My little Uj cake experiment

So, after reading and trying out Ly'Thara's Uj cake recipe, I decided I'd make my own based on the description from the Mando dictionary, which goes like this: Uj'alayi - dense, very sweet flat cake made of ground nuts, syrup, pureed dried fruit and spice. So without further ado, here's what I decided to make. I'm lazy enough to leave it in European, as I'm not great at math. Sorry.

Uj cake

Ingridients:
Pureed dried fruits (ingridients to follow)
6 tbsp syrup (ingridients to follow)
Crushed nuts (ingridients to follow)

Procedure:
1.Begin by putting the dried fruits into a food processor and mix them together into a sticky mess.
2.Add the nuts into the mix after the puree is ready and mix together.
3.Put 3 tablespoons of the Uj'ayl syrup you made into the mix and mix mix mix!
4.Take a baking pan and grease it well. Then take the dough out of the processor and spread into a flat form. Take 2 ½ tablespoons of the syrup again and spread around on the top, covering it.
5.Preheat the oven to 175°C and put the cake in and bake for 15 minutes.
6.Let it cool down before trying it out.
7.Haili cetare! Let me know if it didn't kill you.

Verdict: Sticky, spicy, sweet and I feel that it also puts something in my stomach, which is good. It's dense enough to fit in aluminum foil and straight into a warrior's pocket for eating in the field. So yeah – I think it came out as intended. But would like to hear from anyone else who'd like to try it.

Dried fruits:
60g dried apples
20g dried apricots
60g dried figs
60g dried dates
20g raisins
20g crystal ginger

The nuts:
20g almond nuts
60g hazelnuts
20g peanuts

Uj'ayl syrup

Okay, I decided to make my own syrup and will leave it's recipe here as well. But in case you don't want to be in a danger of burning yourself (this stuff is like napalm, got a scar on my hand after making a syrup once), you could make a substitute for this by mixing together Agave syrup, Maple syrup, honey and the spices in the recipe. The reason for the Agave syrup is that it's incredibly sweet – much sweeter than sugar. And the honey also adds to it.

Note that you won't use all of it, so you could probably get away with at least half of this. It takes so long to make it's safer to have more at hand than needed, but yours is the choice.

Ingridients:
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup raw sugar (or white sugar if you don't have the other type)
¼ cup Agave syrup
¼ cup honey
½ cup water
1 tbls ginger
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp cardamom

Procedure:
1. Put the sugars, syrup, honey and water together in a pot on a hot stove. Bring to a boil, continually but carefully mixing the ingridients with a spoon.
2. Put the spices in when it's boiling. Bring the heat down to a near minimum (3/10 on my stove) and allow to boil slowly on that heat for at least 45 minutes.
3. Take it off the stove and get something to put it in (must be able to withstand extreme heat). Get a moist rag and put under the container.



What do you think?

Those look amazing! Argh I wish I wasn't in a stupid dorm so I could make uj cakes! I'm going to have to do this over the summer so I can perfect it by next year when I live in an apartment.

Great work! Send me some?

Catika wrote:

Those look amazing! Argh I wish I wasn't in a stupid dorm so I could make uj cakes! I'm going to have to do this over the summer so I can perfect it by next year when I live in an apartment.

Great work! Send me some?

Thanks for the kind words! I look forward to hearing what you think about them if you try it out, or heck you could just get to your ship and head over the pond.

The French traditional gingerbread I get looks a lot like that, minus the extra juicy/sticky honey all over it.



Thanks for making me crave "pain d'epices" I think I might have me some next week!

And those look a bit like Marmarakaka.

Much is alike with them breadfolk it seems.

Woot! That looks very nice! I tryed making some of Ly'Thara's Uj cake, and while it was nice, it wasn't really that accurate to the books description. I can't wait to try this out as it looks very tasty! Thanks alot!

Tracyn

Tracyn Ordo wrote:

Woot! That looks very nice! I tryed making some of Ly'Thara's Uj cake, and while it was nice, it wasn't really that accurate to the books description. I can't wait to try this out as it looks very tasty! Thanks alot!

Tracyn

Cheers!

I took great care in following the book with this, but it only took a day. Sad, isn't - it shows me how deep I read these books, lol.

Not sad at all! It means people like me have something to do during the weekends and something tasty for us to fill our boots with thanks again! I shall have to remember to comment on how wonderfully delicious it tastes!

Tracyn

Tracyn Ordo wrote:

Not sad at all! It means people like me have something to do during the weekends and something tasty for us to fill our boots with thanks again! I shall have to remember to comment on how wonderfully delicious it tastes!

Tracyn

A figure of speech.

Well, to me it tastes very sweet (check), sticky (check) and fitting in yer pockets (check). Hope you guys try it tho.

Well, I tried my luck at it today...FINALLY!

I can't stand fruit chunks or nuts in my cake so I altered the recipe a bit and puree'd a combination of cinnamon applesauce with black cherry jam and orange marmalade in lieu of dried fruit. Maybe the next attempt will have some puree'd nuts as well.

For spices, I used cinnamon, ginger, and ground cloves.

I used honey, orange extract, vanilla extract, and brown sugar for the syrup.

Yes, it's DENSE and yes it's SWEET and if I eat more than an inch square, I'm going to completely blow my carbohydrate count back into borderline insulin resistance. I guess it's better if you're out in the field, sweating your shebs off and trying to save your rations. I'll be sending a large piece to my brother-in-law in the Army. He'll probably appreciate it.

Awesome stuff Mara! Glad you tried it!

Thanks, Gratulor!

I didn't actually post the full recipe because I wanted to tinker with some of the measurements and try to refine it a bit more. Plus, I wanted to add ground almonds and/or peanuts the next try. I just need time to experiment again.

My brother-in-law loved it, and he shared it with the members of his barracks. He said they all enjoyed it, and he wants to know when I'll make more. I personally think it went so well because it probably wasn't Army food.

Ms.MaraJade wrote:

Thanks, Gratulor!

I didn't actually post the full recipe because I wanted to tinker with some of the measurements and try to refine it a bit more. Plus, I wanted to add ground almonds and/or peanuts the next try. I just need time to experiment again.

My brother-in-law loved it, and he shared it with the members of his barracks. He said they all enjoyed it, and he wants to know when I'll make more. I personally think it went so well because it probably wasn't Army food.

A good recipe is never finished or fully refined, it's always changing and marching towards more ecstacy!