"Stary" Holiday Cake
Martina-Vienna
"This is a wonderful dessert cake for a festive holiday."

For short-bread dough:

125 grams (4.4 ounces)
soft unsalted butter or margarine

75 grams (2.7 ounces)
powdered sugar

Pinch of salt

1 egg yolk (medium)

200 grams (7.1 ounces) flour

Fat to grease the form

500 ml (2 cups and 0.6 ounces)
milk

2 teaspoons cinammon

Pulp from 1 vanilla bean

6 egg yolks (medium)

100 grams (3.6 ounces) sugar

30 grams (1.1 ounces) flour

5 sheets (that is leaves)
white gelatine
(one could use powdered also, but then I do not know how much)

2 Tablspoons almond liqueur (Amaretto)

250 ml (1 cup and 0.3 ounces)
heavy cream

200 ml (6.7 ounces) milk

Salt

100 grams (3.6 ounces)
butter or margarine

200 grams (7.1 ounces) flour

5 eggs (medium)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Makes about 14 pieces

1. Cream butter, powdered sugar and pinch salt, work in yolk, flour and 2 tablespoons ice cold water. Cover with plastic wrap, chill for 2 hours.

2. Cook milk, cinamon, vanilla. Cream egg yolks, sugar and flour very creamy, put in hot milk step by step, keep on whisking while doing so. Put all back in pot, while whisking let cook again.

3. Soak gelatine in cold water, press water out, and mix with milk mixture together with the liqueur. Let cool.

4. Roll out 2/3 of dough to a circle of about 26 cm (about 1 foot in diameter), put in greased form, stick in with a fork sometimes, chill again.

5. From rest of dough make cookies in form of stars, put on oven shelf lined with cookie sheet, bake in preheated oven 200 degrees celcius (400 degrees F) for about 8 minutes.

6. Cook milk, 200 ml (6.7 ounces) water, pinch salt and butter or margarine. Put in all of the flour at one time, and stir, until a ball forms, and bottom of pot is covered with a with film. Put in eggs one after the other.

7. Fill 2/3 of dough in pastry bag and sprout dough in circles (like spirals) on the cooled shortbread dough in form. Bake at 200 degrees celcius (400 degrees F) 35 - 40 minutes.

8. From rest of pastry dough make sprout 12 balls on a cookie sheet, bake for 20 to 25 minutes and let cool.

5. Whisk heavy cream stiff, put to prepared cream, make a tiny hole in the pastry balls with pastry bag-tip and fill the balls with cream.

Make a caramel:

Cook sugar, 125 ml (4.2 ounces) water, and lemon juice over high heat until golden brown, then put bottom of pot in cold water. Dip filled balls into caramel, set on edge of the baked cake. Sprout rest of cream onto the cake, cool for 1 hour.

Warm rest of caramel again, and with a fork spin sugar threads on top of the cake.

Sprinkle star cookies with powdered sugar, decorate cake with the stars and rest of sugar threads.

Enjoy this "stary" holiday cake.

Regards, Martina