Serves 10 to 12
This wonderful cake was first made for me by my Aunt Wenia in Poland, and I immediately demanded the recipe. It is the perfect cake for a very special occasion, a baroque, luscious creation that really looks like a celebration.
• 1 sponge cake, baked in a 10″ by 14″ pan
• ½ to ⅔ cup rum
• 1 cup plum jam
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• ½ cup chopped candied orange peel
• 1 recipe Chocolate Buttercream, chilled till firm but not stiff
• 1 tsp. unsweetened powdered cocoa
1. With a long, sharp, serrated knife, slice the sponge cake into 2 even layers. Sprinkle the rum evenly over both layers. Spread the plum jam over the entire surface of the bottom layer, right out to the edges. Toss together the raisins, chopped walnuts, and chopped candied orange peel. Sprinkle about ½ of this mixture evenly over the plum jam.
2. Spoon ⅔ of the buttercream over the fruit and nut layer, and spread it, lightly and smoothly, out to the edges of the cake. Place the top cake layer gently on the buttercream layer.
3. Spread the remaining buttercream over the top of the cake, bringing it out to the edges but not down the sides. Through a very fine sieve, dust the cocoa over a 3-inch by 6-inch rectangle in the center of the cake. Don’t worry if the edges of your rectangle aren’t perfect—the next step will fix that.
4. Take the remainder of the fruit and nut mixture, a little at a time, and sprinkle it over the top of the cake, covering the buttercream around the rectangle that has been dusted with cocoa. To make a straight edge around the rectangle, hold a long, wide knife along the line on one side of the rectangle and sprinkle the fruits and nuts along the blade on the buttercream side. Repeat on all sides of the rectangle, then fill in the remaining areas out to the edges of the cake. Press the fruit and nut mixture very gently into the buttercream, just enough to make it stay. If there are creases in the buttercream from holding the knife on it to make the straight edge, press the fruits and nuts immediately next to the cocoa rectangle very lightly toward the middle, just enough to hide the crease.
5. The finished cake should look like this: On the sides, all layers will be visible—cake, then jam, then buttercream, cake again, and more buttercream. On top, the surface will be covered with fruit mixture, except for a rectangular chocolate “window” in the center.
6. Chill the cake until just before serving it (at least 1 hour) and slice it with a very sharp, serrated knife, using a tiny, sawing motion.
