Here’s an old-school recipe for a cake I don’t see around much these days. Beli Andjeo, a simple cake that looks complicated but really isn’t. In fact, it uses store-bought cake layers so all you have to do is make the filling! A simple, creamy, and tall cake, this creamy cake comes together quickly, tastes best when made a day ahead, and yields a lot of servings which make it a great option for parties or a special event. I don’t know the orgin of this cake but I’m thinking it’s all white color resembles that of angel wings and hence the name of this light and beautiful cake.
Growing up, when aunts, grandmothers, and other women would sit around talking about recipes or different variations of dishes they’ve tried, the topic of cakes, desserts, and kolači would always come up. There weren’t smartphones back then so they didn’t pull up pictures of their creations like we do now. They would describe in detail how they decorated the cakes, rattle off the recipes from memory alone, and discuss the steps and techniques. There would be sharing of recipes from well-loved notebooks with stained pages and delicate cyrillac handwriting that I could never read.
Every now and then, I’ll see Beli Andjeo make it’s way onto dessert plates and it’s always a nice surprise and welcome sight. As I mentioned, it’s not one I see very often. I love the white chocolate and vanilla flavor. In fact, I doubled the vanilla and white chocolate in the recipe I was originally given so it’s a little bit more fragrant and rich. Most recipes I’ve inherited use 1 of something which I’ll double. All recipes hailing from the Balkans have cost control in mind so there will often be alternatives mentioned or use econimcal amounts of costly ingrediants.
By the way, did I mention how easily and neatly this cake slices? Because the thin layers soak up some of the moisture from the fillings, they soften which allows them to be sliced easily and produce beautiful visable layers when cut.
I hope you give this delicious dessert a try this holiday season. And if you’re looking for more dessert ideas, check out the dessert section for even more recipes to satisfy your sweet tooth.
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Torta “Beli Andjeo”/”White Angel” Cake
Course: DessertCuisine: Balkan, Serbian20
servings1
hour10
minutesA classic old-school cake recipe with rich vanilla and white chocolate flavor using Rozen cake layers.
Ingredients
1 package Rozen Kore
- Yellow Filling
4 cups (1 L ) whole milk – punomasno mleko
4 packets vanilla flavored pudding
1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (1 kesica)
1 bar (100 g) good quality white chocolate
2 sticks + 2 tablespoons (250 g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (80-100 g) powdered sugar, to taste
2 cups (200 g) instant dry milk
- Cream Filling
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream, cold
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (1 kesica)
2-3 tablespoons (16-23 g) powdered sugar, optional
1/2 cup (120 g) sour cream
- Also
1 bar (100 g) good quality white chocolate + more for decoration
Additonal whipped cream for decorating
Directions
- If your Rozen cake layers are frozen, ensure they are completely thawed before beginning to assemble your cake.
- Yellow Filling
- To a medium pot, add about 3/4 of the milk reserving 1/4. Turn the heat up to medium and begin to heat the milk. To the reserved milk, add the pudding powder, sugar, and vanilla sugar. Whisk very well to ensure there are no lumps.
- Once the milk is just about to boil, reduce the heat to low and pour in the pudding mix slowly, whisking the the entire time. After pouring in all of the pudding mixture, continue whisking rapidly until the pudding thickens and all the foam disappers. Continue cooking the pudding another 1-2 minutes and then remove the pot from the heat. The pudding should be very thick at this point. Stir in the entire bar of white chocolate into the hot pudding and whisk until completely melted.
- Cover the pudding with a piece of plastic wrap, making sure the plastic is touching the top of the pudding. This prevent a crust from forming. Be very careful as the pudding will be very hot.
- Allow the pudding to cool completely before proceeding with the remaining steps.
- Once cooled, in a large bowl combine the butter and powdered sugar. Beat the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy, then add in the powdered milk and whisk to incorporate.
- Once incorporated, add the pudding mixture 1/3 at a time whisking very well in between additions. Continue incorporating the pudding until all the ingrediants are combined. Set aside.
- Cream Layer
- Pour the cold heavy cream into a large bowl. Add the vanilla sugar and powdered sugar if using.
I prefer to leave out the powdered sugar here because we don’t like the cake to be too sweet but if you really like your desserts sweet add the powdered sugar. - Whisk the heavy cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. Be careful that you don’t overmix or you will begin making butter 🙂
- Fold the sour cream into the whipped cream slowly until fully incorporated. Set aside.
- Assembly
- Spread a very small amount of the yellow filling onto the tray you will be using to assembly your cake. This prevents the first cake layer from sliding around. It’s very thin and will break easily.
- Place 1 sheet of the Rozen cake layer onto the tray and spread a thin layer of the yellow filling on top of the cake layer making sure it’s evenly distributed.
- Next, on top of the yellow filling spread an even layer of the cream filling. Take your remaining bar of white chocolate and grate some of it on top of the cream layer. Top with another sheet of the cake layer.
- Repeat the above assembly process until all ingrediants are used up. Check your cake once in a while to ensure you are placing your cake layers on evenly and that your edges line up.
Follow the following layering process:
Rozen cake layer
Yellow Filling
Cream Filling
Grated white chocolate
Rozen cake layer - Use any remaining filling to ice the sides and top of the cake. Refridgerate the cake for a few hours allowing it to set. Then, cover the cake with additonal whipped cream and decorate as you wish.
As mentioned, this cake is best made a day ahead. If making a day ahead, decorate with whipped cream the day you’ll be serving it if possible.
Hi
I can’t find Rozen Kore locally. What do you suggest? Do you have a recipe to make them?
Hello,
Unfortunately, I don’t have a recipe for them. It’s one of those things we’ve just always bought pre-made. However, I’m sure there are recipes online for homemade rozen kore!
Hope that helps!
-Nevena