Next Thursday I will be up in the air on my way to Sweden. I am so excited to be back in one of my favourite countries and especially celebrating Christmas in Sweden makes me way to excited. Although the weather forecast says that I will definitley need to pack more than one jacket, I am really excited for this holiday.

However, next Thursday my mum also celebrates her birthday. My family drives to Stockholm with the car and I fly some days later, therefore I can´t make her a birthday cake this year. Therefore I made her one yesterday when I came to visit my family over the weekend. Since I was a little child, we always used to go to the “Demel”, which is the royal bakery in Vienna. My mum always eats the “Russische Punschtorte”, which is a buiscuit cake, soaked in rum with a vanilla cream, candied violets and like a baiser around the cake. It is her favourite cake, therefore I tried to recreate it for her birthday. Surprisingly, you can´t really taste the difference between the original one and my one and my mum was over the moon.

This would also be a very festive cake for Christmas, if you are still looking for a dessert on Christmas eve. And as you can see on the pictures, I was not fast enough with taking the pictures for this blogpost.

For the Cake

• 5og unsalted butter, melted
• 150g flour
• 4 eggs, separated

• 1packet powdered gelatin
• 4 whole eggs, separated, plus 4 egg yolks
• 100g sugar
• 2 tbsp. cornstach
• 0,4l milk
• 0,2l heavy crean
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped and reserved
• 150g sugar
• 16 candied violets
• some chopped pistachios

1.Preheat your oven to 165 C°. Prepare a baking tin with some parchment paper. Over hot water, whisk your four eggs and the sugar until it is really fluffy and thicker, until the mixture reached a temperature of 50C°. Siff the flour over the eggs and pour in the butter and fold everything together carefully. Put the mixture into the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes. Leave it to cool!

2.For the filling, separate the eggs and mix the egg yolks, sugar and the corn-starch. In a small pot heat up the milk and the heavy cream together with the vanilla bean and bring it to boil. Pour some of the hot milk to the egg mixture and whisk until you have a smooth  mixture. Then pour the egg mixture into the remaining hot milk and whisk. Bring it to boil and whisk until you have a thick mixture. Leave it to cool until it is warm but not hot. Take the gelantine and soak it in cold water for 5 minutes. Stir the gelantine into the mixture and wait until it is melted.

3.Cut the cake into three layers and spread the rum evenly on the three layers. Put the first layer back into the tin and put half of the cream on the first layer. Put the second layer on top and again the rest of the cream on top. Finish with the last layer. Wrap the whole cake in cling film and put it into the fridge for at least 3 hours.

4.To finish the cake whisk the egg whites and slowly add the 150g sugar until you have a stiff and shiny mixture. Spread the mixture over the cake or pipe it on the cake. Flambé the cake a little bit with a flamethrower. Sprinkle in some chopped pistachios and candied violets. Enjoy the cake fast otherwise it will be gone!