Polish poppy seed cake with meringue foam

My much-loved shortcrust cake with its light, fluffy custard meringue foam gets a festive makeover with a delicious poppy seed filling! It’s a lovely cake to share with family and friends over Christmas, and because it’s baked in a large tray, there’s plenty to go around. The custard meringue foam is wonderfully light and fluffy, with a texture reminiscent of ptasie mleczko, a popular Polish marshmallow-like sweet. Its delicate custard flavour pairs beautifully with the rich poppy seed filling. A real Christmas favourite!

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 2½ cups plain flour
• 200 g cold butter
• 50 g cold lard
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 tbsp icing sugar
• 5 egg yolks from large eggs

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Add the butter and lard, then quickly cut them in with a knife until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and sugar, then quickly bring the dough together. You can also use a food processor. If the dough is too dry and crumbly, add 1-2 tbsp cold water.

Divide the dough into two portions, approximately 60% and 40%. Wrap each portion in cling film and place in the freezer. You can prepare the pastry a day in advance.

Grease a 34 × 23 cm baking tin with butter and line it with baking paper. Coarsely grate the larger portion of pastry (60%) directly into the tin. Gently press it down with your hand and level the surface. Pre-bake at 180°C for approximately 15-18 minutes, until golden.

Ingredients for the poppy seed filling:

• 400 g poppy seeds
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 60 g butter
• 50 g soft light brown sugar
• 150 g runny honey
• 50 g raisins
• 50 g candied orange peel
• 50 g chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1 tsp almond extract

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Cover the poppy seeds with boiling water and leave to cool. Drain off the excess water, then grind the seeds twice using a meat grinder fitted with a fine poppy seed disc. Alternatively, cover the poppy seeds with boiling water and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain off the excess water, leave to cool and grind twice using a meat grinder fitted with a fine disc. You can also use ready-ground poppy seeds, which are widely available in shops and save a considerable amount of work. Simply cover them with boiling water, leave to cool and squeeze out the excess water thoroughly, for example using a linen tea towel.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat thoroughly with the sugar and honey. Add the egg yolks and continue beating. Add the prepared poppy seeds, raisins, candied orange peel, chopped nuts and almond extract. Mix until combined.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then gently fold them into the poppy seed mixture. It’s best to do this just before baking, so the egg whites don’t deflate or release water.

Ingredients for the custard meringue:

• 5 egg whites from large eggs
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 packet vanillin sugar (16 g)*
• 2 packets of vanilla-flavoured custard powder, unsweetened (2 × 40 g; I used cherry-flavoured powder)
• ½ cup sunflower or rapeseed oil

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and begin whisking. Once they form stiff peaks, gradually add the caster sugar and vanillin sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously at high speed. Slowly add the sifted custard powder, continuing to whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Pour in the oil in a thin, steady stream, without stopping the mixer.

Spread the poppy seed filling over the pre-baked shortcrust base, which can still be warm, and level the surface. Spread the whipped custard meringue over the top. Coarsely grate the remaining frozen pastry (40%) over the meringue.

Bake the poppy seed cake with custard meringue at 180°C for approximately 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Dust with icing sugar.

Additionally:

• icing sugar, for dusting

*You can use sugar flavoured with real vanilla instead of vanilla sugar.

Enjoy!