"Datunia" recipe

Hello people, I hope you are having a good day!

Now I want to tell you about this cake that we love so much and especially my brother, because he can eat the whole cake in just a couple of seconds of you let him. It's a cake called "Datunia", which means "bear" in English and it's a really good cake, if you want to know the truth.

Well, to be honest, it doesn't really need much effort, at least, I prepare it just normally, I mean, it's not so easy to prepare our, however, it's not that very much time -consuming as you may think. So, once you taste this cake, you will want to learn how to prepare it, because usually it isn't in any supermarkets or so. No one really prepares it, I guess, because I haven't seen it anywhere else except for our home or my aunt's, if you want to know the truth. People nowadays just buy the prepared stuff, you know, and no one really bothers to prepare something at home. So that it's just those usual cakes that you meet in supermarkets that are at the tables when someone invites you to them or something like they, you know. It's all just simplified, that's what they say. And, well, it's kind of true, if you want to know the truth, however there are things that can't really be simplified, you know.
So, this cake doesn't have this cream filling or something like that, you know, the one that is made from milk and stuff like that. It has these ground walnuts and egg whites in the filling, which are really tasty, if you want to know the truth.

There are some things, that you should consider, though, while preparing this cake. For example, the dough should not be very hard, it should be soft, so that the biscuit can be soft and good to eat. Also, you should not put many walnuts into the filling, or it will be dry and stuff like that.

Well, to tell you the truth, this cake can be prepared pretty easily, because you don't need to roll the dough qnd put it on the pan and bake it  and stuff like that, you know, I just hate that process of rolling the dough, because the whole table is a mess after that and there is this flour all over the place and things like that and it's just not that nice, of course, to tidy up all that mess after that preparation process, you know. To be honest, I really don't get good biscuits when I roll the dough and bake them, well, to tell you the truth, I don't get good biscuits even if I don't roll them and just pour them into the pan, however, it's more complicated and time consuming when you roll the dough, of course. So, what I'm saying is that this cake just needs you to roll the dough, so that you can kind of build the whole cake and cook it like that. I mean, the whole one. It will bake just in half an hour or so. And you won't need to have another dough rolled and ready to be put in the oven and stuff like they, because you just won't need to have another one, as you will have already baked the whole cake and that's what I really like about preparing it, if you want to know the truth. So, you just need to add everything together and put it into the oven and let it cook. Then , after that, you can take it out and let it cool and then pour some chocolate glaze on top of it, you know. Well, we usually do that, however, it’s all up to you, I mean, you can add some other things on top, of course. However, the cake recipe says, that you should do the chocolate glaze on the top of the cake and, trust me, it’s really good.

Well, now about the ingredients and all the other stuff.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 150 grams of butter or margarine
• 2 cups of white granulated sugar
• 1 cup of Matsoni or sour cream
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (or even more)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 cup of ground walnuts

For the chocolate glaze:

• 2 tbs of cocoa powder
• 2 tbs of white granulated sugar
• 5 tbs of milk or water
• 25 grams of butter or margarine (optional)
• Vanilla

Preparation process

So the preparation process is not that hard, I mean, you just have to have that standing mixer and everything will be just very easy, because you don’t need any effort that way, if you want to know the truth.

First of all, you should separate egg yolks from the egg whites, of course. And firstly, you need those egg yolks, so that you should set aside the egg whites. Now, you should mix together the 1 cup of sugar and the egg yolks and you should mix them for a couple of minutes, until they are very well mixed and the mixture has light yellow colour. After that, you should melt the butter or margarine _ whichever you use. I usually have some margarine, however my aunt uses unsalted butter. Well, to be honest, it’s all the same, whether you use butter or margarine, because nowadays there’s not much difference between them, if you ask me. And many people say so. So, after melting the butter or margarine, you should wait until it cools down so that you can then add it to the eggs and sugar mixture.

After adding the melted butter or margarine, you should add the Matsoni to the mixture. However, first of all, you should take that 1 tsp of baking soda and pour the vinegar on it and then put that teaspoon into Matsoni or sour cream and mix it there. Then you should add it in that mixture and start your mixer and mix them well together. Then you should add some flour and mix it. the dough should not be hard, it should be soft, so that you should decide whether the flour is enough or it needs more. The dough should be in such condition, that you can roll it, of course. So, you divide the dough into three pieces and roll each of them. Well, you can roll one of them at first and put it on an oiled pan, or you can even put the dough on the pan and roll it there.

Well, after that, you should prepare the filling. The preparation is pretty easy. You take those separated egg whites and take the mixer and mix them until all white and fluffy and pretty much mixed. They say that you should mix them, until you can take that bowl where they are and turn it upside down and the mixture don’t come off the bowl. So, you can mix them for about 5 or 10 minutes or I don’t know, how much it needs, and then you can start adding 1 cup of sugar little by little. And just when you have finished adding sugar to the mixture, you should add those ground walnuts little by little, too and, if you want, you can add some vanilla, of course, because it gives the filling some special taste, if you ask me. And that’s your Datunia filling and now you are going to assemble the cake!

So, after that first layer of dough comes the filling. You should divide the filling in two and pour half of it on the first dough. Then you should roll the second dough and put it on that filling stuff, on top of it. and don’t worry if the dough is not the right size or something like that, it won’t matter that much, because it is in the middle and it won’t be noticeable at all!

After that, you pour the rest of the filling on that second dough and spread it evenly on it. and after that, you roll that third dough pretty well and put it on top of the cake. Well, usually I make that one a little bigger, than the other ones, because it’s better if it’s bigger, than to be smaller and leave the cake like that. I mean, you should put it on the cake like a sheet, so that it covers everything and if it’s smaller than the pan, it won’t work, of course, because the filling will be visible and it will spill out and stuff like that. So that, it’s better if you have some extra pieces of the third dough to cut , so that it will have the same shape as the pan, however, it’s really not good if you have a smaller dough. So, just remember it and consider it!

And when you have done all those things, you’ll just have to turn the oven on and preheat it on 200 degrees Celsius and after  a couple of minutes, you can put the pan into the oven and bake the cake on 170 degrees Celsius. At least, that’s how I bake it and it comes out pretty good, if you want to know the truth. It needs something about 30-40 minutes to be all ready and stuff and you will understand that when you look at the cake during the baking process, because there’s no exact time of baking something, you know, one can not definitely say that this cake will be finished in, for example, 10 minutes, because it may need less or it may need more, no one really can say that definitely, of course. Every cake is special and every cake is very different from each other, no matter, how similarly they were prepared and how similar they seem to be. Usually, you can know when the cake is all ready and stuff by the smell that it has and the colour, that it gets, and it’s like a brownish or something. And, I can say, that it can’t be really raw, because the dough is pretty thin when it’s rolled, so that it can’t really be all raw and stuff like that, you know, after those 30 minutes of baking. And the filling doesn’t need to get all cooked and stuff like that, because it’s not that much that needs much time to get cooked, of course.

So that, when the time has gone, I mean, after that half an hour or so, you can get your cake out of the oven and let it cool down, so that you can pour that chocolate glaze on top of it.

Preparing the chocolate glaze is pretty much easy. Well, you can prepare it sweet or less sweet or something like that, it’s up to you. However, mainly I use 2 tbs of cocoa powder and 2 tbs of white granulated sugar to prepare it. then I add 5 tbs of water, usually, however, you can use milk instead of the water the water and it will be more glazy than with the water and it will be really moist, I guess. So, you put that mixture in a bowl and put it on the gas and let it boil and when it boils, you should stir occasionally and let it be like that for one or two minutes, until it gets kind of  thick, but not very thick, because when it cools down a little after turning the heat off, it will get thickerand you won’t be able to pour it on the cake as you should, because it won’t spread easily and you will have to prepare another chocolate glaze and use it to cover the top of the cake, of course. I had that kind of experience for a couple of times, if you want to know the truth. I prepared the chocolate glaze, which became pretty thick until it got a little cooler and I just couldn’t spread it on the cake and I had to prepare it again. Well, no one really wants to prepare something again because it didn’t work out the way they wanted for the first time, however, if the glaze is not great, you should really prepare another one.

And, well, after you have boiled the chocolate glaze, you can add the butter or margarine to it, I mean, you can add 25 grams of it, or even less, or you can just skip that part, if you don’t want to use some butter or margarine or whatsoever. For example, my mother doesn’t really love using it in that chocolate glaze, so that when she prepares it, she doesn’t use it. however, it kind of gives the glaze that shiny look, I guess, and maybe that’s why people use it. and, you can add some vanilla to the glaze when it’s done and when you have turned the heat off and just mix it with the chocolate. That way it will have a great vanilla taste, if you want to know the truth.

So that, after preparing the chocolate glaze, you should wait for some time for it to get cooler, and you should pay attention that it don’t get all very thick and stuff like that, because if it gets really thicker, you should just pour it on the top of the cake, no matter if it’s still hot or not, because otherwise, it will get really thick when cooling down and you won’t be able to spread it on the cake and you will have to prepare another chocolate glaze for the cake.

Well, now that you have done everything that this cake needs, all you have to do is to eat it! if the cake is soft and kind of fluffy and moist, then everything’s just fine and you can enjoy eating it and your friends and family can enjoy eating it, too, you know.

It’s just an amazing cake and you will understand that when you taste it, so that don’t get all lazy and stuff and just prepare it once and you will want to prepare it again and again!

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