Recipe for a cake with walnut crust and caramel cream with ness, two flavors that go great together. It is not difficult to make and you can use the egg whites left over from other holiday preparations for it. Ingredients (8 servings): For the cream: • 500 ml of milk with 3.5% fat • 40 g of starch • 200 g of sugar • 200 g of butter with at least 82% fat, soft • A quarter of a teaspoon of salt • And a teaspoon of instant coffee For the crust: • 6 egg whites • A teaspoon of vinegar • 180 g of sugar • 80 g of finely ground walnuts • 80 g of 000 flour • A vial of vanilla essence For decoration: • 60 g of dark chocolate flakes First we will take care of the cream because it needs a little time to cool. Over the starch, add 2 heaping tablespoons of sugar, from the amount dedicated for the cream, then mix. If we don't have any egg whites left over from other preparations and we prepare this cake with whole eggs, which we separate on the spot, we can also add 6 yolks here. Mix everything, adding a tablespoon of milk if necessary. We need to obtain a consistent and homogeneous paste, without any starch clumps. We put the remaining sugar in a sufficiently large saucepan and place it on high heat. We wait until it becomes liquid in several places, then mix gently. When it has acquired a golden brown color and no longer has clumps, we pour all the remaining milk on top. Boil until all the caramel dissolves. Then we temporarily turn off the heat, and add the starch paste! Immediately start mixing with a whisk and turn on the heat again. It will thicken quite quickly. If we prepare the cream without yolks, we must cook it on the fire for at least one minute from the moment it thickens. If we prepare the cream with yolks, we must cook it for at least 3 minutes, stirring continuously. The yolks contain an enzyme that must be inactivated by cooking. If we do not cook the cream well enough, and the enzyme remains active, it will destroy the starch in a few hours, and we will have a very soft cream. We must also add a little salt. Caramel requires salt. At the end, we add the soluble coffee. If we strictly want a caramel flavor, then we can omit the coffee. To cool faster, we transfer the cream to a metal bowl, and put it in the refrigerator. The countertop. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. For the electric oven, choose a program that provides heat up and down without ventilation. Prepare a cake pan measuring 30X12 cm. Grease it with a little soft butter. Mix the finely ground walnuts with the flour. Place the egg whites in a larger bowl and add a teaspoon of vinegar. The acidity makes the meringue more stable and homogeneous. Mix the egg whites with a hand mixer, at maximum speed, until they turn white and have a lot of volume. Then gradually add the sugar, mixing until it dissolves. On top of the egg whites, add the vanilla essence, then incorporate the flour and walnuts in 2-3 batches. Mix in circular motions, by folding, using a spatula. Transfer the dough thus obtained, to the previously prepared tray. Put in the preheated oven, for approximately 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool slightly. After the cream has cooled completely, transfer it to a bowl and mix with the soft butter, gradually added spoon by spoon. The cream may at some point take on a cut appearance. This can happen especially when working without egg yolks. Don't worry, all you have to do is continue mixing patiently (~ 5 min) and the cream will fix itself. Assembly. We take the cake out of the mold, cut it in two, then put half of it back in the pan. On top, we put almost all the cream and level it. We only keep about 3 tablespoons like this. We cover with the other half of the cake, the rest of the cream, then decorate with chocolate flakes. These can be bought, or you can make them yourself. It's very simple. We put some chocolate that has been at room temperature on a grater in this multifunctional. And that's about it! Let it cool for an hour or two then remove from the mold and portion it. It's delicious! Enjoy, dears! Good luck!