At first sight, this is not the prettiest dessert of all, but wait until you bite into it. A layer of Angel Food sheet cake full of chocolate, Turkish delight, walnuts and raisins, sandwiched together between two wafer sheets and a smooth, gooey vanilla cream.
However, I need to warn you against the entire process of making the cream: it is time (and patience) consuming. Also, it contains a good amount of egg yolk, so if you don`t feel comfortable using them, feel free to substitute this cream with vanilla pudding, it will still be scrumptious. The cream is made on a water bath/bain marie/double boiler until it thickens...and that takes about 30 minutes of whisking the yolks, sugar and butter constantly.
It`s worth it, trust me.
This being said, I don`t know what else is difficult about this cake...nothing. Oh yes, the wait. You have to (I can`t stress out how important this is) leave the cake overnight with something heavy on top, or else it will crack and tear apart when you try to cut it. That`s because the cream is very soft and oozy, which has to be allowed to make everything moist.
Don`t ask me why, but in my opinion this is a fancy dessert to serve. First of all, if you use mixed flavors of Turkish delight (I used only chocolate and strawberry, because this is what I had on hand) you`ll get both a good taste and pretty look. The cream is so velvety and the Angel Food sheet cake is light. The wafer sheets give this cake a bit of texture. Remember, leave it in the fridge overnight so the flavors have plenty of time to blend.
Despite the fact that the amount of filling/cream is not large and there are the wafer sheets+sponge cake in the middle, you would think the cake is rather dry. Well, it is not. On the contrary, it is moist, yet not wet, tender and oh-so-good!
I had plenty a luck this morning and stumbled across some Teddi juice (yeah, it`s for kids) which was-and still is, my all time favorite drink of all times.
Leaving other details aside, I really recommend this cake. Instead of having breakfast first, I gobbled up a few (ok,5 to be more precise) bars and then reminded myself that I had an omelette waiting to be eaten. Well, I guess desserts are a temptation.
Ingredients:
for the Angel Food sheet cake layer:
7 egg whites
7 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
7 Tablespoons all purpose flour
100 gr. of your favorite chocolate -chopped-
100 gr. chopped walnuts (or any king of nuts you prefer)
170. gr. chopped Turkish delight (use mixed flavors)
100 gr. rum soaked raisins
additional: 2 wafer sheets
Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 180 C/lvl.4 gas/375 degrees F. Line the bottom of a rectangle sheet cake pan with parchment paper for easy removal of the cake. Set aside.
2. In a deep, large, grease free bowl whip the egg whites with the sugar and salt until stiff peaks form. Dump in the chopped chocolate, walnuts, Turkish delight and raisins. Fold them in very gently, or else you`ll deflate the whites. Sift the flour and baking powder together and incorporate them as well. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Leave it to cool partially in the pan and then invert it on a platter to cool completely. Remove the parchment paper.
For the vanilla cream:
7 egg yolks
200 gr. sugar
200 gr. room temperature butter
make a pastry cream out of: 100 ml milk, 70 gr. sugar, 2 heaping Tablespoons all purpose flour.
1. On a water bath/double boiler/bain marie whisk the egg yolk, sugar and butter together in a heat-proof bowl until thickened. That should take about 30-40 minutes. It is important that you don`t allow the boiling water to touch the surface of the bowl of else you`ll end up with scrambled yolks. Transfer the mixture in another bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it to cool completely.
Make the pastry cream:
Combine all ingredients and whisk constantly until very thick. It will resemble soft butter when beaten. Cool completely as well.
2.In a large bowl, beat the pastry cream for 1 minute, just to smooth it out a bit. Drop 1 Tablespoon at a time from the yolk cream into it, beating very well with the mixer on high speed for 1 minute. Continue like this until you have a smooth cream.
Assemble the cake:
1. In the sheet pan which you previously used, arrange 1 wafer sheet (trim the ends if needed, so it can fit into the pan). Put half of the cream in the middle and carefully put the Angel Food sheet cake over it, pressing down gently to distribute the cream all over. Put the rest of the cream over it and end with a wafer sheet.
Cover the top of the cake with plastic wrap and put a cutting board over it. Now place something heavy on the cutting board, like a food processor or something of that sort. Pop it into the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight works best.
Cut out bars with a serrated knife.
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