“STONE WALL” CAKE – “KOFAL TORTA”

“STONE WALL” CAKE – “KOFAL TORTA”

It’s one of my favorite cakes in the whole wide world.  My Mom only had to ask once, what kind of cake should she bake for me.  The answer was always “Kofal Torta”.  Coming home from college for vacations I already knew that my favorite cake will be waiting for me.  It does bring back wonderful memories of my childhood and I hope it will become a favorite of yours as well.

INGREDIENTS:

1. 8 Eggs – whites and yolks separated. Egg white beaten with a mixer into thick foam.  Yolks are used for the cream.
2. 1and ½ cups of walnuts – coarsely chopped and roasted in the oven
3. 8 Tbs. of sugar
4. 2 Tbs. of flour

CREAM:

1. 8 Egg yolks
2. ¼ cup of milk
3. 7 oz. of sugar
4. 5 oz. of cocoa
5. 10 oz. butter, about 2 and ½ sticks (unsalted) – add only when chocolate cream is taken off the steam pot.

Heat the oven to 350 F.  On a long tray place chopped walnuts on a cooking sheet or foil and roast them for about 10 minutes, stirring them occasionally.  Let it cool.

Beat eggs into a thick foam, add the sugar and flour 1 Tbs. at a time and add the roasted walnuts into the mixture last.

Coat your baking trays with butter and flour.  Equal 2 portions are poured into two identical baking trays, which will become 4 layers after sliced in half.  Bake them in the oven for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry from the middle, when poked.   Let it cool before you slice them.  Now you have your 4 layers.  Let’s get to the cream now.  If you wish, you can make the cream ahead of time, because it needs time to cool before you apply it to the layers.

MAKING THE CREAM:

The mixing of all the ingredients happens over steam. Choose a deep pot and boil a bit of water in it. Choose another that totally covers it, preferably a round shaped bottom pot.  Add the egg yolks, the sugar, cocoa and milk and stirring it constantly over steam you will get the chocolate cream.  When the mixture is nice and smooth, take it off steam and start adding the butter in small chunks while stirring continuously.  Let it cool and when ready, cover it, and refrigerate it for another 30-40 minutes.  You can make this ahead of time or even a day before.

Now you’re ready to build your stone wall cake.  One layer spongy, one layer chocolate cream and so on… Cover it with cream all around and sprinkle it with your favorite sprinkles or coconut shreds, as seen on the photo. 

When I want to be creative, for Easter for instance I add colorful jelly beans to the decorating.

                                      

It’s an easy and super delicious cake.  Serve it with fresh whipped cream or just by itself and let me know if Stone Wall actually melted your heart.

EGESZSEGEDRE!                                                                           BON APPETITE!