It's Eastertime - cake time

Every year at Easter my mum, my sister and I bake an Easter cake. Yesterday was the day of our great annual action. As it's a long family tradition the recipe goes back to my  grandmother. My granny herself was famous for her baking skills in the whole village she lived in, besides she wrote down her  personal recipes in a notebook. This handwritten notebook enables us now, even after her death, to bake like in the old times. In those days there were not many kitchen machines, most of the work was done using a simple wooden spoon and a mixer, the weighing scale was not electric and digital but manual and anlaog. So the method of baking has changed over the years, surely it has become more comfortable nowadays, but the result can never be that of my granny's hands. In this nostalgic sense I would like to share the joy for this delicious walnut cake with you.

Batter

For the batter you need the following ingredients:

5 eggs

200 grams sugar

150 grams ground walnuts

120 grams plain flour

30 grams cornstarch

50 grams unsalted butter

½  teaspoon cinnamon

a packet of vanilla sugar

a pinch of salt

apricot jam

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Separate yolk from the egg white. Place the yolk, half of the sugar and salt in a big bowl and beat them until fluffy.

Combine egg white and the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric mixer until it becomes stiff.

Then fold the beaten egg white in the previous mixture of yolk, sugar and salt.

After that add cornstarch, flour, vanilla sugar, cinnamon and ground walnuts and stir until it is mingled. 

Finally melt the unsalted butter and stir in the batter.

Pour batter into a greased and floured cake-pan and put it into the preheated oven.

After 50 minutes remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down.

Creme

In the meantime prepare the crème. You will need:

¼  litre milk

½ of a package of custard powder

120 grams ground walnuts

100 grams powdered sugar

200 grams unsalted butter

Make the vanilla flummery as it says on the packing. Put ground walnuts into the still hot liquid vanilla flummery and stir it in. 

Cover the pot with a foil to avoid mild skin and let it cool. 

Bring the unsalted butter to room temperature and beat it with powdered sugar until fluffy. Then add the walnut vanilla flummery gradually while stirring.

Coat the plain cake first with apricot jam and then with the cream, swirling it out towards the edges. 

Finally you can add any decoration you like.

I personally like to top the cake with colorful jellybeans. The combination of walnuts and jellybeans is surprisingly yummy.

There is a difference between the European and the American or English indication of quantity. The Americans use cup while the Europeans use gram. I found a list which explains it very well.

flour / powdered sugar	butter/ suger
1/8 cup …… 15 Gramm	1/8 cup …… 30 Gramm
1/4 cup …… 30 Gramm	1/4 cup …… 55 Gramm
1/3 cup …… 40 Gramm	1/3 cup …… 75 Gramm
3/8 cup …… 45 Gramm	3/8 cup …… 85 Gramm
1/2 cup …… 60 Gramm	1/2 cup …… 115 Gramm
2/3 cup …… 75 Gramm	2/3 cup …… 150 Gramm
3/4 cup …… 85 Gramm	3/4 cup …… 170 Gramm
1 cup …… 120 Gramm	1 cup …… 225 Gramm

Who am I? من انا؟

Well, I am an half Egyptian – Austrian girl living in Graz. My parents named me Nora because it is a typical Arabic name, meaning light, but in the same time Nora is also known in Austria. Actually my dad is an Egyptian and my extended family still live in the heart of Cairo. That is the reason why I have become a traveler. At least once a year I go to Egypt to visit my family and friends. That allowed me to gain deep insight into the Arabic way of thinking and the lifestyle. These aspects differ greatly from the European ones.

 I grew up bilingual – Arabic and German- and I that’s why I was able to develop a sense of language. So I decided to study Arabic and English at the University of Graz.  My interest in other foreign cultures is another reason why I have chosen “transcultural communication”.  Besides languages I am a passionate musician and dancer. I have been playing the flute since I was a child and I am currently performing in an orchestra.

In terms of my personality I am a really open-minded person because of my cultural background. My attitude is a mix of European and Arabic ideas and ideologies, which makes it hard sometimes to come to a decision in particular things. However, I am really proud of my Arabic-Austrian descent even if it is not visible from my appearance. Another streak is that I am a peaceful person. I don’t like arguments or fights and I am always trying to solve problems in a diplomatic way. I think this is much more efficient than insulting and shouting at each other.