Punch Torte

Cake Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
10 egg yolks
10 egg whites
6 oz. granulated sugar
3 to 4 tablespoons hot water
peel and juice of one large lemon
5 to 6 tablespoons apricot jam for spreading

Punch Filling Ingredients:

2/3 cup strong dark tea
1/3 cup rum
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup softened chocolate
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
Juice of one large orange

Pink Icing Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons rum
1 to 2 tablespoons hot water
2 to 3 drops pink food color

NOTE: It is impossible to give exact quantities for this type of icing because every sugar is different.


Cake Preparation:

  • Whisk egg yolks with 4 oz. (120 g) sugar, than gradually add spoon by spoon hot water and mix until mixture is thick and lemon-colored. Add peel and juice of one large lemon and mix well.
  • Beat egg whites with 2 oz. (60g) sugar until stiff peaks form.
  • Preheat oven to 350º F (180º C).
  • Slowly add sifted flour and beaten egg whites into egg yolk mixture.
  • Put mixture in two greased and floured 9-inch round cake molds.
  • Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
  • Cool 2 to 3 minutes, than remove from molds and cool to room temperature.
  • Cut each cake into 3 equal layers.
  • Spread layers of one cake with warm apricot jam, and set aside.
To Prepare Punch Filling: 
  • Cut layers of second cake into small cubes and put into large bowl.
  • Put tea, rum and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to boil. Pour over the cake cubes.
  • Add jam, almond extract, softened chocolate, vanilla sugar and orange juice and mix well.
  • Spread filling between layers and press down lightly each layer.
  • Press cake with some big heavy pan or wood and leave for two hours.
  • Prepare pink icing and spread over the cake.

To Prepare Pink Icing: 
  • Add a very little water into sifted icing sugar, add food color and rum, than add more liquid or sugar to obtain a smooth thick paste. 
  • Spread icing over the cake and leave to dry.

    • Serve cake next day.


Real Cooking
Did You Know?
Starch, one of the chief forms of carbohydrates, is found only in the vegetable kingdom. It is present in large quantities in the grains and in potatoes; in fact, nearly all vegetables contain large or small amounts of it. It is stored in the plant in the form of granules that lie within the plant cells.

Pure starch is a white, tasteless and odorless powder that is insoluble in cold water or alcohol. It consists of two types of molecules: the linear and helical amylose and the branched amylopectin.

Depending on the plant, starch generally contains 20 to 25% amylose and 75 to 80% amylopectin.

Wheat starch paste was used by Egyptians to stiffen cloth and during weaving linen and possibly to glue papyrus.

Romans used starch also in cosmetic creams, to powder the hair and to thicken sauces.

Persians and Indians used starch to make dishes similar to gothumai wheat halva.

In China, with the invention of paper, rice starch was used as a surface treatment of the paper.

Digestive enzymes have problems digesting crystalline structures. Raw starch will digest poorly in the duodenum and small intestine, while bacterial degradation will take place mainly in the colon. Resistant starch is starch that escapes digestion in the small intestine of healthy individuals. In order to increase the digestibility, starch is cooked. Hence, before humans started using fire, eating grains was not a very useful way to get energy.

Cooking applied to starch changes it into a form that is digestible. Moist heat cooks the granules until they expand and burst and thus thicken the mass.

Dry heat changes starch first into a soluble form and finally into what is called dextrine, this being the intermediate step in the changing of starch into sugar.

A modified food starch is a starch that has been chemically modified, allowing the starch for example to function properly under conditions of high heat and/or shear, frequently encountered during processing, or conditions during storage, such as cooling.

When a starch is pre-cooked, it can then be used to thicken instantly in cold water. This is referred to as a pregelatinized starch. Otherwise starch requires heat to thicken, or "gelatinize". The actual temperature depends on the type of starch.