Liver Cake with Mushrooms: Step-by-Step Recipe
Today we made a liver cake. It reminded me of an old children's joke: “A four-year-old asks his dad: ‘Dad, is it anyone's birthday today?' ‘No, I don't think so. Why?' ‘Oh… I just really want some cake.'”
Ah, cake! Tastier than ice cream, more coveted than candy!
The word “torte” comes from the Latin tōrta, meaning “round bread”. A cake is generally thought of as a dessert made of layers soaked in cream, jam and other goodies. And it is always decorated with the same cream, icing, chocolate or candied fruit.
Usually only once you grow up do you realize that happiness lies not in cakes, but in sausage.
And so, like the Olympic flame, the sausage cake is born. There are savory kinds of cakes too: sausage, sprat, liver, or an assorted appetizer cake. I once saw a gorgeous crepe cake layered with salami, sprats, liver pâté and mushrooms. Not a cake, but a fairy tale!
The Danish sandwich cake has yeast dough layers filled with salted fish, red caviar, cheese and spiced butter.
A liver cake is hardly a cake in the literal sense. All it shares with a cake are the layers made of ground liver and the filling between them. It is a cake mostly in its looks.
This cake is not very hard to make, and once you put in the time, you can be sure it will be the highlight of the table and leave no one indifferent. Liver cake is a one-of-a-kind recipe, and it turns out delicious. My daughter Yulia learned to make it after finding the recipe somewhere. She did a wonderful job. Thank you so much!
Ingredients
6-8 servings
- Beef liver 1 kg
- Button mushrooms 300 g
- Onions 3
- Eggs 2
- Flour 2 tbsp
- Mayonnaise to taste
- Pork fat (salo) — a small piece to taste
- Vegetable oil to taste
- Salt, pepper, mixed herbs (oregano, dill, coriander, marjoram, savory, parsley) to taste
- Fresh parsley to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- First, prepare the liver. Remove any remains of the gallbladder, bile ducts and membranes. To do this, soak the liver in warm water for 5–10 minutes, and the membrane will come off easily. Then cut the liver into pieces and put it through a meat grinder until it becomes a purée.
- Add one raw onion, finely chopped, and season with salt and pepper. Add spices to taste, the flour and the eggs. Be sure to add 2–3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Mix very thoroughly.
You should get a smooth mixture. It is also worth blitzing it with a blender to make it as smooth as possible.
- Next, put a frying pan on the heat and, once it is hot, grease it with a piece of pork fat. Do this every time you start cooking the next layer.
- Fry thick layers, up to 1 cm thick. Flip them carefully. A handy trick is to cover the layer in the pan with a plate and turn the pan over so the layer lands on the plate. Then simply slide the layer back into the pan, uncooked side down.
- Finely chop the remaining onions and fry them with the mushrooms in oil. Season with salt and pepper and add seasonings to taste.
- Once the mushrooms and onions have cooled, add a little mayonnaise, literally a couple of spoonfuls, or half a pack if you like. Stir to get a creamy mixture.
- Let the finished layers cool.
- Spread each layer with the filling and stack them on top of one another. Use the rest of the filling to coat the sides of the cake.
- Decorate the top of the liver cake with the filling and finely chopped parsley. Little roses of smoked salmon look very pretty and appetizing. Before tasting it, you might think this is a cake with sweet frosting.
- The size of this cake depends only on the size of your frying pan, so size does matter after all. Make this cake for a special occasion and treat yourself and your friends.
| Yield: | 6-8 servings |
| Calories: | 182 |
| Prep: | 1 h 20 mins |
| Cooking: | 30 mins |
| Ready in: | 1 h 50 mins |
| Category: | Snacks and Sauces |
| Cuisine: | Ukrainian cuisine |
| Rating: |
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4.3
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