The Craziest Cakes Poland Has to Offer
When researching Polish sweets, most people will immediately come across classics such as apple pie (in Poland made with pre-cooked apples that turn into a delicious apple-butter), cheesecake (no cookie base! just lots of traditional Polish farmer’s cheese) and pączki (doughnuts filled with jam, preferably one made from rose-petals).
Babka piaskowa, or sand cake
'Babka', a sweet yeast cake, photo: Piotr Wojnarowski / Forum Contrary to what the name suggests, this is not a cake made from sand, but from… potato flour. Or, to be more precise, form a mix of regular and potato flour, though the latter is the dominant ingredient in the cake. Polish people love their potatoes, so why not use them in a dessert too? The addition of the potato flour gives the cake a really crumbly texture. A little bit like eating sand, but… better! The sand cake is very easy to make, and perhaps because of this it is not often seen in fancy cafes. However, it is really worth a try as it almost never fails to bake well and pleases everyone who tries it. It is normally made in a Bundt-pan, and while it can be a simple yellowish cake, most people add some cocoa to the last few cups of batter, thus creating a marble-like yellow/brown effect. (Pro tip: this cake is also excellent after a few days, especially with milk).
Pleśniak, or mould cake
'Pleśniak', photo: Andrzej Zygmuntowicz / East News This really unusual name hides nothing sinister. Pleśniak is a wonderful layer cake which tastes just as well when made with fresh fruit in the summer as with jam in the winter. The idea is simple: a shortcrust base is covered with some slightly sour fruit (blackberries, blueberries, black or red currants or even plums); the next layer is a meringue, which usually 'catches' some of the colour from the fruit underneath – this is probably where the name of the cake comes from as a meringue coloured with e.g. blueberries looks a little bit like… mould. Fortunately, it tastes much better. The last, and optional, layer is a crumble on top of the meringue. The cake is surprisingly easy to make and perhaps because of this it is such a popular dessert.
Karpatka, or Carpathian Mountains cake
Karpatka derives its name for the unusual form the choux pastry that creates, while baking, many 'heights' and 'lows'. As a result, it looks a little bit like a mountain range, for example the Carpathian mountains (the biggest and highest mountain range in Poland). The first mention of the cake comes from 1972, so it is not an ancient recipe, but karpatka has since established itself as one of Polish classics. The cake is made by baking two sheets of choux pastry (made by mixing flour and eggs into a solution of hot water and butter) and putting vanilla pudding between them. To make the cake resemble snowy mountains even more, it is usually served sprinkled with icing sugar.
Chrust, or brushwood
Brushwood or 'faworki', photo: Darek Delmanowicz / PAP
These thin-as-paper delicious pieces of dough– also known as faworki – are a traditional post-Christmas treat in Poland. They resemble the Italian bugie di carnevale/chiacchiere, the Bulgarian kukurini and the French bugnes lyonnaises. While these days it is possible to buy chrust all year round, it is best and easiest to find in January and February when Polish people celebrate the carnival. The pastry is made with flour, egg-yolks, sour cream and spirits (or vinegar). After some vigorous kneading (a real workout to get the right texture!), the pastry is rolled out thin, cut into strips, plaited to give it a fancy shape and deep-fried (traditionally in lard, but these days many people opt for a less smelly alternative such as canola oil). The result is a very light and delicate pastry that melts in the mouth. It is traditionally served sprinkled with icing sugar.
WZ, or East-West cake
'Wuzetka', photo: Marianna Osko / East News
How many countries can claim a popular dessert named after a… road? Poland can. WZ is an acronym for a road built in Warsaw in the late 1940s. It was one of the first big infrastructural projects undertaken by the communist government that was supposed to be a backbone to a new, modern capital city. The name (East-West Thoroughfare) illustrated that the road was connecting the Eastern and the Western part of the city (split into two by the Vistula River), but also that it was a major transit rout on the East-West axis of the whole country. The cake itself was invented to celebrate the opening of the completed road. WZ has three layers: two sheets of chocolate cake divided by whipped cream. Although the cake is more than 60 years old, it is still very popular in cafes (especially in Warsaw, but not only), and many people also make it at home. It is served cut into neat squares and decorated with a whipped cream 'rosette'.
