The most special recipe I’ve ever written. The recipe contains so many memories, emotions and feelings. Curd cake was our family’s favourite dessert and my grandma was a master of baking it.
I grew up in a family where food was very important. Our Sunday lunch was always a small celebration consisting of three meals, lots of laughs and a sneaky afternoon nap. This tradition was the result of one incredible person – my grandma.
She was the type of woman who wouldn’t take her trash out without putting on lipstick. Everyone admired her amazing looks and uber confidence – and she loved it! She really enjoyed hearing compliments and receiving attention. She wanted to impress everyone and one of the best ways of doing that was through her cooking.
My grandma was an amazing cook and created magic in her lovely little kitchen. She was experimental too! My grandma was the first person in our family to purchase avocados and use them in a salad. They weren’t ripe and were hard as a stone, but we all still ate it thinking ‘wow this is so cool – we are so trendy.’
She certainly wasn’t afraid of challenges (at 80 years old she would still make dumplings from scratch because that’s the right way of doing it) and because of her, my mum and myself carry the same passion for food and trying to recreate those simple Sunday lunch moments with our families.
Bernadeta passed away just a couple of weeks ago, leaving us with wonderful memories and the most amazing dishes. I still can’t believe I won’t be able to taste hers kugelis with chicken (kugelis is a traditional Lithuanian dish which is like a potato pie), or I won’t her voice saying, ‘Oh no, I don’t have anything to give you to eat!’. Somehow that ‘nothing’ always turned out to be a full table of meals and a dessert.
I can’t believe I won’t be able to see that true smile on her face every time we’d say: ‘Grandma, this is delicious! It tastes so good’ and she would respond: ‘Oh, don’t lie, it’s not good at all’. But she knew it was good… it was always more than good…
My lovely Granma, we will meet again. But for now, I’m keeping a part of you with me by trying to recreate your amazing curd cake. It will never be as good as yours, but at least it’ll be my lifetime challenge.
This time I’m sharing the recipe I found in one of my grandma’s recipe books with many notes and changes. This curd cake recipe is from Beata Nicholson’s book ‘Prie stalo Lietuva’ (Come to the table Lithuania).
Curd Cake Recipe
Crumble topping:
100g cold butter
200g flour
30g caster sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
A pinch of salt
Curd filling:
500g curd
3 eggs
100g caster sugar
A pinch of salt
Apple layer:
3 apples
60g brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a baking dish with baking paper.
- Prepare the crumble: mix all the pastry ingredients together. You will end up with a texture resembling breadcrumbs. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Prepare the curd layer: whisk the curd in a food processor until you get a soft texture. Add the eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt. Mix everything together.
- Prepare the apple layer: peel the apples and cut them into thin slices. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a different bowl.
- Assemble the cake: take the pastry out of the fridge and add 2/3 of the crumble into the prepared baking dish. Press it together slightly. Add the curd layer and arrange the thin apple slices on top. Then sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon over everything. Finish the cake with the remaining pastry crumble added on the top.
- Bake the cake in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the topping is golden.
More Recipes with Curd
Sweet Pastries or Grietiniečiai with Curd and Raisins
Curd Pancakes with Nuts and Mascarpone Cheese
