Poppyseed cakes are very popular in Poland, especially for Christmas and Easter time. Some Poles believe that poppyseed brings luck. I decided to use a real poppyseed, however, canned filling works well in this recipe unless you want to grind your own - like me! Does not take that much to prepare, however requires quite a technique to roll the dough. Just try and you will love it as much as I do.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Wait Time: 60 minutes
Ingredients:
- 100 g all purpose flour
- 100 g potato starch
- 150 g powder sugar
- 8-10 egg yolks
- 4-5 egg whites - beaten
- 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla essence
- 750 g ground poppyseeds
- 400 g sugar
- 4 Tbsp of honey
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 20 g softened butter
- 100 g dried raisins
- 100 g diced candid orange and lemon rind - chopped or grated
- ground walnuts, sliced almonds
- 4 egg whites - beaten
- 150 ml dark rum
- chocolate or frosting to decorate
Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites. Add sugar and vanilla sugar at the end. Add egg yolks and stir well with a spoon. Add vanilla essence, mixed potato and all purpose flour. Stirr well, until you have a creamy mixture.
2. Pour the mixture into a baking tray. Sponge cake should be approx. 1 cm thick.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C. Bake the cake for 10-13 minutes until cake starts to turn gold.
4. When the sponge cake is ready, remove it immediately from the oven. Otherwise it will start to dry too much. Move it to the kitchen towel sprinkled with some powder sugar. Cover it with another kitchen towel but make sure it is damp.
5. Now we will prepare the poppyseed filling, unless you have the canned one so you can directly move to step 7.
6. Walsh the poppyseed. Move to the pot, pour enough water to cover entire poppyseed and cook for 30-35 minutes. Clean the raisins, add dark rum and leave aside to soak a bit. Ready poppyseed must be filtered first. Now we have to mill it three times at least. Mix milled poppyseed with sugar, honey, cocoa powder and beaten egg whites. Melt the butter on a large skillet and add poppyseed. Cook, stirring for 5-10 minutes. Now, almost ready poppyseed filling mix with the raisins and all remaining rum, diced candid orange and lemon rind, almonds and ground walnuts. Leave it aside to chill a bit. Your filling is ready now.
7. Remove the damp kitchen towel from the sponge cake and paste the poppyseed filling on the cake. Roll the cake using the kitchen towel which is under the cake. Wrap in kitchen foil and leave to cool down in a fridge for 1 hour.
8. Before serving glaze with frosting or chocolate and sprinkle with desired topping.
ENJOY!!!
