My mum used to make this cake when I was a teenager and recently I discovered a coffee shop near my house that sells it. It’s a rich and dense cake, packed with raisins, not your regular light and fluffy type of cake.
And I decided to pair it with a white chocolate buttercream I saw a couple of weeks ago on Cookies & Cups. It’s quite good – you know I’m not a buttercream lass 😉 – but it can’t stand the heat. Literally. Even though I had the AC on at 24°C, it started to melt. To be fair, it happened to be one of the hottest days 😦 So I had to put the cupcakes in the fridge and I hate cold cake!
By the way, I don’t know why it’s called Hungarian cake. I tried Google and Wikipedia with no luck. That’s just what my mum (and the shop around the corner) calls it 🙂
HUNGARIAN CAKE
INGREDIENTS
4 eggs, separated
400 g (2 cups) caster sugar
300 ml single cream
4 tbsp vegetable oil
50 g (1/2 cup) grated parmesan
315 g (2 1/2 cups) flour
1 tbsp baking powder
200 g raisins
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 23cm round tin with butter and sprinkle with flour.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together yolks, sugar, cream and oil. Fold in parmesan, flour and baking powder.
In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks start to form. Fold them gently into your batter along with the raisins.
Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for about 50 minutes.
NOTE: As you can see, I baked cupcakes instead of a round cake. I got 16 regular and 20 mini cupcakes.
WHITE CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM
(source: Cookies & Cups)
makes 4 cups of frosting
INGREDIENTS
450 g (2 cups) unsalted butter
250 g (2 cups) white chocolate buttons/drops/chips
METHOD
In a medium saucepan, combine butter and white chocolate buttons. Melt them together over low heat, stirring occasionally. When everything is melted, remove from heat and allow it to sit for 15 minutes or so. Refrigerate until the mixture becomes solid, approximately 3 hours or overnight.
When you’re ready to prepare the frosting, remove from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature.
Place the entire mass into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat for 2-3 minutes, until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.
NOTES: This frosting gets incredibly hard when cold, so allow enough time to get it to room temperature (it took me a couple of hours!), otherwise you won’t be able to beat it.
I used only 2 cups, or thereabouts, to frost all my cupcakes.
I was wondering why they’re called Hungarian cupcakes too. Did you ask the shop around the corner?
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They don’t call it Hungarian but it tastes just like this recipe and when I asked the owner he said his mother makes the cakes and confirmed there was cream and cheese in them 😊 Have a nice Sunday, Liz!
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What a beautiful cake – and a lovely memory of sharing it with your mum as a child. 🙂
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Thanks, Shanna! It’s so fluffy and delicious 🙂
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Fluffy and delicious means that it must be made soon! 🙂
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Please let me know if you do 🙂
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Of course! I immediately bookmarked the recipe to make – I was intrigued by the use of parmesan!
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Erika – these look and sound beautiful, can’t wait to try this and your other recipes too!
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Thanks, Jina! And thanks for the visit 🙂
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Gosh parmesan? Now that has got to be an unusual ingredient for a cupcake and has me well and truly intrigued.
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The flavour is very subtle – but definitely there 🙂
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This combo was perfect!
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Thanks, dear! Glad you liked it 🙂
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Looks so delicious and I love the cake stand with the cupcakes of different sizes. Such a cute arrangement!
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Thank you! I thought it would be interesting to have different colours and sizes 🙂
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Those do look quite yummy Erika! How interesting that there’s parmesan in Hungarian cake!
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Isn’t it? I don’t know why they call it Hungarian but I’m sure any nation would be proud to name such delicious cake 😉
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These look great! I hadn’t heard of Hungarian cupcakes before but they do look delicious! 🙂
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I don’t believe anybody else calls it Hungarian – maybe my mum exchanged recipes with the lady that makes the cakes for the coffee shop 😉
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Looks tasty, I’m a bit of a sucker for a nice frosting/icing!
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Thank you, Emma! Maybe you’ll have more luck and it won’t melt. 😉
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How scrumptious! HerrBCE will do ANYTHING for white chocolate, so I shall make these to surreptitiously get what I want. Think I will swap the parmesan for Berkswell (ewe’s milk, hard) and see what happens. More cakes with cheese, please Erika!
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I have another cake with cheese that’s very interesting and the flavour is less subtle 😉
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Delicious!…I need this…for my breakfast!
Have a nice day!
Giusy
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Grazie tante, Giusy! Buona giornata!
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When you will invite us to go to the cafe near your house to eat cupcakes hungarian?
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Anytime you want! But they don’t sell cupcakes, just slices 😉
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I feel what The Novice Gardener said, I want cupcakes! How much of parmesan cheese flavor do you taste? Very interesting. 😛
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It’s very subtle, almost imperceptible. I think it adds more to the texture than to the flavour, Fae.
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parmesan!!!
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Yes! 😀
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Looks yummy, Erika! That last picture makes me want to go to a coffee shop right now and get a cupcake and a latte. 🙂
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Thank you! It’s fairly easy to make 😉
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