The uniqueness of the Polish Carpathian mountain cake recipe is that the crust is made to imitate the shape of the Carpathian mountains. Hence it’s called a karpatka cake recipe.
Covered with powdered sugar it looks like the famous snow-covered mountains in winter.
No one knows who invented the karpatka recipe, but it originated in Poland in the 1950s and became popular in the few decades following.
It’s said that the name wasn’t karpatka till around 1972 when some Philosophy students decided to name it after the Karpaty or Carpathian Mountain ranges.
The Polish karpatka cake is made by cooking two layers of shortcrust pastry unevenly so that they look like mountains. The flour for these layers can be either cooked in a pot or baked in an oven before being mixed with the eggs.
Once the flour and eggs are mixed, the layers are baked in an oven. The first layer is then covered with custard cream and topped with the second layer. Sugar is then sprinkled on top to make it look like the rugged snow-covered Karpaty chain.
– For a more ‘special’ cake, add some amaretto or kahlua into the custard cream. – Cut into 1.5-inch sized s quares before dusting with icing sugar to serve! – This Polish Carpathian cake goes really well with coffee!
– You can either sprinkle the cake with icing sugar or cover it with a chocolate glaze. – Adding butter to the pudding once it has cooled down makes it creamier. – If you don’t want the custard to form a layer while cooling, you can cover it with a layer of cling film.
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