Tuesdays with Dorie BWJ: Cardinal Slice
May 19, 2015 at 3:13 pm | Posted in BWJ, cakes & tortes, groups, layer cakes, sweet things, tuesdays with dorie | 12 CommentsTags: baking, cake, dessert
Markus Farbinger’s take on Cardinal Slice is the first I’d heard of this cake. Where have I been? On the wrong side of the Atlantic, I guess. It’s called kardinalschnitte in Austria, where it’s a classic (and apparently ubiquitous— ha!) Viennese pastry. Well, I didn’t need first-hand experience to know that I’d like to sink a fork into a cake made of ladyfingers and meringues sandwiched with coffee whipped cream. If I could successfully pull it off, that is.
When was poking around the interwebs for info on the Cardinal Slice, I came across Joe Pastry’s detailed posts on the subject. Seems that in order to recreate a classic version, he started off with the BWJ one and then scrapped it for another because he couldn’t make it work. Oh no– not promising! The cake layers are alternating strips of meringue and ladyfinger batters baked side-by-side…two things that require very different baking times and temperatures. The BWJ recipe bakes for a long time at a low temp, which cooks the meringue, but makes getting a puffed up ladyfinger tricky (I can only assume that Chef Markus has made this so many times in life that he just has the touch). I didn’t want to abandon the BWJ recipe entirely here, so I decided to follow the BWJ ingredients and mixing techniques with the baking temperatures Joe Pastry recommends (essentially to start out in a hotter oven and then reduce the temperature halfway through). I don’t think that my cake layers came out as poofy as either Markus’s or Joe’s, but my mixed up method seemed to work out OK.
The whipped cream filling is flavored with an intense syrup made from caramelized sugar and espresso called a couleur. This syrup reminds me a lot of a French coffee extract called Trablit that we use to flavor buttercream at the restaurant. It tastes so much better than instant espresso, but it’s pretty pricey and not so readily available for home use…I’m pleased to know I can make a very similar thing for the price of two shots of espresso from the coffee shop down the block. I have plenty extra for my future coffee buttercream or whipped cream needs…or perhaps my coffee milk or milk shake needs…
The Cardinal Slice has a bit of a tiramsu thing going on with the flavors, but since the filling’s all cream with no yolks or mascarpone, it feels a lot lighter. Like any other type of icebox cake, the cake layers soften further as the cream absorbs into them, and this needs about an hour’s rest before cutting into it. I’d say the recipe instructions to eat the cake within four hours of assembly are probably ideal, although we did have a hunk left over that we ate the next day. It was very smooshy at that point, but still tasty.
For the recipe, see Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan (there’s a a video here of Chef Markus making the cake). Don’t forget to check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll!
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a whisk and a spoon 
Nice stuff
Comment by yummyinsidemytummy— May 19, 2015 #
Yours looks great! After reading your post I see why maybe I had issues with the cake part…that maybe weren’t entirely my fault haha but I wonder why I had problems with the caramelized sugar? You didn’t have any problems with it hardening? I felt like I was getting the results I was suppose to as I made it but the end product not so much.
Comment by isthisakeeper— May 19, 2015 #
Thanks! My syrup didn’t harden (although it is thick in the fridge but still pours at room temp)…did you let it boil really hard after you added in the espresso? I wonder if somehow too much liquid evaporated out of yours?
Comment by steph (whisk/spoon)— May 19, 2015 #
Looks great! How in the world did you get it to slice so neatly?!
Comment by MaddiCakes— May 19, 2015 #
Wow – that looks wonderful. Impressive 🙂
Comment by Cher— May 19, 2015 #
Looks wonderful! There is a bit of a tiramisu thing happening there, agreed, but somehow even more sumptuous!
Comment by saffronandhoney— May 20, 2015 #
that looks delicious…..yum!
Comment by Elizabeth— May 20, 2015 #
Nice post, immediately reminded me of tiramisu
Comment by lenomadefood— May 20, 2015 #
glad to know that I was onto something when it came to that oven temp! I will have to check out Joe Pastry’s take on this. Love the way you frosted it-such sharp corners-impressive spatula work!
Comment by alisahuntsman— May 20, 2015 #
Yours looks great with some good height and decent ladyfinger height. Your baking mix up might be better.
Comment by sunshine x 2— May 20, 2015 #
YUM!
Comment by Candice— May 22, 2015 #
I am off to Salzburg in a month or so and will definitely try this cake in situ! How beautiful it is and it sounds dreamy as you describe it. Great photo.
Comment by Teresa Blackburn— May 25, 2015 #