Recipe(tried): Viennesse Besoffene Kapuziner (Drunk Monk)

Viennesse Besoffene Kapuziner
Drunk Monk

Many of Vienna's best desserts originated with monastery cooks, as presumably did this recipe. Since the monasteries often had their own vine-yards, a cake requiring little more than some leftover crumbs and some red wine was, one might say, heaven-sent. The recipe makes a light, spicy cake that's particularly good with a dish of sherbet or a simple fruit dessert like applesauce-- so good, in fact, that if you're unlucky enough never to have a baking failure or leftover stale spongecake to use, you may want to try this recipe with bread crumbs instead.

1 1/2 cups fine dry spongecake crumbs*
1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate, grated
1/4 teaspoon powdered cloves
6 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons cold water
grated rind 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar

Combine crumbs, chocolate, and cloves. Beat egg white with half of the sugar till stiff, beat egg yolks with the other half of the sugar till light and fluffy. Fold beaten egg whites into beaten yolks alternately with crumb mixture. Pour batter into generously buttered, lightly flour-dusted 8-inch Gugelhupf or tube pan.

Bake in preheated moderate oven (350 degrees F) 50 minutes or until cake tests done. Dust top of cake with flour. Invert pan over a warmed ovenproof plate with an upturned rim, and let cake stand until cool. Gently remove pan. Simmer together wine, water, lemon rind, and 2 tablespoons sugar about 5 minutes or until well blended. Spoon mixture over cake. Heat cake in slow overn (250 degrees. F) about 5 minutes to help it soak up the mulled wine. Let cake rest overnight before serving so it further absorbs the wine.

*Cake or Spongecake Crumbs: Torte recipes sometimes substitute cake crumbs for part of the flour to achieve a moister result. Save leftover spongecake or torte crusts--or a whole cake that's baked too badly to be worth filling and frosting--and let it dry out completely. If you have a blender, run the cake in it until you have fine crumbs. No blender? Wrap the cake in a clean dish towel and go over it with a rolling pin until the crumbs are fine. No leftover cake? Substitute fine, dry bread crumbs; they're almost as good.