Vinarterta (Icelandic prune and cardamom cake)1
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Description
A festive Icelandic dessert flavoured with cardamom, cinnamon and prunes, similar to Goan desserts.Prepare the cake batter: Cream sugar and butter together, then beat in eggs and add the eggs, milk, flour, cardamom powder, and baking powder. Mix well. You should end up with a heavy, slightly sticky dough (just about impossible to roll out unless cooled). Pack dough down in bowl and level top so that you can divide it into 6 equal sections. Score top into sections and leave to cool (about 30 minutes in freezer or an hour or more in fridge). Prepare prune filling: Cook prunes until soft in enough water to cover + frac12; inch, with the cinnamon sticks and a couple of tea bags. Drain off extra water and reserve to dilute filling if needed. Remove the cinnamon sticks and pureacute;e the prunes in a blender. Put back in pot and mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt. Consistency should be that of a stiff jamhellip;if too thick to spread, add a little of the reserved prune juice. Keep the filling warm. Cook the cake layers: The cake layers have to be cooked individually. Heat oven to 375. Take one portion of dough and roll out on a floured surface to 9rdquo; diameter and transfer to a greased and floured cookie sheet (I actually lift the rolled out circle using 2 spatulas onto the back of a circular 9rdquo; cake pan which has been greased and lightly floured by sprinkling flour on and shaking pan until excess falls off; I then push in any overhanging dough and roll out again to get a perfect circle; if you donrsquo;t have spatulas, roll onto greased and floured wax paper). Bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden (not brownhellip;it should come out like a chewy cookie). While this is baking, roll out next dough layer on a second cookie sheet, ready to go in when the previous comes out. When first layer is done, take out of oven, place on a plate and cover with 1/5th of the warm filling. Continue adding layers and filling until last cake layer is added. Keep the filling warm over VERY low heathellip;you may need to add a bit more liquid to keep filling spreadable. Put away for 1-2 days to soften and flavours to diffuse. The trick to a good terta is getting the moisture content just right If the filling is too moist or the cake part is undercooked, the cake is soggy; if filling not moist enough or cake over cooked, the terta is dry and tasteless. This recipe is for a cake with 6 layers, but you can make more... 8 would be good. In my family (in western Canada) we never iced our terta. But apparently in Iceland they do, so if you want to be perfectly authentic, here is the icing recipe. Simply cream 4 Tbsp butter and mix in 1.25 cups of icing sugar, 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and a drop of vanilla extract. Drizzle the icing over the cake.
Ingredients
- → Pitted prunes 750 Grams.
- → Milk 2-3 Tablespoons.
- → All-purpose flour (maida) 2.5 Cup.
- → Crushed cardamom or cardamom powder 1.5 Teaspoons.
- → Baking powder 2 Teaspoons.
- → Eggs 2 Numbers.
- → Butter 1 Cup.
- → Sugar 1 Cup.
- → Sugar 1/3 Cup.
- → Cinnamon sticks 1-2 Numbers.
Directions
Prepare the cake batter: Cream sugar and butter together, then beat in eggs and add the eggs, milk, flour, cardamom powder, and baking powder. Mix well. You should end up with a heavy, slightly sticky dough (just about impossible to roll out unless cooled). Pack dough down in bowl and level top so that you can divide it into 6 equal sections. Score top into sections and leave to cool (about 30 minutes in freezer or an hour or more in fridge). Prepare prune filling: Cook prunes until soft in enough water to cover + frac12; inch, with the cinnamon sticks and a couple of tea bags. Drain off extra water and reserve to dilute filling if needed. Remove the cinnamon sticks and pureacute;e the prunes in a blender. Put back in pot and mix in the sugar and a pinch of salt. Consistency should be that of a stiff jamhellip;if too thick to spread, add a little of the reserved prune juice. Keep the filling warm. Cook the cake layers: The cake layers have to be cooked individually. Heat oven to 375. Take one portion of dough and roll out on a floured surface to 9rdquo; diameter and transfer to a greased and floured cookie sheet (I actually lift the rolled out circle using 2 spatulas onto the back of a circular 9rdquo; cake pan which has been greased and lightly floured by sprinkling flour on and shaking pan until excess falls off; I then push in any overhanging dough and roll out again to get a perfect circle; if you donrsquo;t have spatulas, roll onto greased and floured wax paper). Bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden (not brownhellip;it should come out like a chewy cookie). While this is baking, roll out next dough layer on a second cookie sheet, ready to go in when the previous comes out. When first layer is done, take out of oven, place on a plate and cover with 1/5th of the warm filling. Continue adding layers and filling until last cake layer is added. Keep the filling warm over VERY low heathellip;you may need to add a bit more liquid to keep filling spreadable. Put away for 1-2 days to soften and flavours to diffuse. The trick to a good terta is getting the moisture content just right If the filling is too moist or the cake part is undercooked, the cake is soggy; if filling not moist enough or cake over cooked, the terta is dry and tasteless. This recipe is for a cake with 6 layers, but you can make more... 8 would be good. In my family (in western Canada) we never iced our terta. But apparently in Iceland they do, so if you want to be perfectly authentic, here is the icing recipe. Simply cream 4 Tbsp butter and mix in 1.25 cups of icing sugar, 2 Tbsp of lemon juice and a drop of vanilla extract. Drizzle the icing over the cake.