Grandma’s Cake, a tart with a soft heart made of custard and a surface covered with pine nuts and powdered sugar. A very fragrant and delicate cake, and alas it will be very difficult not to taste even just a small piece, but above all, it is the classic dessert that is well-suited for all occasions. Indeed, I remember preparing it for a party that Walter and Monica, two dear friends of mine, organized for the birth of their baby girl Susanna.
So I decided to gift them this cake. I decorated it with pink tulle around and managed to write welcome Susanna on top. It was a success; everyone loved it and not a single crumb was left. A delightful gift!
Well, let’s discover it together, if you like, I’ll also leave you my video recipe 😉👇👇👇 to show you how easy and quick it is to prepare!

Difficulty: Medium
Cost: Medium
Rest time: 30 Minutes
Preparation time: 30 Minutes
Portions: 12
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian

495.13 Kcal

calories per serving

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Energy 495.13 (Kcal)
Carbohydrates 64.04 (g) of which sugars 33.01 (g)
Proteins 9.14 (g)
Fat 24.09 (g) of which saturated 13.70 (g)of which unsaturated 10.16 (g)
Fibers 1.44 (g)
Sodium 81.00 (mg)

Indicative values for a portion of 5 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA^* and FoodData Central^** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.

^* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ^** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

Ingredients for Grandma’s Cake

4 cups all-purpose flour
1.1 cups butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 pinch salt
lemon zest (grated)
2 cups milk
0.5 cups sugar
6 egg yolks
0.25 cups cornstarch
1 vanilla bean
1 lemon zest
1 oz pine nuts
powdered sugar (as needed)

You will need

Baking pan 9.5-inch tart pan

Preparation

In a bowl, hand mix the butter with the sugar without warming the mixture too much. Then add the eggs, grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt, and continue to mix by hand. I love making shortcrust pastry without a robot and planetary mixer because it gives me so much satisfaction to create with just my hands😻
Next, and lastly, add all the flour at once. Continue mixing by hand, then transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and quickly form a nice compact dough ball that you wrap in plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for half an hour.
This rest is essential to make the shortcrust pastry elastic and more aromatic.
For the custard cream procedure, click HERE
First of all, to prevent the pine nuts from darkening too much during baking, I adopted a method, place the pine nuts in a bowl with a tablespoon of water for at least 20 minutes so they will be very cold and won’t darken during baking.
Take the pastry from the refrigerator, place it on the work surface, and with the help of a rolling pin, roll it to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Next, place it in the pan, prick it with a fork, remove excess pastry from the edges, and fill it with custard cream. If you like, you can also add a handful of pine nuts inside along with the custard cream.
Then roll out the remaining pastry to create the disc that will act as the cake lid. Proceed like this, place the shortcrust disc over the cake, remove the excess dough and make it adhere well to the edges. Lastly, prick the top and finally add a handful of pine nuts.
Well, all that remains is to bake at 350°F for about 50 minutes. (If it starts to darken too much, place a sheet of aluminum foil over the cake).
Once baking is finished, remove it from the oven and let it cool well in the pan before transferring it to a plate to be decorated with powdered sugar and served.