Bublanina - Czech Cake Recipe

Bublanina is a Czech cake often referred to as bubble cake as it is spongy and engulfs the seasonal fruit topping. The most common topping choices include berries, apples, cherries, plums, and apricots. If fresh fruit is tough to come by, pie filling or compote will suffice. I recall many nights of my childhood in which my parents would host a night of playing cards with friends, aunts, and grand parents for which there would be a large dessert table offering kolacky, poppy seed cake, and a few different bublanina (coffee cakes). The coffee was always prepared in the larger than life plug in percolator and would be consumed rather quickly. How retro is that? My brothers and I could not wait until we could raid the dessert offerings leaving a trail of powdered sugar on our way out of the kitchen. As this dessert is categorized as a sponge cake, it is more of a coffee cake in my opinion so don’t be shy to try this recipe out for breakfast.

As I mentioned, the choice of fruit topping for this cake is at your discretion. I usually opt for cherry or blueberries. Given the season of lower prices right now, sliced apples will also work. If using fresh apple, make sure to soak them will a little lemon juice and dust them with cinnamon sugar mixture.

Czech Coffee Cake - Bublanina

1 stick butter
1 cup flour (all purpose)
½ cup sugar
2 eggs (yolks and whites separated)
½ teaspoon Salt
1 pound of Fruit (Cherries, Blueberries, Apricots, or Plums)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Cream sugar, butter, and egg yolks and salt until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites and fold into flour.
4. Fold flour and egg white mixture into egg and butter mixture.
5. Pour batter into greased 9 inch pan.
6. Place fruit or fruit compote on top of cake batter.
7. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until done (toothpick test).
8. Cool on Cake rack.
9. Dust with confectioner’s sugar prior to serving.

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