Carpathian Mountain cake – Karpatka – Ania’s Polish Food Recipe #12

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup of water
• 1 cup of flour
• 5 eggs
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp of salt

For the cream:

• 1 cup of butter
• 4 cups of milk
• 1 cup of sugar
• 5 tbs of white flour
• 5 tbs of corn starch
• 5 egg yolks
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract

For decorating:

• icing sugar

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly coat two medium size baking pans with cooking spray.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together. In a medium saucepan, bring water, butter and salt to a boil.
3. When butter has completely melted, remove from heat and, using a wooden spoon, add flour mixture. Return to stove and stir over low heat for 2 or 3 minutes or until dough cleans sides of pan and forms a ball.
4. Remove from heat and beat in eggs one at a time. You can do it either by hand or with an electric mixer. Batter should be smooth and glossy.
5. Pour dough into prepared pans and smooth it out.
6. Bake 25 minutes or until top is golden brown and dry. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack before filling.
7. In a mixing bowl put one cup milk, flour, corn starch, egg yolks and vanilla and mix until well combined.
8. In a medium saucepan, bring milk to a boil and add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Reduce heat add egg mixture and continue to cook and stir until thickened like pudding, at least 2 minutes. Stir in vanilla. Let it cool to room temperature, covered with plastic wrap not to form the crust.
9. Make sure filling is completely cool before beating in softened butter. Butter and cream should both be room temperature to get smooth cream without any lumps.
10. Remove one cake from the pan and line it wit a parchment paper. Place it half back in the pan and pour the filling over, spreading evenly.
11. Top with the other half of dough and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
12. When ready to serve, dust heavily with icing sugar to look like snow on a mountain. Cut
13.  into rectangles and serve.

Enjoy!