Tunnel Cake

I wanted to make this cake for so long, and finally I did. It is a luscious dessert, fit for royalty, and I am not talking about it’s original look, but rich nutty taste with tons of cream!

Tunnel Cake

For the filling:
6 egg yolks
300 g sugar (I only used 150g, don’t like it too sweet)
2 powdered vanilla puddings + 6 tbsp of flour
(if no such pudding available then 6 tbsp of corn starch + 6 tbsp of flour+ 1 tsp vanilla extract)
1 liter/4 cups milk
250 g /18 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine

White cake layer:
6 egg whites
6 tbsp of sugar
6 tbsp of flour
1 tsp baking powder

Brown cake layer:
5 eggs
5 tbsp of sugar
100 g ground walnuts
2 tbsp plain bread crumbs

For the base/roll:
250g ground walnuts/walnut meal
150g ground biscuits/butter cookies
1 cup milk
4 oz semi-sweet baker’s chocolate
9 tbsp unsalted butter or margarine
9 tbsp powdered sugar

To decorate:
Whipped cream with stabilizer, nuts to make it look like rocks on the side
Also chocolate can be drizzled all over, just play with it

Prepare to make the cake in the order above, starting with the filling. Mix egg yolks with pudding and flour, or corn starch and flour, sugar, and some milk from the one liter. Let remainder of the milk boil, reduce heat, and mix in the pudding mixture, stirring constantly, and cooking for few minutes.
Let it cool completely, stirring it often so it doesn’t get skin on the top. Once cooled, mix in previously mixed butter or margarine. This will reduce clumps of butter/margarine, and you’ll have a smoother filling.

When the cream is cooling, you can start with cake layers. For both layers I have used a jelly roll pan, because there were no instructions, but I think 9x13 inch baking pan would do better.
For the white one, mix egg whites with sugar until stiff, then add flour with baking powder. Bake on medium heat, about 380 F, making sure it doesn’t brown. Didn’t track time, so just test with toothpick.

For brown cake layer, mix eggs with sugar until nice and smooth, then add walnuts, and bread crumbs. Bake at same temperature, also until toothpick comes out clean.
Now make the base, which will allow for tunnel look, because of it’s cylinder shape. Mix walnuts, cookie crumbs, butter, powdered sugar, adding milk gradually, because you might not need the whole cup.
Once you get a workable mass, add melted chocolate, and mix well. You do all this with hands.
Then make a cylinder shape out of the cookie/walnut mass on a long platter. Top it evenly with about half of the filling, place the white cake layer over it(cut the excess, if any), top with about another half of filling, then place the brown layer over it (cut excess, if any), remember to leave just enough filling to spread over the last/brown layer so whipped cream would hold better. Decorate, cool well, and enjoy!

Recipe source:
My aunt from Serbia sent me a “Fat and happy” magazine, originally Macedonian publication, formerly known as “Food and wine” (hope I got all that right; also printed in few other Balkan countries. Thank you auntie Ljubica!

Recept na Srpskom.