I found this recipe in the King Arthur Flour Company Baker´s Catalog. They call it the Blitz Torte, but we like our name better. Our characters were battling for their lives on the Plains of Despair, and everyone was quite into things until this cake was served - then everyone was too busy stuffing their faces to speak. I´ve been baking for a long time, and this is my favorite cake. It´s also one of the easiest, and it only costs a few dollars to make.

Ingredients

Cake:

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp salt

4 egg yolks (save the whites for your topping!)

1 tsp vanilla

3 tablespoons milk

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup all purpose flour

Topping*:

4 egg whites

3/4 sugar

1/2 sliced almonds (optional, but it´s really good!)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 Tsp sugar

Filling:

1 cup (1/2 pint) cream - light or heavy

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

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1. Heat oven to 350°. Grease two round cake pans (8 or 9 inch).
2. Cream together shortening, sugar, salt & egg yolks. Beat in vanilla, milk, baking powder & flour. Spread mixture into your pans. (There is hardly any batter and you will barely be able to cover the bottom of the pans.)
3. Beat egg whites till light. Gradually add sugar and beat until smooth and forms soft peaks. (Don´t worry about getting this just right - it´s not a big deal). Spread onto cake batter.
4. Sprinkle each cake layer with cinnamon, sugar and almonds. *Note: it´s not really necessary to measure these things - just put some on until it looks good.
5. Bake 30 minutes until lightly browned.
6. Cool cakes completely.
7. Beat cream and pudding until thick. Spread in between cake layers. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

** You can adjust toppings and filling flavors as you want. Fresh fruit or jam on top of a different flavor cream filling (just use different pudding, or add 1 tsp extract) is good.