Latvian Alexander Cake | Aleksandra Kūkas
A Latvian cake made of two shortbread layers sandwiched together with raspberry jam and topped with icing. This cake is also enjoyed in Estonia, Finland, Denmark, and the German-speaking countries.
Ingredients
Dough
- 300 g all-purpose flour 2½ cups
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 100 g powdered sugar 1 cup
- the zest of one lemon
- 200 g unsalted butter, chilled and grated 14 tbsp
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- milk, as needed
Filling
- 350 ml seedless raspberry jam (or red currant, blackcurrant, or lingonberry jam) 12 ounces
Icing
- 150 g powdered sugar 1⅓ cups
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Decoration
- 100 g powdered sugar 1 cup
- 2 tbsp raspberry jam
- the juice of ½ a lemon
- freeze-dried raspberries, crushed
- sprinkles
Instructions
Making the Shortbread Layers
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and powdered sugar into a large bowl, and then whisk to combine them. Whisk in the lemon zest.
- Add the grated butter and work it into the dry ingredients with your hands until it resembles wet sand.
- Briefly whisk the egg in a small bowl and add the vanilla extract to it. Pour this into the flour/butter mixture and roughly stir it in. Stir in milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together to form a cohesive dough. Work it briefly with your hands until it is smooth and all ingredients are incorporated.
- Divide the dough in two and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for one hour.
- After one hour, roll out each piece of dough on a floured piece of parchment paper until it is a large rectangle that is ¼ in or ½ cm thick. Don't worry if the edges of the rectangle look a bit rough or uneven. You will trim these later. Place each rolled out piece of dough onto a baking sheet, keeping them on the parchment paper.
- Bake the shortbread in a 350℉ / 180℃ pre-heated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden and the shortbread no longer holds a fingerprint when pressed. Let the shortbread cool completely before assembling the cake.
Assembling the Cake
- Spread the bottom layer with raspberry jam, and then release the top layer from the parchment by running an offset spatula under it. Ever so carefully, slide the top layer of shortbread onto the raspberry-filled layer. Gently press it into the jam to secure it.
- Using a sharp knife, cut the rough edges of the cake to neaten them up and make the cake into a tidy rectangle.
Making the Frosting
- Whisk all of the ingredients for the frosting together, adding water a tablespoon at a time until you have reached a pourable consistency that is thin enough to spread but thick enough to not flow off the sides of the cake.
- Spread it onto the top of the cake, leaving the sides of the cake unfrosted.
Decorating the Cake
- There are several ways to decorate the cake. You could leave it plain white, pipe pink feathered stripes onto it, sprinkle it with crushed, freeze-dried raspberries, or dust it with sprinkles.
- If you want to pipe a pink stripe onto it, mix together the powdered sugar, hot raspberry jam, lemon juice, and enough water to make it a tracing consistency. Transfer it to a piping bag and pipe thin stripes over the cake. Take a toothpick and draw lines in the opposite direction of the stripes, dragging some of the pink stripe with the toothpick to create a feathered effect.
Serving the Cake
- Allow the decorated cake to rest overnight before cutting into it. This will give the raspberry jam time to soften the shortbread and better glue the layers together, so that when slicing into it, the layers do not slip and the raspberry jam does not ooze out.