Santoska cake

Santoska cake is a well-loved Polish layered cake that’s perfect for autumn thanks to its generous amount of walnuts. It features several delicious layers: buttery shortcrust pastry, dulce de leche, a soft walnut meringue with coconut and wafer pieces, and a light coffee mascarpone cream. Although the walnut meringue makes it a little trickier to slice neatly, it’s absolutely worth it for the incredible flavour. A wonderful cake for family celebrations, birthdays, coffee afternoons or Christmas. Highly recommended!

Ingredients for the shortcrust pastry:

• 220 g plain flour
• 125 g cold butter
• 3 large egg yolks
• 70 g icing sugar
• a pinch of salt

Sift the flour into a bowl. Add the butter and rub it in quickly with your fingertips (or cut it in with a knife) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks, icing sugar and salt, then quickly knead into a smooth dough (or prepare it in a food processor). Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film and chill for at least 60 minutes.

Grease a 23 × 33 cm baking tin and line it with baking parchment. Roll out the chilled pastry and line the base of the tin. Prick the pastry all over with a fork.

Bake at 180°C for about 18 minutes, or until lightly golden. Leave to cool completely.

Ingredients for the walnut meringue:

• 7 large egg whites (about 280 g)
• a pinch of salt
• 150 g caster sugar
• 200 g walnuts
• 100 g desiccated coconut
• 100 g hazelnut cream wafer biscuits

Grind half of the walnuts into a fine meal and finely chop the remaining half. Chop the wafer biscuits. Place the egg whites into the bowl of a mixer. Begin whisking and, once foamy, add the salt. Beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, one tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each addition until dissolved. The meringue should be thick and glossy. Fold in the ground walnuts, chopped walnuts, desiccated coconut and chopped wafer biscuits.

Grease and line a 22 × 33 cm baking tin with baking parchment. Spread the meringue mixture evenly into the tin.

Bake at 170°C for 30–35 minutes, until deeply golden. Leave to cool completely. Because of the large amount of nuts, the meringue will remain soft and slightly sticky rather than crisp.

Ingredients for the coffee cream:

• 500 g mascarpone, chilled
• 600 ml double cream, chilled
• 80 g icing sugar
• 3 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 2 tbsp boiling water, cooled

Dissolve the coffee in the boiling water and leave to cool.

Place the mascarpone, icing sugar and cooled coffee into the bowl of a mixer and beat until smooth. Pour in the cold double cream and continue beating until a thick, stable cream forms. Do not overwhip. Divide the cream into two equal portions.

You’ll also need:

• 400 g dulce de leche (canned caramel)
• 200 ml double cream, chilled
• 1 tsp icing sugar
• cocoa powder, for dusting

To assemble:

Spread the cooled shortcrust base with the dulce de leche. Top with half of the coffee cream and smooth the surface. Carefully place the walnut meringue layer on top. Spread the remaining coffee cream over the meringue. Refrigerate for several hours, preferably overnight.

Before serving, cut into squares. Whip the double cream with the icing sugar until stiff peaks form. Pipe decorative swirls onto each slice and dust lightly with cocoa powder.

Store the cake in the refrigerator. Remove it about 30 minutes before serving so the shortcrust pastry has time to soften slightly, as it becomes quite firm when chilled.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Adapted from a recipe by Zjem To blog, with my own modifications.