I always wonder what I should talk to you about. The weather? The cats? Life philosophy?
The cats are sleeping, the weather is awful, and I wish I could follow this philosophy. Well, I can, but I just don’t know the answer to the question yet or maybe I’m just a little bit too scared to answer it.
Anyway, let’s talk about Polish cakes.
After I shared this cake with my coworkers, I heard from one of them, “I’ve never eaten something like that, it’s chocolate cake, and it’s cheesecake”. Yes, indeed, it is a chocolate cake and cheesecake in one, but don’t tell me you never thought about it before.
The origin of the name is probably based on the Brazilian tv series “Isaura the Slave Girl”. It was broadcast in Poland in 1985 on Tuesdays. I was only 4, but I remember that everybody watched it. My parents say it was so popular that all streets in cities went empty as literally everybody was watching it.
Isaura was one of my favourite cakes during high school. I used to bake it in something called prodiż (electric baking tin), you probably won’t believe it, but most of the cakes baked there perfectly. It was also great for potato cake or casseroles. This time I went for another recipe than usual as it had less butter and sugar, but it is as good as I remember.
Isaura – Polish cheesecake chocolate cake
Recipe from Moje Wypieki
For a 22×34 cm baking tin
Notes: This is a really big cake; if you don’t plan to share it with a bunch of people, make half of the batch.
Chocolate cake:
- 1 cup milk
- 125 g butter
- 2 Tbsp cacao
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 50 g dark chocolate
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 eggs (egg yolks and whites separately)
Cheesecake layer
- 750 g full-fat or half-fat curd cheese, ground at least twice
- 4 eggs (egg yolks and whites separately)
- 2/3 cup caster sugar
- 1 Tbsp plain flour
- 1 Tbsp potato starch or corn starch
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 50 g butter, room temperature
For the chocolate cake layer:
Heat milk, butter, cacao, sugar and chocolate in a medium pot, stirring until combined. Take it from the heat and let it cool.
Sieve flour and baking soda. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture along with egg yolks and mix until well combined.
For cheesecake layer:
Put curd cheese, egg yolks, sugar, plain flour, potato starch, vanilla extract and butter in a bowl and mix until all ingredients combine. Don’t overmix it.
In a separate bowl, whip all egg whites until stiff. Carefully stir half of it into the chocolate mixture and the other half into the cheesecake mixture.
Line a baking tin with baking paper.
Place half of the chocolate mixture in a tin and smooth it down.
Then place all the cheesecake mixture and cover it with the remaining chocolate mixture.
Bake at 175ºC/155ºC fan for about 60 minutes.
Cool down with a slightly ajar oven and place in a fridge for a night.
Enjoy!
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