I wanted to make a pretty simple Belarusian dessert because desserts are not my forte, and none of the ones I found sounded particularly enticing anyway. I settled on this cake exactly because it seemed simple. Unfortunately it wasn't very good.

It might have been my fault. The original recipe asked for "ground-nut" halvah (a paste made of nuts, sugar and oil), and while perhaps that's available at Russian specialty stores, I don't have any nearby. Therefore I substituted with sesame seed halvah, which is commonly available in the ethnic foods section of regular supermarkets. Thinking back, it would probably have made more sense to use sweetened peanut butter. If you try it, do it with peanut butter (and report back on how it worked out!).

The recipe doesn't specify what type of jam to use, but berries seem popular in Belarus so I used some type of berry jam, I'm sure you can use whatever jam you prefer. I don't remember now how long I baked the cake, probably until a toothpick came out dry.

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Piernik

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. halvah
• 1/2 cup jam
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla essence
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3 cups all-purpose flour

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Greace a baking pan or cover with wax paper

Combine the halvah, jam, sugar, egg, vanilla essence and baking soda. Mix well, until smooth. Add the flour, mix and then knead into a dough. Roll the dough and shape into a round cake, place on the baking pan and bake until done.

Adapted from Belarusian cuisine