Hazelnut Cake with Ricotta and Pears Filling

The base of this cake is made from egg whites only and it was one of the reasons I got interested in this recipe, because I was wondering what to do with the leftover egg whites that I had in my refrigerator

Besides that purely technical aspect, I thought the recipe was worth trying because the cake turned out delicious. It was very light and moist.The base is baked with ground hazelnuts which adds a nice flavor. It is a layered cake and between its two layers there is a cheese and pears filling. Originally fresh ricotta is used for the filling, but if fresh ricotta is not available, it could be replaced with mascarpone. The moisture comes from the syrup that is obtained from cooking pears and is drizzled over the cake at the end.



Hazelnut Cake with Ricotta and Pears Filling

Ingredients:
4 egg whites,
3/4 cup roasted hazelnuts,
1/3 cup all purpose flour,
2/3 stick unsalted, room temperature butter,
2 pears peeled and cut into small pieces,
1/4 cup water,
1/4 cup rum,
1/2 cup sugar, plus extra 2 tbsp,
1 cup fresh, drained ricotta (or mascarpone) cheese,
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream,
1/4 cup icing sugar to finish.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. 2. Place hazelnuts in a food processor and grind them into sand-like consistency.
3. Add flour, sugar and butter to the nuts and run the food processor until well blended.
4. In a separate large bowl whisk egg whites until stiff. Fold them into the nut mixture.
5. Grease with butter an 8-inch round baking form with a removable wall and line it with wax paper. Spread the nut mixture evenly and bake for about 20 minutes until firm. Let the cake cool down.
6. In a medium bowl mix water, rum and 1/2 cup sugar and bring it to boiling. Add cut pears pieces and simmer them until soft. Drain the pears and let them cool.
7. In a medium bowl whisk ricotta, 2 tbsp sugar and whipping cream until fluffy. Add pears and mix gently.
8. Place the cake base on a serving plate. Cut in half and spread the cheese filling over the bottom layer.



9. Cover it with the second layer, press gently so the filling spreads between the layers. Drizzle the top of the cake with the rum syrup, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Orange and Olive Oil Cake

This is a very easy cake. It is good by so un-fancy that it can go with your morning coffee. It seems perfect for this season as beautiful oranges are on display in most food stores. There is nothing complicated or unusual about this cake other than that it is made with olive oil rather than butter. And I would like to believe that this also makes it healthier. The olive oil also gives it an almost savory flavor, contrasting with its sweetness. And it is even better on the next day when it catches some extra moisture.



Orange and Olive Oil Cake

Ingredients:
4 large oranges, preferably organic or as many as needed to squeeze out 1 and 1/2 cup juice,
4 large eggs,
1 and 1/2 cup extra olive oil, very mild in flavor,
2 and 1/2 cup granulated sugar,
3 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour,
1 tsp salt,
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder,
orange zest from two oranges
icing sugar for dusting.


Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a large bundt cake form.
2. Break the eggs into a bowl of a standing mixer and beat for about a minute, until well combined.
3. Add sugar and beat for about 3 minutes, until well combined and pales.
4. In a medium bowl mix flour, salt and baking powder.
5. Add a third of the flour mix alternating with 1/2 cup oil, beating after each addition, until both ingredients are all used.
6. Grate the orange juice from two oranges and squeeze 1 and 1/2 cup juice.



7. Pour in the orange juice, add the zest, and beat gain to combine.



8. Transfer to a baking form and bake for about an hour until dark gold and the top is well set.
9. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Almond Cake with Persimmon Compote

This very nice Italian-style cake is one of the easiest cakes to make. It can be prepared entirely in a stand-up mixer. In principle, it is a cheesecake, but it does not taste like one. True to its Italian roots, it is made with the ricotta cheese, which gives it a nice moist texture but it does not stand out in the taste. As a result, the cake is very delicate and tastes more like a sponge almond cake than a cheesecake.

I decided to garnish this cake with persimmons, which are now in season and are easily available in most of the stores, especially Asian and Middle Eastern. They have a beautiful color and wonderful honey-like sweetness. Because they are so sweet, to tone them down a little, I made a wine and lemon syrup in which I cooked them briefly. Then I poured it over the cake. This combination could not be better. Just try.



Almond Cake with Persimmon Compote
(For a 9-inch round baking form with removable walls)

Ingredients:

For the cake:
1/2 cup all purpose flour,
1/2 cup ground almonds,
1/2 cup ricotta cheeses,
2/3 cup sugar,
1 and 1/2 stick unsalted butter,
1 tsp baking powder,
4 eggs.

For persimmon garnish:
4 firm persimmons,
1/2 cup sugar,
1 cup dry white wine,
juice from 1 lemon,
1/2 cup whipped cream or creme fresh to garnish.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Line a bottom of a baking form with wax paper, grease with butter, and dust with flour.
3. In a medium bowl mix flour, ground almonds, and baking powder.
4. Melt the butter and pour it in a bowl of a mixer. Add sugar and ricotta and beat on a high speed until the mixture becomes very smooth and white, for about 5 minutes.



5. Add to the mixture eggs, beating well between additions. Incorporate dry ingredients and beat again.
6. Transfer the batter to the form, smooth and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the top becomes gold. Let it cool down.
7. To make the persimmon compote peel off persimmons cut in half and slice them into a 1/2-inch thick quarters.
8. Pour wine, sugar, and lemon juice into a medium pot. Bring it to boil and cook on a medium high heat for about 30 minutes, until it thickens to a consistency of a syrup. Add persimmon quarters and let it boil in the syrup for two-three minutes. Cool down completely.



9. Remove a cake from the form on a serving plate and finish with persimmons and cream.

Lemon Mini Cakes with Berries

When you are passionate about food, when you cook a lot and experiment in the kitchen and constantly read about food, you develop imagination and the sixth culinary sense. And then, just by reading recipes, you can tell which dishes should be good, which combination of ingredients should work, and which are interesting and worth trying.

This is how I felt about today's dessert. Each time when I looked at this recipe in my secret notebook I knew that this dessert could be great. The idea of baking a cake in water sounded intriguing. Dessert prepared like this are always very delicate and this one seemed to be a fusion of cake and a pudding-like dessert. So when I made it last weekend I did not get disappointed. It was delicate and fluffy inside and creamy at the bottom, sweet but at the same explicitly tart and very refreshing--a perfect summer dessert.

These cakes are made separately in small ramekins. When they cool down it is best to take them out on serving plates. I would suggest to make the same day you intend to serve them as the soft, creamy top part may dry a bit the next day. Served with crème fraîche or lightly whipped cream and fresh berries these lemon cakes will satisfy and impress any palate.

Lemon Mini Cakes with Berries
(Makes eight portions)

Ingredients:
5 tbsp room temperature butter plus extra 1 tbsp melted,
1 and 1/4 cup sugar,
5 eggs separated, at room temperature,
1 and 1/4 cup whole milk,
1 tsp grated lemon zest,
1/2 cup lemon juice,
1/2 cup all purpose flour,
1/2 cup crème fraîche or whipped cream for decoration,
1 cup of mix berries.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Brush the bottom and walls of eight 5 oz ramekins with melted butter and dust with sugar.
3. Using an electric mixer beat butter with 1/2 cup sugar until pale.
4. Add egg yolks beating after each addition then fold in flour and lemon zest. Beat all the ingredients for about 2 minutes.
5. Pour into the mixture milk and lemon juice. Beat again until smooth.
6. In a large bowl beat the whites until soft peak. Add rest of the sugar and beat until whites become shiny. Using a spatula fold whites into the lemon batter. Divide among ramekins.
7. Place ramekins in a baking tin with taller walls. Add hot water up to the half of the heights of the ramekins and place the baking tin in the oven.

8. Bake for about 30 minutes, until tops of the cakes become set and slightly gold.
9. Cool cakes completely, then reverse on serving plates. Decorate and serve at room temperature.

Apple Meringue Tart

The recipe I will be sharing today is for a cake that was one of the first I ever made. For a long time, it was my favorite cake because it was different from what my grandmother had baked. All her cakes were absolutely delicious, of which I am even more convinced today than ever, but at that time this cake looked more intriguing and flamboyant than anything that she made. With time my view changed and I even adapted her crust--the best I have ever tried--instead of the original one, which was too hard for my taste.

I made that cake then for our guests and it always earned all the wows not only because of its taste but also the presentation. The crust was buttery and sour and juicy apples melted in mouth and the delicate and fluffy meringue stuck to lips.

I was reluctant to share this recipe for a long time mainly because I still did not find in the U.S. the apples that would be suitable for this type of cake. The cake is filled and baked with apple halves therefore they need to bake rather fast before the crust turns too brown. So far, none of the apples I tried here really stood up to the task. Although the cake tastes great anyway and everyone likes it, apples remain still too firm, not mushy. Having a comparison I miss that special softness and winey taste that the Polish apple varieties that were especially good for cooking have.

But because fall is a season for apples I share this recipe anyway. I used golden ginger apples type but if you have available sour apples that cook well this cake will turn absolutely amazing.

Apple Meringue Tart

Ingredients:
6-7 medium cooking apples
2 sticks unsalted butter plus extra 1 tbsp at room temperature,
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour,
3 eggs,
1 tbsp sour cream,
1/2 tsp baking powder,
1/4 cup plus extra 4 tbsp sugar,
2 tbsp dried raisins or cranberries,
2 tbsp sliced almonds.

Preparation:
1. Place 2 cups of flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Add butter and working with hands quickly incorporate butter into the flour until crumbles form.
2. Separate the eggs. Place whites in a large bowl. Put yolks, sugar and sour cream in a small bowl and mix until well combine.
3. Pour the yolks mixture into the flour and quickly form a dough. Use remaining half a cup of flour to clean hands and incorporate the scraps into the dough.
4. Roll out the dough on a working space slightly dusted with flour. Using a rolling pin transfer the dough into the greased tart form. Make nice edges and chill the dough in a refrigerator for at least an hour (you can keep it refrigerated for up to a week).
5. Preheat the oven to 350F.
6. Soak the raisins in a warm water. Meanwhile peel off the apples, cut in halves and remove the core. Place the halves of apples at the bottom of the raw tart. Using a fork run a strips on top of the apples ( it will help to bake the faster and evaporate the extra moisture)

7. Place the tart in a oven and bake for about 45 minutes or until the crust is gold and apples become softer.
8. Beat the whites until soft peak. Add a tbsp of sugar and beat until whites become shiny. Follow gradually with three remaining spoons of sugar.
9. Drain the raisins from the excess of water and sprinkle on top of the apples. Cover the apples with meringue, spread it using a spatula and sprinkle with sliced almonds. Return the tart to the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the meringues become gold.

10. Let it cool down a little bit and serve.

Passion Fruit and Yogurt Mousse Cake--Delicate and Aromatic

Passion fruits are my favorite fruits, distinguishable for their intriguing look and flavor, a rare seedy texture, and a very strong sour taste. They come from South America but their flavor and taste remind me of other remote parts of our planet. Among others, they grace the famous Australian Pavlova dessert and give flavor to some white wines from Australia and New Zealand.

When I lived in Geneva I experimented with passion fruits a lot. They were inexpensive and always available. In our Washington area passion fruits are very seasonal and hard to get. So I have learned to replace the fresh passion fruits with their frozen pulp or bottled juice.

Last week, however, while shopping in my local Safeway in the exotic fruit section, I noticed a small pile of passion fruits. A cashier was surprised that such these inconspicuous fruits cost three dollars a piece and even more so that I took five of them. But having access to them only occasionally I buy a few, scoop up the pulp, place in a small container, and freeze for couple of months until a special occasion comes.

But today, without a special occasion, I share a recipe for a light passion fruit-yogurt mousse. It is a bit complicated dessert, as I bake the biscuit base myself, but I believe that, at the end, it is very delicate and rewarding.

Passion Fruit and Yogurt Mousse Cake

Base
(For a 10-inch form with removable walls):

Ingredients:
3 eggs at room temperature,
3 tbsp all purpose flour,
3 tbsp. sugar plus 3 tbsp sugar extra for the syrup.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease the cake form with butter and dust it with flour.
2. Separate eggs. Beat egg whites until almost stiff. Add gradually, one by one, three tbsps of sugar. Fold in gently three yolks and, at the end, the sifted flour. Gently mix the batter and pour it in the baking form.
3. Bake for 20-25 minutes until it becomes gold. Let it cool completely.

4. Remove the cake from the form. Spread a large piece of aluminum or plastic foil on the bottom of the form, make sure that the foil is large enough to overhangs the rim of the form. Put the cake back in the form.
5. Mix sugar with 1/2 cup hot water. Cool to room temperature and using spoon sprinkle evenly all over the base.

Mousse

Ingredients:
14 oz (about 1 and 1/2 cup) defrosted passion fruit pulp or juice,
2 tbsp unflavored gelatin,
2/3 cup sugar,
1/2 cup 2 percent Greek yogurt,
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 passion fruits,
1 lemon jello pack or one sachet of Dr. Oetker clear glaze.

Preparation:
1. In a small bowl, mix gelatin with 3 tbsps of cold water and let it soak in it for 5 minutes. Put the pulp or juice in a medium pot, add sugar, heat the pot until sugar melts and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Add gelatin to the juice, mix well, and let it stand aside until it cools down to room temperature.
2. Beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff. Mix gently with yogurt. Fold in a half of the cream-yogurt mixture to the passion fruit mixture. Follow with the second part, mix gently again, and transfer the whole mousse on the pre-soaked base. Smooth the top and refrigerate for 4 hours until it is set.
3. Cut passion fruits in halves and using a teaspoon scoop out the flesh. Spread it on top of the mousse.
4. Prepare jello according to instruction and before it sets spread on top of the cake. If you use Dr. Oetker's clear glaze, just add 2 tbsps of sugar and 1 tbsp of lemon juice, and cover the fruits. Cool down again until everything is set.

Before serving remove the walls of the cake form. Peel off the foil. Cut and serve and enjoy.

Sponge Plum Cake--Almond Flavored

Plum cakes are among my favorite fall cake desserts. They remind me of my childhood and the cakes I was eating this time of the year in Poland. So I wanted to share a plum cake recipe, which requires Italian, or as we call them in Poland, Hungarian plums. Unfortunately, they have not yet showed up in our area food stores this season. So instead I had to make this cake with whichever plums were available and I could only imagine how much better it would taste with the proper Italian plums, which are perfect for cakes and preserves.

It is not a typical plum cake which I make most often, meaning obviously a tart, but I was curious to try this new recipe which seemed interesting from the combination of plums, almond sponge cake, and sugar crumbs on top.

The cake turned out almost perfect. "Almost" because plums were a bit too hard and not as mushy and moist as the Italian plums become when baked. Nevertheless, it was still a very nice fall dessert which I will make again when I get the true Italian plums.

Sponge Plum Cake
(For a 9 by 12-inch baking form)

Ingredients:
2 lb of Italian plums, cut in half, stones removed,
2 sticks of butter, plus an extra tbsp. to grease the baking form,
1 and 1/3 cup sugar,
5 eggs,
1 and 1/2 cup all purpose flour,
2 tsp baking powder,
1 and 1/2 cup ground almonds (almond flour),
4 tbsp preferably almond liqueur as Amaretto, or any liqueur or rum,
1/2 cup sparkling water.

Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. To make sugar crumbs, place one stick of butter, 1/3 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup flour in a medium bowl and, working with fingers, make sugar crumbles. Put them in a refrigerator while preparing the rest of the cake.
3. Place one stick of butter and a cup of sugar in a bowl of a standing mixer and run the engine until the ingredients combine into smooth batter. Add one after one eggs while beating the batter in between.
4. Add liqueur and beat gain the batter.
5. Sift flour and baking powder into the batter. Mix again all the ingredients.
6. Finally pour in ground almonds and sparkling water. Mix the batter for the last time.
7. Grease the baking form with butter and sprinkle with flour, preferably Wondra. Spread the batter on the form and arrange plum halves (or quarters if plums are bigger) on top.

8. Sprinkle plums with sugar crumbs.

9. Put the cake in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes until cake become brownish and sugar crumbs become slightly gold.
10. Let it cool and serve.

Exotic Mango Tart--on Coconut Crust

It is time to share another tart recipe. Tart is my favorite cake. This time, it will be an exotic one made with mango filling on coconut crust. This tart is a kind of tropical combination so I often do it in the summer. The fruity and slightly sour taste makes it a delicious dessert for sunny days and a great accompaniment to a cup of afternoon coffee.

Unfortunately, it still does not feel like summer in DC area but that could be a reason we definitely should indulge ourselves with a piece of an exotic dessert.

Although it is a mango tart, no fresh fruits, except for decoration are used in this recipe. The filling is based on mango juice(quite common, especially Asian and Brazilian brands) or mango pulp, which is available frozen from Goya company. The coconut crust can be baked in advance, finished at the last moment and decorated with either mango or berries, or both.

Mango Tart on Coconut Crust
(For a 9-inch tart form)

Ingredients:

For the crust:
1/2 cup sweetened coconut flakes,
3/4 cup all purpose flour,
7 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into smaller pieces, plus extra one for the form,
1/3 cup icing (confection) sugar,
1/4 tsp salt.

For the filling:
1 cup mango juice,
2 tbsp lime juice,
1/2 cup sugar,
4 tbsp corn starch,
1/2 cup sour cream,
1/2 cup whipped cream to decorate,
1/2 mango peeled and cut into slices and a cup of fresh berries to finish

Preparation:

Crust:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Put all the crust ingredients in a food processor and process for about 10 seconds until the mixture is crumbled. Then process it for another 15-20 seconds, until it is smoother.
3. Remove the dough from the processor and place on a surface slightly dusted with flour. Knead it together into a ball, cover with plastic foil, and let it chill for 1/2 hour in a refrigerator.
4. Roll the dough on the same surface into a circle of about 10" in diameter. Using a rolling pin transfer to a tart form, previously greased with butter. Make nice edges in the tart by cutting off extra dough. Bake it for 25-30 minutes, until the crust is light gold. Cool down.

Filling:
1. Pour mango and lime juice into a medium pot. Add sugar and corn starch and using a whisker mix all the ingredients until smooth.
2. Bring the mixture to boil over the medium heat stirring frequently. Let it boil for a minute or so. Cool completely.
3. Fold in sour cream into a cold mango mixture. Spread over the cold crust.
4. Decorate the tart with whipped cream and refrigerate for 2-4 hours, or overnight. Decorate with mango slices and berries shortly before serving.

Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Cream

I often heard about a carrot cake in my childhood, but I never tasted it. My grandmother, who was a every good baker, considered it a survivor cake which was baked only during the WWII when no better ingredients were available. She despised it later, in better times, as she believed that good cakes should be made from eggs, butter, and cream not carrot.

When I came to the US, I tried a few of the American carrot cakes and I must admit that some, if not too sweet, were very good--not too heavy, enriched with nuts, did not not have the taste of carrot at all, which I feared so much.

The other day, when I noticed that carrots I had in my refrigerator were about to start growing again, I decided to make my first carrot cake. I compared several recipes from different sources and, as always, the most convincing seemed the one from the Met Home. I liked it even more so because it had an Italian twist to it and was layered with my favorite mascarpone cheese frosting.

The cake turned out to be delicious--not too sweet and very moist. The only change to the original recipe I made when I was baking it for the second time, was chopping the walnuts instead of using halves and grating the carrot on a smaller grater, which distributed those ingredients more evenly in the cake. I also used more mascarpone and less whipping cream, which made it look better and taste richer.

Carrot Cake with Mascarpone Cream
(For a 9-inch baking form with a removable high wall)

Ingredients:
2 cups finely grated carrot (about 6 medium carrots),
1 cup finely chopped walnuts,
2 large eggs,
1 cup sugar,
1 cup all purpose flour,
1 tsp salt,
1 and 1/2 tsp ground cardamon,
3/4 cup light vegetable oil as peanut or canola,
1 box (6 oz) mascarpone cheese,
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream,
2 tbsp honey or sugar,
icing sugar for finishing.

Preparation:
1. Grease the baking form with butter and sprinkle with flour. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Using a mixer beat eggs until light. Add sugar and beat until well incorporated.
3. In a medium bowl mix flour, baking soda and cardamon. Add to the mixture of eggs alternating with oil, until all the ingredients are well mixed.
4. Stir in walnuts and carrot. Blend it and transfer the batter to the baking form.

5. Smooth the top and bake until set and gold on top about 40 minutes.
6. In a medium bowl beat mascarpone with cream and honey (or sugar) until fluffy.
7. Cool down the cake, cut in half and spread mascarpone mixture on the bottom layer.

8. Cover the cream layer with the second layer of the cake. Dust the top of the cake with icing sugar. Cut and serve.

Sponge Fig Cake with Olive Oil

My fig tree still has very small fruits but Californian figs, large and sweet as honey, have already arrived to all the stores around me. And again this year I cannot resist them. I love figs. I eat them daily through the whole season when they are available. Most often just for lunch with a piece of baguette and prosciutto or pecorino cheese. Sweet figs, soft bread, and salty smoked ham taste amazing together.

This Sunday, having another box of black and ripe figs, I decided to make a cake with them. I have not been cooking and particularly baking for a long time, as the summertime in DC does not encourage baking at all. But cooler days and almost cold nights make me crave again for a piece of a home-made cake.

Although baking fresh figs may seem a bit of a waste, I am sure they can enhance any simple cake. The recipe I have also calls also ground almonds and olive oil. You cannot go wrong with delicious sweet figs and other simple but good quality ingredients.

Sponge Fig Cake
(For a 9-inch baking pan)

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh ripe black figs,
3 large eggs, room temperature,
2/3 cup icing sugar,
2/3 cup all purpose flour,
1/2 cup ground almonds (almond flour),
3 tbsp olive oil,
1 tsp baking powder,
a pinch of salt,
extra icing sugar for dusting,
1 tbsp soft butter for greasing the pan,
1 tbsp flour for coating the pan.

Preparation:
1. Wash figs, dry them and cut in quarters,

2. Grease the baking pan with butter and dust with flour.
3. Preheat oven to 325F.
4. Using an electric mixer beat eggs with sugar until pale and mousse like.
5. Add to the egg mixture flour, baking powder, ground almonds, and salt. Mix all the ingredients using mixer.
6. Add to the batter 3 tbsp olive oil and mix again.
7. Transfer the batter to the baking pan and arrange quarters of figs on top, pushing them gently inside.
8. Bake for about 40 minutes.
9. Let the cake cool and remove it from the pan. Figs most likely will be at the bottom so turn the cake upside down. Place on a serving plate and dust with icing sugar.

Easter Orange Tart--Otherwise Polish Mazurek

There are always two cakes served during Polish Eastear--yeast babka and mazurek--a tart on a delicate short crust. I love both of them but since I moved out from Poland I more often make mazurek. And there are several varieties of it. Last year, I already shared a recipe for my favorite mazurek with hazelnuts and chocolate. Today it will be a mazurek with citrus fruits, about which I heard a lot from my aunt. It is the one she makes most often and they like most.

I was always very curious to try it, but only last week when I saw beautiful oranges it came to my mind to make it. I was intrigued even more because I love all fruit and citrus desserts but at the same I am not a big fan of orange preserves. They are just too strong for me. For that tart I bought oranges and lemons and both of them organic.

The base is made from a short crust with eggs, which I use most often to make my desserts, and also those fruit tartellets that you see on my blog's title picture. The crust is baked completely and the top made separately and only at the end they are put together and finished with almonds.

Although the cake has a bit of that bitterness which sometimes is overwhelming in orange preserves, the sweet crust and crunchy almonds on top make it all a very nice dessert.

Easter Orange Tart--Mazurek

The Crust

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 sticks of butter, room temperature,
2 egg yolks,
2 cups all purpose flour, plus extra 1/3 cup (to clean hands with),
1/2 cup sugar,
2 tbsp sour cream,
1 tsp baking powder.

Preparation:
1.In a large bowl mix flour and baking powder. Add butter to the flour and working with fingers make lumpy dough.
2. In a medium cup mix two yolks, sugar, and cream. Mix well with a small whisker until the mixture becomes lighter.
3. Add the egg mixture and butter crumbles to the flour and form quickly a dough--use the rest of the flour to clean hands and knead it into the dough.
4. Wrap it in foil and chill for a minimum 30 minutes. A dough at that stage can be stored for two weeks in a refrigerator.
5. If I make a cake the same day I usually roll out the dough on the baking form and let it chill already in the form.
6. Preheat oven to 370F.
7. Before rolling up the dough should be taken from the refrigerator at least 15 minuets earlier. Dust a working surface and roll the dough to the size of a medium size cookie tin.
8. Grease the tin with a bit of butter and transfer carefully a dough on a tin using a rolling pin. Poke it a couple of times with a fork so it will not form bubbles and bake it for 25-30 minutes, until gold. Leave in the tin and let it cool down.

Topping

Ingredients:
2 large oranges,
2 medium lemons,
2 cups sugar,
1/4 cup water,
1/ 2 cup slivered roasted almonds.

Preparation:
1. Wash the fruits, place them in a large bowl and cover with boiling water. Drain the fruits and cut in small cubes, removing all the seeds as you do it.

2. Place the fruits in a food processor and run it until they are puréed.

3. Transfer the fruits to a medium pot. Add sugar and water, mix and bring to boil. Cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the fruits become transparent.
4. Transfer the hot fruit pulp on the crust, spread evenly.

5. Sprinkle with almonds and let it cool. Cut into rectangular pieces before serving.