Name: Ladyfinger Torte with Rum Cream (Malakofftorte)
Yield: Makes 12 servings
Cuisine: Austria
Ingredients: ⅓ cup water; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 envelope unflavored powdered gelatin; ¾ cup all-purpose flour; ¼ cup sliced blanched almonds, toasted, optional; 1 cup milk, divided; ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract; 1¼ cups heavy cream, chilled; ¼ cup sugar; 2 tablespoons golden rum; pinch of salt; 4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature; 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar; 1 cup heavy cream; ⅓ cup golden rum; 2 large egg yolks; Confectioners’ sugar, for sifting; ⅔ cup granulated sugar, divided; ⅓ cup granulated sugar

Preparation info

Makes
12
servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Kaffeehaus

By Rick Rodgers

Published 2002

About

When choosing a pastry from the coffeehouse display case, whipped-cream lovers usually gravitate toward Malakofftorte, named for a decisive battle of the Crimean War of the 1850s. (This was this war where Florence Nightingale served so bravely, and which inspired Alfred Lord Tennyson’s epic poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”) There are a few variations on the theme—some feature almond buttercream instead of rum cream, or use Cointreau rather than rum,