So… I finally baked it.
The little Mondamin baking tin has been waiting patiently. I found the old cookbook, found the exact recipe printed on page 15, and finally had everything I needed to make the Wiener Nuss-Kuchen.
Well.
Almost everything.
The recipe calls for hazelnuts.
I used walnuts.
I know. 😂
After all that searching for the original recipe, you would think I could at least manage to follow it properly. But I had walnuts in the kitchen, and somehow that seemed like a perfectly reasonable substitute at the time.
So technically, this isn’t a completely authentic recreation anymore.
But I baked it anyway.
And honestly? I’m not sorry.
The cake came out beautifully in the old Mondamin tin, and there was something rather satisfying about seeing the recipe from that old cookbook become an actual cake sitting on my kitchen table.
After spending so much time wondering what this little tin had originally been used for, I finally knew.
It was this.
A Wiener Nuss-Kuchen.
My Wiener Nuss-Kuchen, anyway — the walnut version.
And now I’m wondering whether I should do it properly.
Should I buy hazelnuts and bake it again, exactly as the original recipe intended?
Because, of course, now that I’ve come this far, a tiny part of me wants to know what the real Mondamin cake tasted like.
So perhaps this isn’t the end of the story after all.
Maybe there will have to be a second cake.
For historical accuracy, you understand. 😉
And purely in the interest of research.
Ilze
P.S. I loved it!
Discover more from a day in the life of a latvian mom
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
How wonderful! Yes you should make it with hazelnuts – just to see. I am so glad it worked out.
Well, I guess I’m into old European recipes. They aren’t that sweet and it’s easy to find the needed ingredients 🙂
Congratulations! You did it! Walnuts are fatter than hazelnuts so you may have to adjust the amount of butter – but it sounds as if it worked.. Try it with hazelnuts & then with hazelnuts & cocoa. I have the feeling it‘s Wiener (Viennese) precisely because of the chocolate.
Not anonymous – Catterel!
I know, I know 🙂
Might be! I think I might try, will see 🙂
You will show us the second cake, won’t you? Purely for our research, you understand 🙂 !
🙂 If I’ll make – I’ll show… plenty of things are happening…. can’t promise!
It certainly looks good, Ilze, but I wouldn’t really know without tasting it, would I? 😉
No, you wouldn’t 🙂 When will you come to Latvia, let me know 🙂
Haha! Thanks for the invitation, Ilze! But I think Latvia is just a little too far to pop over for a piece of cake. 😄
It looks delicious, Ilze! Now you must make the cake with Hazelnuts! 🥰
Wonderful!
I’m sure your family loved the cake, Ilze. It looks delicious.
That looks delicious. How did you find it with so much vanilla in it? I get the sense it was obviously not as overpowering as I would have expected.
It looks like something I’ve tasted. And if it is that, then you should definitely bake it a second time. And perhaps a third time too. And more