Creating a specific cream for a cake?

Question

My grandma used to make a waffle cake with chocolate cream filling, Romanian/Hungarian/Russian style.

My mom is trying to recreate it, without success. But she doesn't exactly know how to make the cream.

I had one recipe with sweet cream and chocolate pudding, but it didn't work well — it was too wet.

I had another recipe with cocoa and halva, where you cook them both with some water, butter and sugar, and it too didn't work — also too wet, and too chocolatey.

How can I find a decent recipe for the filling? Are there any names I should be searching for?

Answer 1

I assume we are talking about a variety of the Eastern European treat called Oblatne (or a variety of that name)? Which consists of five to eight layers of store-bought wafers (not "waffles" - in some languages it's the same term for both, I know), "glued together" by a fatty or caramelly cream, pressed for a few hours and cut into little diamonds? Like below:

^Source

There are two main methods to create the cream, one based on condensed milk, dulce de leche or caramel, the other on butter, margarine or shortening. Often with an addition of nuts, chocolate and a dash of alcohol. Often, some raw eggs are included as well, so take the appropriate measures for these recipes.

The common trait is low humidity in the filling, because otherwise the wafers become soggy and - worst case - could even disintegrate.

Recipe requests are off-topic here, but a creative use of the terms wafer, cake, country of origin or some neighboring country, oblatne or oblate and your preferred filling ingredients in your favourite seach engine should set you off in the right direction.

Answer 2

Here's a recipe for a cream I use in Dobos torta; it's thick and could work well in the nápolyi/ostya (waffle cake, oblatne):

4 eggs 200 g powdered sugar 235 g unsalted butter 240 g dark chocolate 17 g vanilla sugar (in the US, you can buy this in European specialty grocery stores)

To make the cream:

1. Crack the eggs open and put them in the top of a double broiler. Heat it up until it’s hot but not boiling. Pull it off the heat and beat it with a whisk until cool.
2. Beat the butter until very soft and creamy (you can use a food processor).
3. Mix the butter and the chocolate and melt in the microwave (3x half a minute at 200 watts, mix each time).
4. Mix the vanilla sugar and the melted chocolate, then mix in the whipped eggs.

Your chocolate cream is ready for spreading.