MAZUREK Polish Easter Cake (But delicious all year round)

Mazurek, also known as mazurka, is a flat (No more than one inch high) Polish cake topped with any combination of almond paste, preserves, dried fruits, nuts, meringues, and sometimes left plain.  Lucy and her family preferred the cake frosted with colored sprinkles; the way grandma made it in Poland

A mazurka is also a lively Polish folk dance, a country sparrow, or someone from Mazur in North Central Poland.

Traditionally Mazurek has been made at Easter, but it is so “smaczny” (tasty) and “pyszne” (delicious) that it is now a year-round-delight on any dinner or breakfast table.

Mazurek Cake Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (Room Temperature)

1 cup sugar                               

1 ½ cups flour                                                                                                 

6 egg yolks

¼ tsp salt                                  

1 tsp vanilla                                                                                          

1 tsp baking powder

Preparation - (Cake)

Preheat oven to 350

Beat butter until creamy in bowl, blender or Cuisinart

Sift flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in separate pan

Gently add a little of the sifted dry ingredients and one egg yolk at a time into creamy butter until all ingredients and egg yokes are part of the mix. (Note – Batter will be thick.)

Add vanilla.

Spread cake batter evenly into an 8 X 10 greased baking pan, bake for 20 t0 25 minutes until toothpick stuck in the middle of the cake comes out clean

Mazurek Frosting Ingredients

¼ cup butter             

2 cups of sifted confection’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla              

1 tbs cream or milk

Preparation - (Frosting)

Thoroughly soften butter until creamy

Mix in confectioner’s sugar

Stir in vanilla

Add cream or milk as the mixture until it reaches a spreadable consistency (Add more cream if necessary) *

Spread on thoroughly cooled cake

Drizzle rainbow sprinkles on top of frosting

Cover tightly with aluminum foil until ready to serve

(*Although this is non-traditional, Lucy on rare occasions added cocoa powder to the frosting in order to make it chocolate.)

Note – Better the second day

Note – Harry Piasecki always suggested breaking off pieces of mazurek, as was his family’s tradition. Lucy Piasecki would have none of that, instead neatly cutting the cake into small rectangles approximately ¾ inch wide by 1 ½ inches long.

 

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