Madarica Cake Pronounced Ma-jar-ri-sa.
Madarica Cake
Pronounced Ma-jar-ri-sa.
This is a cake that I used to make in my café Fondant & Apron Strings a lot, especially in the last couple of years. I’d make huge batches in advance to freeze ahead and take individual pieces out to defrost when I needed them.
You can do exactly that too, so no waste.
Translated, Madarica means Hungarian Girl and is thought to have been based on Hungarian layer cakes.
If you’ve not visited Croatia yet, make it your number one destination after the lockdown and spend time travelling around meeting as many people as you can. You won’t regret it.
A traditional Croatian layer cake, Madarica is usually associated with festivities and the season of good will and with Santa most of all.
It’s a Croatian cake with a little bit of a difference. Instead of layers of cake, it has layers of thin pastry made with egg whites and cream.
If there is no cake, can I call it a cake, or should it be a dessert?
Anyway, this light pastry gives it a slight soft yet crisp texture and makes it less sweet than other dessert pastries can be, which means i can eat more than one piece without feeling queazy.
I had my first bite of Madarica in a café in Varaždin, which is close to where my Croatian family live, but you’ll find this cake in most of the cafes in Croatia.
Trying to spend every alternative new year’s eve in Croatia is something the lovely Mr G and I have been doing for the last few years, well, that was before the pandemic.
Seeing the new year in with family I love, sharing laughter and great food is just one of the things I’ll miss this year.
Ok, I’m not going to start to get maudlin about this, so let’s get to the recipe and you can give it a go.
Enjoy your sweet life.
Madarica Cake
Layers of deliciousness
What You Need
Pastry
600g Plain Flour Plus extra for rolling
½ Tsp Baking Powder
2 egg Whites
220 ml Double Cream
150g Castor Sugar
18g Butter
To make the pastry as thin as you need, use a pasta machine if you have one.
Filling
1 Litre of Milk – See Tip Box
140g Butter – Room Temperature – Cut into small pieces
200g Castor Sugar
5 Tbsp Plain Flour
1 Tbsp Cornflour
150g Dark Chocolate - Chopped into small pieces
1 Tsp Vanilla – See Tip Box
A thick chocolaty topping makes it even more delicious
Glaze
200g Dark Chocolate - Chopped into small pieces
3 Tbsp Oil
50g Butter – Room Temperature- Cut into small pieces
Cooked pastry - Sort of the same size - they don’t have to be perfect- Ignore the spillage on the tiles, i was multi tasking.
How It’s Done
Pastry
Place the butter, sugar, egg whites, and cream into a mixer, and beat together until well incorporate and light in colour.
Add the flour and baking powder and mix together until the dough comes together.
Cut the dough into 5 equal pieces, wrap in cling film and set aside in a cool place to rest for 30 mins.
Once rested, use some of the extra flour to roll out each piece of the dough as thin as possible – See Tip Box
Heat your oven up to 180c
Try as best you can to roll the pastry out to approximately the same size.
Place all the pieces of pastry onto baking trays lined with non-stick baking parchment and bake in the oven until very pale between 8-10 minutes – See Tip Box
Remove from the oven and leave on the flat trays until completely cold.
Filling
Place the milk, sugar and vanilla into saucepan and heat up until the mixture begins to boil.
Take out a cup of the hot liquid and mix in the flour and the cornflour until you have a thick paste – ‘slurry’.
With the heat still turned up, very slowly, pour the ‘slurry’ into the boiling milk mixture. Don’t stop stirring until the mixture is thick and creamy.
Turn the heat down on the mixture and add the chocolate.
Stir continuously until the chocolate melts into the mixture and it thickens up.
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until all melted and the mixture is glossy.
Put the mixture aside and let the mixture cool completely before using.
Glaze
Place all the ingredients for the glaze into a microwavable bowl.
Gently melt all the ingredients together – on high for 30 seconds, stir on high for 30 seconds, repeat until melted.
Stir together until you have a glossy glaze.
Set it aside for a few minutes to cool slightly, but still pourable.
Assembly
Find yourself a flat tray that will go into the fridge.
Place one sheet of the cooked dough.
Spread some of the filling mixture over the top pf the pastry, spreading it out right to the edges – See Tip Box
Add the second piece of pastry.
Repeat this process, ending with a pastry layer.
Pour the glaze over the top layer of the pastry, making sure to cover all of the pastry.
Set the tray with the cake into the fridge overnight to set.
Next day, cut into the size of your choice. – See Tip Box
If storing the pieces of cake, lay each piece on a piece of non-stick baking parchment and lay them single layer in an airtight container into the fridge.
Tip Box
Flavour it - If you want to add a little bit of rum to the filling, give it a go. Start with 2 tablespoons.
Milk – I used semi-skimmed milk for the recipe, but if you want to use full fat or plant based, thats ok too
Pastry – Getting the pastry as thin as you can, can sometimes feel a little bit like hard work. Use pasta maker if you have one. I have the setting on zero and it works out perfectly.
Spread the filling - When you come to spreading the filling in between the layers, make sure you go right up to the edges.
Cutting – Getting a clean cut can sometimes be a little difficult. It’s the set glaze that’s the first problem. To help, fill a tall jug with boiling water and place your long knife into the water for about 20 seconds.
Wipe the knife completely dry before cutting into the cake. Repeat with every slice.
Freeze – If you’d like to make this ahead of time and freeze, lay the pieces of cake onto individual pieces of non-stick baking paper, double wrap in cling film and freeze in a single layer.
Once frozen, you can then place a few into a freezer bag for easier storage. Take as many, or as few, out of the freezer when you need them and defrost completely before eating.
