Reforma torta

The story

Reforma, also called Reform torta, is a layered cake of walnut meringue sheets and chocolate buttercream, listed among the classic cakes in the Wikipedia survey of Serbian cuisine. The daily Danas counts it among the old-fashioned sweets made for slavas, holidays and large family gatherings, and the food site Stvar ukusa says it is so well known that restaurants serve it too, while every home cook keeps a personal recipe. Those recipes differ mostly in size. Danas whips 12 egg whites with sugar and ground walnuts and bakes one large sheet, then cuts it into three; Stvar ukusa uses 14 whites and four layers; Danas's City Magazine bakes three 24 cm rounds from 10 whites. The filling follows one idea throughout: yolks whisked with sugar and cooked over steam, chocolate melted in, and soft butter beaten into the cooled cream. Long chilling matters, because the walnut layers absorb the filling and the cake slices best the next day. No Easter rite is attached to it, but a torte belongs to the holiday spread. When Kurir priced the Serbian Easter table in April 2022, it listed small cookies and a smaller torte at about 1,000 dinars. Bake the layers two days before Easter and assemble the cake the day before.