kiev cake

This is a traditional Ukrainian Christmas cake that I got from my co-worker Olga who made it for us at work. It was amazing and I asked her for the recipe so that I could make it for my mom for her birthday.

Ingredients:

Batter:
- 400 g flour
- 250 g butter
- 4 egg yolks
- 200 g sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
Meringue:
- 4 egg whites
- 150 g sugar
- 200 g walnuts (I used about 1 cup)
icing:
- 3 sticks of butter, softened
- 1 cup of sugar (take out 3 tbsp and reserve the rest)
- 4 egg yolks
- 150 g very strong coffee, cooled (approx 2/3 cup)

Preparation:

Preheat oven at 350 F.

Make the batter:
Mix together all the batter ingredients.
Divide into three equal portions and place each on a greased baking sheet in desired shape. (Note: I cut 3 equal circles from parchment paper, placed them on baking sheets and spread the dough on the parchment paper).
Make the meringue:
Beat egg whites until almost stiff.
Continue to beat egg whites and add sugar a bit at a time.
Divide meringue into 3 equal portions and spread on each of the batter pieces.
Sprinkle walnuts on top of each meringue.
Bake each piece for approximately 20 minutes.

Icing:
Caramelize all but 3 tbsp of the sugar in a non-stick pan on medium heat.
Don't stir, just shake/turn the pan to caramelize the sugar evenly.
Remove caramel from heat and add coffee carefully at edge of pan (careful, mixture can splatter and burn badly).
Put pan back on heat and stir until all sugar is dissolved.
Let cool.
In a small bowl, combine (not beat) remaining 3 tbsp sugar with egg yolks.
Add mixture to cooled caramel and stir.
In a large bowl beat butter.
Add completely cooled caramel mixture a little bit at a time, beating continuously.

assembly:
Assemble all three layers of cake with 2 layers of icing in between.

notes:

Alternate for batter: Can use rolled puff pastry instead of batter if in a hurry.
Alternate for Icing: Beat butter with 1 cup sugar and add cooled coffee.

Country:

ukraine

Prepared: 2009-12-12

Categories: Cake
Desserts
International