Kolaci

I‘m a complete sucker for books, and so when I saw a tent erected outside the Posta (the ‘s’ is a ‘sh’) with a sign saying ‘Knjige’ I just had to go and have a look. There were lots of books about the Pope, lots about WW2 and Gardening, and then in a corner there were Cooking Books, particularly Domaci Kolaci (both of those ‘c’s are ‘ch’ sounds, the one on the first word is slightly different, but we won’t go there).

When I went on the picnic smoke tramp thingy last weekend, one of the women had brought the most beautiful dense, moist cake to share with us all because it was her daughter’s 19th birthday. (And could you please just pause and think that one through – she was turning 19 and had chosen to come on a picnic with her parents and 12 year old brother – parents must be much cooler here).
Anyway, I complimented her on the beautiful cake (and so had to eat two pieces!) and asked her for the recipe. There was a moment of silence apart from a cricket chirping in the background. She explained that the recipe is a family secret, passed down from her grandmother, and that there is serious competition here between households for the best version of the cake. And I’m talking bakeoffs. A quick appraisement of me and she knew that there was no threat of me toppling her from her Kolaci Reign - and she rattled the ingredients off quickly and I promptly forgot what she said.
So, and here’s where we get back to my new book- I have found the recipe for Torte Makarana (do you see? This is the local Makarska speciality!).It won’t be exactly as Maria said, but the theme is there.

TORTE MAKARANA
For the base
300 gms of flour, 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 125 gms of butter, 1 cup tepid water.
Mix the flour and the eggs and butter, and slowly add the water until it is a pastry sort of format. Because that is what it is – the cake has a pastry base and sides, with strips of the pastry decorating the top. Wrap it in glad wrap and leave for 20 minutes in the fridge while you make the filling.
Filling
11 eggs, 350 gms sugar, 2 tsps vanilla sugar (or guess you could use essence), 250 gms ground natural almonds, 250 gms ground roasted almonds, 1 pinch of nutmeg, 1 dsp cocoa, grated rind of 2 oranges, grated rind of 1 lemon, juice of 1 orange¸ 50 gms of melted butter, 1 cap full of rum, 1 cap full of maraschino.

(The recipe says cep, with a ch sound for the c, which translates as ‘cork’ – so you get the idea of how much to throw in).
Separate 5 eggs – whip the whites until firm. Gently mix the dry ingredients, the melted butter, the egg yolks and the remaining full eggs (just one at a time) – don’t overmix – fold in the egg whites gently – don’t overmix- - pour into the prepared cake dish which you have now lined with pastry. Decorate it with a few strips of pastry over the top.
Cook at 180 for about 20 minutes, and then, cover the cake with tinfoil, reduce the temperature to 140 and cook for about one hour, but don’t overcook it and let it get dry. While it is doing the last 10 minutes, boil up the syrup;
Syrup
100 gms of sugar, 1 cap of maraschino, 1 cup of water - bring to the boil and then reduce the temperature and continue boiling gently until the mixture has become a syrup.
When the cake is cooked, pour the syrup over the cake and let it sit in the cake tin until it has cooled.
Let me know how it goes (I don’t have an oven, just a hob, otherwise I would try it out now!)
PS the photo shows a small individual cake – don’t be deceived. The recipe is for a 10 inch cake – use a spring form cake tin (is that what they are called??).