Moon Cakes

"You only live once, lick the bowl"
                                              ~Unknown

I had to bring baked goods for church this morning, so I thought I would bake Moon Cakes.  So I did a Google search the other day for Moon Cakes and all I could find was the Chinese Mooncake, not the Moon Cakes my mother made when I was very young.  Fortunately, I have her recipe, but I just wanted to see if I could find it on the internet, which I couldn't.  I also have an old Hungarian recipe book and I found several other versions in it, and some even had a Hungarian name by it, so I really don't know if this is an authentic Hungarian recipe or not.  But it really is very good (I'm thinking not very healthy), but I just have to share this recipe with you...

MOON CAKES

5 eggs, separated
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup real butter, softened
1 1/3 cup flour
1 1/4 tsp. vanilla

Topping:

1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1. For the topping, finely chop the walnuts with the sugar and set aside.
2. Beat the 5 egg yolks until they're lemon in color.
3. Add the 1 1/3 cup sugar, gradually and beat well.
4. Add the butter and mix everything until well blended.
5. Add the flour and baking powder slowly, continue to mix together.
6. Add the vanilla
7. If you haven't already beaten the 5 egg whites, do that now and fold them into the batter.
8. Pour the batter into a greased and lightly floured 9" x 13" pan. 
9. Sprinkle the topping on top and pat lightly with your hand.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
11. Cut into moon shapes, using the rim of a drinking glass or cut into squares.

For the topping, put 1 cup of walnuts in a food processor, along with 2 tablespoons of sugar and pulse until finely ground...

 

I only have one mixer, so I went ahead and whipped the 5 egg whites prior to making the batter.  Whip until firm...

Beat the 5 egg yolks until lemon in color...

Gradually add the sugar and then the butter, beat well...

Add the flour slowly, along with the baking powder.  The batter will be very stiff...

Fold in the beaten egg whites...

until well blended...

Pour into a  9" x 13" greased and lightly floured pan.  I used a baking spatula to smooth the thick batter...

Sprinkle on the topping and pat with your hand...

After baking, take the rim of a drinking glass and cut into the cake.  This is the first one and from there, you can keep doing the same, getting the crescent moon shape...

Here's where I had to deviate.  You know that we recently moved and none of our drinking glasses had a small enough rim.  The one shown above, produced the large crescent moon shown below, and they should be more the size of the smaller one.  So change of plans, I decided to cut mine into squares because it had to be enough for about 30 people.

On a side note, my mother's originally recipe actually called for 1 1/3 teaspoons of baking power and 1 1/3 teaspoons of vanilla.  I don't know about you, but I don't have a 1/3 measuring teaspoon, so I went ahead with 1/4.  Interesting how times have changed!  BTW, I saw people going back for seconds today and those who had some, loved them!