Vasa’s Torte – Vasina Torta

There are tortes and then there is “Vasina Torta”! This cake will have you moan with every bite!

This is another recipe from my mother’s old cookbook. It is the 6th edition of a famous Serbian cookbook that was printed 55 years ago and its title is:”The Great National Cookbook” (“Велики Hародни Kувар”). The book was printed in Serbian Cyrillic alphabet and was written by Spasenija-Pata Markovic, the first edition published in 1939. Pata was a Serbian “Julia Child” of her time. Schooled at the prestigious Vienna cooking school she was writing early food articles for Serbian newspapers. Over time she was collecting recipes from all parts of Yugoslavia, usually sent to her by ordinary women that were enjoying her writing. She used these recipes to publish her first cookbook in 1907. However, The Great National Cookbook was by far her biggest and the most well known cookbook. Fast forward to this day and this book is still enormously popular, its 30-th edition has been published. I like to point out that this is perhaps not the best resource for a newbie cook. Recipes are casually short and many process steps are left out and up to reader’s imagination. There are no pictures, very basic few preparation details and no temperature and cooking time information. I suppose her audience at the time were housewives and seasoned cooks who were experienced enough and did not require much more information. Regardless I like it a lot and any time when I look through it I simply cant’t put it down. The hundreds of old recipes are real treasure.

Today I was baking a true classic of Serbian cuisine: “Vasa’s Torte” or “Vasina Torta”. That is one the most famous, authentic Serbian tortes. This great torte is very well known and liked, frequently baked for birthdays and winter slava-s.

Now a nice story about the origins of the recipe: Vasa’s Torte recipe dates from 1908. The story goes that the cake was first made in the honor of Vasa Cokrljan, a merchant from the town of Paracin located in central Serbia. Vasa’s young wife was expecting their first baby and had a difficult pregnancy. As he became increasingly concerned, he was determined to do all he possibly could to help his wife and save his family. He sold his store and all his possessions. He took his wife to Vienna where she was cared for by the best doctors at the time. Vasa’s wife delivered a healthy baby girl and they named her Rose or Ruzica. Upon their return to Serbia, Vasa’s mother in law, made this torte to honor him and thank him for his selfless sacrifice. The story goes that he was a good father and husband. He was hard working and was able to recover financially later in life.

Beautiful story isn’t it?

Vasa’s Torte is actually one of my favorite cakes of all times. It is an amazing combination of a tender biscuit layered with chocolate buttercream flavoured with orange juice and orange zest. Italian meringue smoothness plays beautifully with the texture of ground walnuts in the cream.

This torte is relatively simple to make. From what I know, to most cooks the trickiest part and the one that carries the highest risk of failure is the Italian meringue. That is because most home recipes are based on anecdotal instructions that do not include any process measurements, but rather rely on experience and reading of the visual appearance signs. Cooking is a science as much as it is art. If you want to learn it properly you will be wise to make an effort in understanding of process physics and food chemistry and especially having all necessary measuring tools at your disposal. Without that you are just guessing and it is likely doing it wrong.

In the case of this torte if you arm yourself with an instant read thermometer or candy thermometer you have nothing to fear. Follow the instructions below and it will be a breeze to make!

Print Recipe

Vasa's Torte - Vasina Torta

Traditional torte with rich chocolate buttercream and ground walnuts, flavoured with orange.

Course

Bake, Dessert

Cuisine

Serbian

Keyword

Torte, Vasina torta

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

20 minutes

Passive Time

1 hour

Servings

slices

Ingredients

Cake

• 5 large eggs separated yolks and whites
• 70 g granulated sugar
• 40 g ground almonds
• 1 tbsp all purpose non bleached flour
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Buttercream

• 1/2 cup milk
• 200 g ground walnuts
• 4 large egg yolks
• 50 g granulated sugar + 2 tbsp for milk sweetening
• 1 whole organic orange juice
• 1 whole organic orange zest
• 60 g dark semisweet chocolate (min. 70% cocoa) melted
• 150 g unsalted butter tempered to room temperature

Italian Meringue

• 4 egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup filtered water
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Decoration

• candied orange peel cut in thin strips

Course Bake, Dessert Cuisine Serbian Keyword Torte, Vasina torta Prep Time 2 hours Cook Time 20 minutes Passive Time 1 hour Servings slices Ingredients Cake 5 large eggs separated yolks and whites 70 g granulated sugar 40 g ground almonds 1 tbsp all purpose non bleached flour 1/2 tsp cream of tartar Buttercream 1/2 cup milk 200 g ground walnuts 4 large egg yolks 50 g granulated sugar + 2 tbsp for milk sweetening 1 whole organic orange juice 1 whole organic orange zest 60 g dark semisweet chocolate (min. 70% cocoa) melted 150 g unsalted butter tempered to room temperature Italian Meringue 4 egg whites 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup filtered water 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract Decoration candied orange peel cut in thin strips

Instructions

Cake

1. Position the rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200°C (390°F).
2. Butter a 23 cm (9") spring-form pan and line the bottom with round of parchment paper. Dust the sides with flour and tap out the excess.
3. In a medium size bowl, using a hand held mixer at high speed, beat together egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. In a medium size bowl, using a hand held mixer at medium speed, beat egg whites to stiff peaks.
5. In a small bowl mix together flour and ground almonds.
6. Using a large silicone spatula transfer about 1/4 of beaten egg whites to the egg yolk mixture and mix well until the mixture is thin and flowing.
7. Transfer the rest of the egg whites to the yolk mixture, add to it ground almonds with flour. Gently fold it all together without deflating the mixture.
8. Spread batter evenly in the cake pan. Bake about 20 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed lightly in the middle.
9. Transfer to wire rack and cool for 5 minutes.
10. Release the cake by running a sharp knife around the pan's side. Invert the cake onto cardboard and peel off the parchment paper from the bottom. Turn the cake right side up on the rack and let it cool completely.

Buttercream

1. Pour milk in a medium size sauce pan, add and dissolve 2 tbsp of sugar, bring it to boil over the medium heat (5 out of 10).
2. Stir in ground walnuts, remove from heat. Stir little longer until it is slightly cooled off. Put plastic film tight to the walnut mixture to prevent forming a crust, let cool to room temperature or cool off by using a water bath.

   
3. Melt the chocolate over low heat (2 out of 10).
4. Bring water to boil, reduce heat to low, and over a double boiler while whisking constantly, heat up the mixture of egg yolks and granulated sugar. It will take about 10-15 minutes until the yolk mixture thickens up. Put it aside and let it cool to room temperature or quickly cool off in a cold water bath. Stir occasionally to prevent crust forming.
5. Add cooled walnut mixture, melted chocolate, orange zest and orange juice to the cooled egg yolks, mix until fully unified.

   
6. In a medium size mixing bowl mix butter at high speed until soft and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
7. Fold the walnut/egg yolk mixture to the bowl and mix for another few minutes until everything is fully incorporated and smooth. Set aside.

Assembly

1. Place the cake on a cake stand and using an offset spatula, spread the buttercream over it in one even layer. Cover the cake stand and put it in the refrigerator.

   
2. To make the meringue, add sugar and water to a small sauce pan. Bring to boil over high heat (10 out of 10). Stir constantly until all the sugar is dissolved. Cook until instant read thermometer or candy thermometer shows 115ºC (240ºF). At the same time add egg whites, vanilla extract and cream of tartar to medium size mixing bowl. Beat at the medium speed and time it to reach soft peak stage at about the same time as sugar solution reaches set temperature.

   
3. Increase mixer speed to high and pour sugar solution slowly in a thin stream to the egg whites. Keep mixing until the meringue is stiff and shiny.

   
4. Using an offset spatula add the meringue layer on top and the side of the cake. Try to make the same layer thickness as is the buttercream. Ecstatically it looks the most pleasing if all three layers: cake, buttercream and meringue are the same thickness.

   
5. Sprinkle top of the cake with candied orange peel cut in thin strips.
6. Refrigerate overnight, serve cold.

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