• Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
    • YouTube
  • Browse By Book
  • Browse By Author

In Literature

  • RECIPES
    • Appetizers
    • Baked Goods
      • Bread and buns
      • Cakes
      • Cookies
      • Cupcakes
      • Pies, tarts and pastries
      • Pudding
    • Beverages
      • Non alcoholic
      • Alcoholic
      • Mixers
      • Smoothies
    • Breakfast
      • Pancakes and waffles
    • Condiments
      • Jams and Jelly
      • Savoury sauces and dips
    • Dessert
      • Dessert sauces
      • Ice Cream
    • Main Meals
      • Casseroles
      • Fish
      • Meats
      • Pasta
      • Pizza
      • Poultry
      • Sandwiches
      • Savoury pies and pastries
      • Soups, Chowders, Stews
    • Side Dishes
      • Salad
    • Snacks
    • Sweets and Candies
    • Food Reference Lists
  • CELEBRATE
    • Literature Themed Parties
    • EASTER
    • SUMMER
    • HALLOWEEN
    • THANKSGIVING
    • CHRISTMAS
  • CRAFTS
    • Free Printable Packaging
  • HOME DECOR
You are here: Home / Food / Baked Goods / Cakes / The Historian; Slovenian Torta Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon Cake)

The Historian; Slovenian Torta Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon Cake)

Cakes· Elizabeth Kostova· The Historian

22 Apr

At a table near the window we drank tea with lemon, scalding through the thick cups, and ate our way through sardines on buttered white bread and even a few slices of torta.

-The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova

 The Historian; Slovenian Torta Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon Cake)

If a book was to combine some of my favourite things, The Historian nailed it. History, travel sprinkled with food from other cultures, mystery and a little bit of gothic (Dracula!). I’ve never tired of the novel (having read it several times), which takes you through Amsterdam, Istanbul, France, Budapest, Romania, and Bulgaria. It’s incredibly descriptive and you can almost imagine being there yourself, walking along the cobbled stones next to the narrator.

I’m not sure when the next book I read will mention plenty of Ottoman cuisine, so over time I’ll be making the majority of the foods mentioned.

There’s several types of tortas out there. However in this scene the narrator (as a young girl) and her father are eating this in Slovenia, so I’ve gone with the recipe for Torta Plava Laguna from Celtnet. This is apparently ‘traditional’ and eaten for special occasions. The ‘Blue Lagoon’ part of the recipe comes from the blue coloured house the cook lived/lives in, and really it’s just a normal chocolate torta. But having that extra bit to the name makes it sound so much more exotic.

I altered the recipe to be smaller (and I’m glad I did!) It’s rich and I’ve ended up freezing half of it for later, since there’s not enough people around at the moment to eat it fast enough. If you’ve got four+ people around, by all means double it back up.
The Historian; Slovenian Torta Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon Cake)

The Historian; Slovenian Torta Plava Laguna (Blue Lagoon Cake)
 
Save Print
Ingredients
For the cake
  • 5 eggs , separated
  • pinch of salt
  • 4.5 tbsp sugar
  • 100g ground roasted hazelnuts
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 2 tsp plain flour (or 1 tsp plain flour and 1 tsp breadcrumbs)
For the buttercream
  • 150g butter, room temp
  • 150g / ¾ cup white sugar
  • 150g chocolate (dark preferably or milk)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp of instant coffee
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 200oC.
  2. Start by whisking in your mixer the egg whites and the salt until stiff. Scoop it into a bowl for later. In the mixer whisk together the egg yolks, then add in the ground almonds and ground hazelnuts, breadcrumbs and/ or flour. When it's been mixed well, carefully fold in the egg whites.
  3. Grease and flour a 13cm springform cake pan. Scoop the batter in, smooth the top with a wet spatula and place in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn down the temperature tp 160oC and bake for another 30 minutes. A skewer pushed into the middle should come out clean.
  4. Remove from the oven, let sit for 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool completely.
  5. With either a cake cutter or a bread knife, cut the cake across (horizontally). If you've made a larger cake, you'll cut it so you have four layers. Because this is smaller, you just need to cut it once.
  6. Wash your mixer bowl, then cream together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs. Microwave the chocolate (medium power, stir every 40 secs) until melted, then pour into the mixer. Stir well until combined. The original recipe says to sprinkle the coffee onto the cake itself, but here I just whisked it into the buttercream. End of the day it gets mushed together...
  7. Place your cake on the platter you're going to serve it on. Spread a thick layer of the buttercream on the layer of cake, place the top layer of cake on, and completely cover the top and sides of the cake with the rest of the buttercream.
  8. Place in the fridge to chill and harden for half an hour before serving.
Notes
recipe adapted from http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/miscellaneous/fetch-recipe.php?rid=misc-torta-plava-laguna
3.5.3208

 

 

Leave a Comment

Previous Post: « Willy Wonka Series; Stickjaw
Next Post: The Great Gatsby; Fried Chicken »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe:  

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Bryt!
I'm a bookaholic, huge Harry Potter fan, and love throwing full blown themed dinner parties. Read More…

brytontaylor

I love love love Dr Seuss' illustrations, so I use I love love love Dr Seuss' illustrations, so I used a How The Grinch Stole Christmas book to easily (and cheaply) decorate my kitchen wall this year. Baroque style photo frames made them that bit fancier!⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
#grinch #grinchmas #christmasdecor⁣
#christmasdecorations #christmas #drseuss #howthegrinchstolechristmas #thegrinch
No Christmas is complete without a can of Who Hash No Christmas is complete without a can of Who Hash! I've remade my Youtube video years later so you can learn to make the dish yourself. If you're looking for the printable label, I've added the link in the profile 🎄⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
#grinchmas #whohash #christmas #youtube #howthegrinchstolechristmas #xmas #christmastraditions
No Whoville is complete without stockings for all No Whoville is complete without stockings for all the Whos 🎄  #christmasdecor #christmas2020 #thegrinch #whoville #grinchmas #christmasdecorations
The Grinchmas countdown has begun! 🎄⁣ ⁣ ⁣ The Grinchmas countdown has begun! 🎄⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
⁣
#grinchmas #thegrinch #whoville #christmasdecor #christmas2020 #christmas #christmasdecorations
What a Halloween that was! 🎃 Incredibly gratef What a Halloween that was! 🎃
Incredibly grateful that we were able to celebrate, even though we did things a little differently. 
With a spider theme in mind, my parent's house was covered with a mixture of white weed mat and cheesecloth. The faux spiderweb material we only used on branches, since the darn stuff is sticky and a nightmare to remove! 🕷️🕸️
Kudos to mom who did the majority of the work, adding in faux dead leaves, branches and trees, turning springtime into one magical night of autumn. Dad was in charge of sound effects and lighting.
Typically we hide as characters or creatures in the garden which slows the kids as they come up to the door, giving them time to look around. They can never tell if something is going to move or not!
Being 2020 though, the 'tension' of coming up to the house was broken because the witches were outside. We placed ourselves at a table with an entrance and exit pathway, reminding them to "stay one broomstick apart"! Let's hope next Halloween we're back to 'normal'. We'll have to make up with some extra scares! 🎃  📸 Photos by our Halloween photographer, dad 😉 
#halloween2020 #HalloweenPerth #HalloweeninAustralia
'That' Sleepy Hollow scarecrow was the inspiration 'That' Sleepy Hollow scarecrow was the inspiration for our yard haunt back in 2016. Of course, we had to have him in a field of cornstalks... a tricky task when you live in Australia and it's actually coming into springtime!  Dried banana leaves, with its leaves shredded, were tied to old stick fencing. Lit from below, you would've believed the headless horseman was somewhere nearby. 🎃  #halloweenyardhaunt #Halloween 
#pumpkins #SleepyHollow #SleepyHollowyardhaunt 
#homehaunt #halloweendiy #diyhalloween #halloweendecorations #halloweendisplay #jackolantern #scarecrow #yardhaunt #HalloweeninAustralia #HalloweenPerth
Decorating is a celebration of autumn and October- Decorating is a celebration of autumn and October- a small action that makes an ordinary moment meaningful. It's our way of acknowledging, enjoying, being excited, even grateful, for 'right now'. In years like this one, where we can find ourselves wishing for 2020 to be over, it can be even more important for  these moments. ⁣
So instead of focusing on how I found myself time-warped from early September to the end of October, I'm going to simply celebrate the best week of October.⁣
⁣
200 years ago, Washington Irving published his short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Some homemade decorations like a Sleepy Hollow sign, faux 'cornstalks' mixed with some storebought decorations have my house filled with October vibes to celebrate the bicentennial. 🎃⁣
⁣
Tap the link in my bio to watch the sign being made -> @brytontaylor⁣
⁣
#SleepyHollow #autumndecor #October #fall #washingtonirving #autumncolours #autumn
[BILBO BAGGINS’ BUTTERED SCONES] It’s been qu [BILBO BAGGINS’ BUTTERED SCONES]  It’s been quite a year… but I couldn’t miss celebrating Hobbit Day!  Mixing up a batch of Bilbo’s buttered scones is an easy way to start the morning off right (and doable before work).  I’ve also jumped back onto Youtube to make these alongside you, but- and I guess this reflects the year- I’m changing up my approach to videos. I’ve relaxed my style, and slowed my pace to capture the comfort of baking and cooking that I love so much.  #lotr #lordoftherings #thehobbit #thelordoftherings #tolkien #jrrtolkien #middleearth #hobbitday #bookworm #hobbitweek #foodinliterature #bilbobaggins
In the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shad In the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Even darkness must pass.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
A new day will come.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Those were the stories that stayed with you.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That meant something.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Even if you were too small to understand why.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I know now.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Because they were holding on to something.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
...⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.
-The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ #thehobbit #lordoftherings #samwisegamgee #lotr #tolkien #middleearth #jrrtolkien #hobbit
Follow on Instagram
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

Recently Updated

bottles of Harry Potter pumpkin juice ready for a party

Copycat Wizarding World of Harry Potter Pumpkin Juice recipe

The Hobbit; An Unexpected Party; Buttered Scones

The Hobbit; An Unexpected Party; Seed Cake

Disclaimer

All images & text are licensed/ copyrighted so please read our Terms and Conditions before using

Creative Commons License

This site shows ads via Google Adsense and applies Amazon Affiliate links where I feel they are relevant to the post (in most cases, an item I've purchased myself for the related recipe). Clicking on these links may lead to this site earning money from clicks or prospective purchases.

To be compliant with the recently announced GDPR, we've updated our Privacy and Data Protection Policy to be as clear as possible.

Copyright © 2021 · Refined theme by Restored 316