Poppy Seed Torte — The Recipe You Keep Trying to Get Right

The week before my birthday. I am turning thirty-one on Tuesday and I keep accidentally telling people I am turning thirty, which I think means I am still catching up to last year, which is what your thirties might be — a long catching-up.

I made a pot of mushroom soup Sunday night. Wally's recipe, the one I never quite get right. He gave me the recipe — what passes for a recipe; it's really just a list of ingredients in his handwriting on the back of a Mass card from 1998 — about five years ago, when I asked him for it directly. He said "Myszka, you don't need a recipe, you need to watch." I watched. I still got the recipe in writing because I do not trust my memory and I do not trust the future. The soup was close. Not right. He came over Tuesday and tasted it and said "good," which from Wally now is everything.

Wally has lost weight. I noticed it Tuesday. He was sitting at our kitchen table — my dad drove him over for an hour, just to visit — and his shirt collar was loose around his neck in a way it wasn't at Christmas. Dad and I made eye contact about it over Wally's head. Neither of us said anything. There was nothing to say.

Ryan made me a birthday dinner Saturday because Tuesday was his shift. He grilled steaks on the back patio in February, which is insane, with snow on the grass, in his Carhartts, drinking a beer, telling me to stay inside, where he had set the table with the cloth napkins my mother gave us as a wedding gift that we never use. He made twice-baked potatoes. He made a salad with iceberg lettuce because iceberg lettuce is what he does and it is what I love. He bought a cake from Cermak Fresh Market — a whole sheet cake, way too big for four people, which we will eat for a week. The twins sang Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs. I closed my eyes and thought of nothing and made no wishes because I am thirty-one and the wish is just: more of this. Please. More of this.

I keep thinking about what Wally said — that you don’t need a recipe, you need to watch. There’s a whole category of food that works that way, recipes that live in the hands of someone you love before they ever live in yours. This poppy seed torte is that kind of recipe for me: old-world, a little painstaking, the sort of thing that takes a birthday to justify making. Ryan’s sheet cake was perfect, but this one is for the week after, when the candles are gone and you still want something that feels like it was made for you specifically, slowly, with care.

Poppy Seed Torte

Prep Time: 30 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 15 min | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 1 cup poppy seeds
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Instructions

1. Soak the poppy seeds. Combine poppy seeds and milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Warm gently for 5 minutes until the milk is absorbed. Remove from heat and let cool completely, at least 15 minutes.
2. Prepare the oven and pan. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch springform pan or two 9-inch round cake pans.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. Cream butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat butter and granulated sugar together with a hand or stand mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3–4 minutes.
5. Add yolks and flavoring. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, then mix in the vanilla extract, almond extract, and sour cream until smooth.
6. Combine wet and dry. With the mixer on low, alternate adding the flour mixture and the cooled poppy seed mixture to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just combined — do not overmix.
7. Beat the egg whites. In a clean bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter in two additions, using a rubber spatula to keep the batter light.
8. Bake. Pour batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top. Bake for 40–45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden. If using two round pans, begin checking at 30 minutes.
9. Cool and finish. Let the torte cool in the pan for 10 minutes before releasing the springform or turning out onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Dust generously with powdered sugar before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 7g | Fat: 17g | Carbs: 42g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 185mg