4/16/2006 - An Easter Treat: The Cake Fit for a Bishop

Happy Easter!!!  (Or, as Mr. Floppy-Ears above would put it, Hoppy Easter!) 

I hope everyone had a lovely Holy Week; it was so quiet here in Manila's southern suburbs.  A trifle busy, though: we were in church from Maundy Thursday to yesterday, Black Saturday.

We don't usually bake for Easter.  Before my brother was ordained to the diaconate, we never felt particularly inclined towards making anything for Easter.  It's odd, considering it's supposed to be a bigger Catholic feast than Christmas.  This year, however, I had a notion to bake something wonderful for today.  Thus, I ransacked every cookbook for an Easter treat.

Unfortunately, the only Easter recipe most books could offer was one for Simnel Cake, a traditional English Easter dessert.  I don't find it particularly appealing; it's just an old-fashioned uber-stodgy fruitcake topped with a thin layer of yellow marzipan and marzipan balls dusted with cocoa to approximate Easter eggs.  Not really my cup of tea since English-style fruitcake tends to be more than a little over the top.

Browsing through Nick Malgieri's A Baker's Tour gave me the sort of recipe that appealed to me in a major way.  Bischofsbrot (German: "bishop's bread/cake") is a classic Austrian recipe for a cake that was traditionally baked for the installation of new bishops and the investiture of cardinals. 

A scrumptious cross between pound cake and biscotti, bischofsbrot comes studded with raisins, nuts, bits of bittersweet chocolate, and candied fruit.  Since I don't particularly like candied fruit, I don't have any rum on hand, and dayap limes are what I have growing in the backyard, I've made a few changes to the cake and ended up with a rather good result.  Try it: it's quite divine. ^_^

Bischofsbrot  

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• grated zest of two dayap limes or one lemon
• 1/2 tbsp. cream liqueur (Bailey's is nice and I used Vodka Mudshake in Caramel for mine)
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
• 1/4 cup pistachio kernels
• 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
• 3 eggs, separated
• 1 - 1/2 cups flour, sifted

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the flour over the raisins, nuts, and chocolate morsels.  Set aside.

Cream butter until smooth; add confectioner's sugar and beat until light-colored and fluffy.  Add vanilla, grated zest, and cream liqueur.  Add the egg yolks one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Whisk together the egg whites at salt until soft peaks are formed.  Add the granulated sugar and beat until soft, glossy peaks are formed.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees/Gas Mark 4.

Fold some of the meringue into the butter mixture; fold in about 1/3 of the flour once the egg whites have been incorporated.  Repeat procedure until all the flour and meringue have been folded into the butter mixture.  Fold in the reserved raisins, nuts, and chocolate.

Pour the batter into a greased and lined 8-inch loaf pan.  Bake for 1 hour.  Allow to cool for about an hour before removing from the pan.  Move to an airtight container and let the flavors develop overnight.  To serve, cut into thinnish slices.

Makes one loaf.