Dessert📍 All of RomaniaDifficult🥗 Vegetarian🐟 Pescatarian💪 High-protein🥦 Clean eating

Ileana Cake (Prăjitură Ileana)

Name: Ileana Cake (Prăjitură Ileana)
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 24 min
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 20
Cuisine: Romanian
Ingredients: 10 egg whites (at room temperature); 1 teaspoon white vinegar (for a more stable meringue); 200 g sugar; 50 g vanilla sugar (6 sachets); a quarter teaspoon salt; 300 g finely ground walnuts (fresh, with no rancid taste); 60–70 g all-purpose flour (approx. 2 heaped tablespoons); a little oil for greasing the baking paper; 10 egg yolks (at room temperature); a generous pinch of salt; 125 g sugar; 25 g vanilla sugar (3 sachets); 400 g butter (82% fat), at room temperature; flavourings to taste: rum, orange zest, etc. (optional); walnut halves (to taste)

Prăjitură Ileana is an elegant and festive home dessert made of airy walnut meringue sheets and a rich cream of egg yolks beaten over a bain-marie with quality butter. Soft and delicate even when cold, decorated with walnut halves, this cake is a staple of Romanian holiday dessert platters.

🍽️

Servings

⏱️

Prep

60 minutes

🔥

Cook

24 minutes (baking sheets)

⏰

Total

approx. 2 hours 30 minutes + refrigeration (at least 3–4 hours)

🥘Ingredients

servings

Walnut meringue sheets (2 trays = 4 layers)

Egg yolk and butter cream

Decoration

📝Preparation steps 🗓️Add to Meal Planner🎨Serving & Presentation

✅Dietary Compatibility

🥗Vegetarian🐟Pescatarian💪High-protein🥦Clean eating

🍽️

Yield

1 cake with 4 layers (approx. 20 servings)

📦Storage

❄️

Refrigerator

Store refrigerated, wrapped in cling film, for up to 4 days. Serve cold — it is soft and delicate even straight from the refrigerator.

🧊

Freezer

Baked and fully cooled meringue sheets can be frozen individually (without cream) for up to 1 month. The assembled cake is not recommended for freezing.

🥗Nutrition Facts

Estimated values per serving (1/20 of the cake).

🔥

Calories

approx. 350 kcal / serving

🥩

Protein

6 g

🧈

Fat

24 g

🍞

Carbohydrates

28 g

🌾

Fiber

1 g

🍷Pairs Well With

🥂Black coffee or espresso

🥂Black tea with lemon

🥂Sweet white wine (Tămâioasă Românească or Muscat Ottonel)

🥂A small glass of dark rum (harmonises with the cream flavourings)

💡Variations

With rum and orange: Add 1–2 tablespoons of rum and the finely grated zest of one orange to the cream — a classic combination that becomes the signature of this cake.

With hazelnuts: Replace some or all of the walnuts with roasted, finely ground hazelnuts for a rounder, more intense flavour.

With chocolate glaze: Pour a thin dark chocolate ganache over the top of the cake before decorating with walnuts — it adds pleasant bitterness and a more festive appearance.