream filling of your choice & then roll up the cake again.

Dust the cake  with icing sugar.

Rolada with lemon curd

 

 

Blue edged plates 1930s Allertons Ltd

Sandwich plate H&K Tunstall

Rolada with jam

 

Coffee & Rum Butter Cream

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

100g icing sugar

120g of butter

2 tablespoons of strong coffee

2 tablespoons of rum

Method

Make some strong coffee using 20g of ground coffee and boiling water and then strain it and leave to cool.

(You can of course use  instant coffee – my mother used Camp coffee years ago & it is still available)

 

 

Beat the egg yolks, butter & icing together

Add the coffee & rum and mix well in.

You can add a little more icing sugar  if you think the mixture is too soft.

 

 

Sandwich plate H&K Tunstall

How Did My Sponge Become Sandy?

In Polish the word for a fat free sponge cake which is made with just eggs, sugar and flour is  biszkopt.

A sponge cake which uses butter or margarine which is creamed with the sugar is described as piaskowy – this adjective means sandy – hence the title of this post!

I have not managed to find an explanation as to why it is so described  but have found this term in all my Polish cookery books.

Pani Stasia’s Sponge Cake

This is a recipe which I learnt from my mother’s friend who we knew as pani Stasia*.

Pani Stasia made wonderful cakes but unfortunately I did not write many of them down – however I did for this one and it is the basis for many of my other cakes and buns.

This recipe is equivalent to the British cake –  Victoria Sponge – named after Queen Victoria in whose reign this became popular & who is said to have liked this cake very much.

Having been looking at recipes in my Polish cookery cooks I realise that pani Stasia adapted this recipe for England as self raising flour and caster sugar are not found in Polish shops.

(*Pani  translates as Madam, Lady or Mrs and is a polite form of address – it is like donna in Italian or for example  saying Miss Mary in the Southern States of America.

Stasia is the shortened form of the Polish name Stanisława. (The feminine form of Stanisław)

St Stanisław is the patron saint  of Kraków & Poland, he was a martyr, murdered by the Polish king Bolesław II the Bold in 1079 – a story which has much in common with St Thomas à Beckett and the English king Henry II  in 1170).

Ingredients

Eggs

Butter or Block Baking Margarine

Caster Sugar

Self Raising Flour

I usually use 3 or 4 eggs for this recipe – in the photographs below I have used 4 eggs to make 2 cakes which were then sandwiched together with jam and white chocolate butter cream.

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Method

Grease and line the base of 2 x 21.5cm  sandwich tins. – I find anodised aluminium tins are the best. (my old tins say 8 1/2 inch on the base – 21cm or 22cm would be OK)

Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°c

The first thing you have to do is weigh your eggs – complete with their shells.

Weighing Eggs

You then weigh out the same amount of  butter or block margarine, caster sugar and self raising flour.

At first I thought this was very strange but now find that it gives a very good way of getting the right proportions no matter what size the eggs are.

I heard the late Marguerite Patten in an earlier recorded programme on the radio a few weeks ago saying that Victorian cooks often  used this method. 

Cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one by one whisking again until the the mixture is light and fluffy again.

Fold in the flour with a metal spoon taking not to over mix the mixture and knock out all the air.

Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 prepared tins.

Bake in the centre of the oven for around 25 to 30 minutes  – the cake should  be golden brown and be clean when a cake tester is used.

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Cakes cooling awaiting being sandwiched together

This cake is very versatile and here I have sandwiched it together with blackcurrant jam (given to me by my friend who had made it with fruit from her allotment) and white chocolate butter cream.

Sweet whipped cream is not found in Polish cookery – butter creams and similar are the standard fillings for layer cakes.

On the bottom cake first spread on the jam and then top this with the butter cream.

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This butter cream is sweet and needs the contrast of a tart jam, damson jam would be another alternative.

White Chocolate Butter Cream

Ingredients

60g White chocolate

40g Butter – unsalted is best

80g Sieved  icing sugar

 Method

Melt the white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of hot water and allow to cool.

Cream the  butter and the icing sugar.

Beat in the cooled, melted chocolate.

Note

Take care  –  if the melted chocolate  is too hot then you will end up having to add more icing sugar and the  butter cream will be very sweet.

Dust the finished cake with icing sugar.

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Plates are Burleigh Ware – Burges & Leigh Ltd —– Blue Mist around 1930s

 

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