Easter time is time for potica. I’ve realized recently that potratna potica a.k.a. wasteful cake is not all that common even in Slovenia. I felt the need to veganize it and share it with the world. It’s just too good to be forgotten.

What is potica?

Potica is a traditional Slovenian dessert. It’s common during holidays like Christmas and Easter. On regular days people don’t make or eat potica, unless they are huge fans. It looks like a long roll. You could say it’s like making cinnamon rolls without cutting them into smaller rolls but leaving one big roll and baking it like that. You’d use leavened dough and filling, then make a big long roll and bake it in a rounded baking pan or in a long one intended for baking bread loaves.

The fun part is that there are many different kinds of potica. The most common one is walnut potica (you can find a recipe here). It’s juicy, often complemented with raisins soaked in rum. But there are other kinds, like tarragon potica or coconut potica made with chocolate dough, or even the one with pork cracknels (I’ve never had it, it just doesn’t seem right).

But my all time favourite is potratna potica. English translation of that would be wasteful potica or wasteful cake. It’s quite wasteful indeed, time-wise and when looking at ingredients. Making potica, any kind of potica, takes time, simply because the dough needs to rise. But potratna potica takes even more time. You need to make the leavened dough, then bake sponge cakes separately and make two different creams – cheese cream and walnut cream.

I don’t care how much time it takes to make this potratna potica a.k.a. wasteful cake – it’s so good I could have it every day of the week.

Why is making potica so hard?

In my opinion, it’s not that hard at all. In Slovenia, there are tales and myths about making potica. The temperature needs to be just right. There must be no opening or closing of the doors while the dough is rising otherwise it might not rise well. The filling must be fluffy otherwise potica will not rise while baking. It’s normal to have pockets of air in potica although they should not be there, but it’s really hard to get rid of them. Old women’s tales, I say. I conquered them all.

I agree, if you want to do it the proper way – with the right number of rolls and the right ratio between the dough and filling, etc. – then making potica can be science fiction. But I like to make it easy and not complicated. And I think that’s exactly why my potica turned out well – I simply believe it will.

I know potica can be very dry sometimes. My grandma would make potica and it would never turn out just as it should. It’s always either dry or falling apart or the dough didn’t rise properly. My other grandma, my Oma, she’s the real master of traditional recipes. Her potica is the one everyone loves. I can see the difference now. When I started making my own potica I made sure mine was everything I wanted it to be. Fluffy dough, just sweet enough, loads of filling, juicy, and most of all not dry.

It took me years before I built enough courage to make potratna potica. See, making potratna potica is a lot more work. There are even more tales and scare stories about it than about the regular potica. Putting it together is a lot more complicated because the dough goes around, so the filling is inside. But how do you do that? It’s actually pretty simple.

I like to simplify things where I can – so instead of making a huge tray of potica, which would actually be pretty hard to handle, I took a small baking tin for baking bread. The long one, you know. It’s a lot easier to place the dough in there and wrap it around the filling.

Let’s not waste any more time. But first, let me tell you a few things that will make making potica easier for you.

What you need to know before making potratna potica a.k.a. wasteful cake

Here are a few things that will make it easier for you to make potratna potica or any other potica for that matter:

-> Making dough for potica is just like making bread, but with a few extra ingredients. Just make sure to let it rise long enough and it will be very easy to handle.

-> I like to prepare all fillings the night before and then just put them together in the morning and bake them. That includes sponge cakes, dough, and fillings.

-> Putting it together doesn’t have to be in the exact order and it also doesn’t have to be symetrical (although I like it that way). The only thing I do recommend is that you always put filling between the dry parts. So for example dough – filling – sponge cake – filling – etc. This way potica won’t be dry and will hold together nicely when you cut it.

-> Make sure to cool it down before you cut it. If you cut it warm it’s bound to fall apart. Let it sit overnight or for at least a few hours. If I prepare everything the night before and bake potica the next day, I still let it sit during the day or even until the next day. For example, for Easter Sunday I would bake it on Saturday and have it ready on sunday.

-> This potica cannot be made in a rounded tray. It’s the type of potica that calls for regular rectangular trays. You bake sponge cakes in that tray and then bake the whole potica in that same tray.

Ingredients for potratna potica

Although I said potratna potica is a wasteful cake, the vegan version is not that wasteful at all! It doesn’t contain loads of eggs or butter or cottage cheese. Therefore it’s quite regular when it comes to ingredients and you might have them all at home already.

The dough: flour, plant milk, coconut oil, sugar, yeast. Okay, lemon zest, too. Voilá!

Sponge cakes: you’ll be needing flour, sugar, plant milk, and coconut oil with addition of vanilla and baking powder (and rum if you wish). For the dark cake, you’ll need cocoa powder. Easy, right?

Cheese filling: I like to use tofu instead of cheese in occasions like this. In Slovenia a lot of traditional desserts are made with cottage cheese and I almost always use tofu. I usually mix it with lemon and plant yogurt to get the right consistency and sour taste. Then I add lemon zest, sugar and vanilla for the sweet filling. And you’ll need starch, too.

Walnut filling: doesn’t get more straightforward than this – walnuts, sugar, cinnamon with a splash of boiling hot plant milk. Done.

I bet you’re not missing too many ingredients, right? 😉

Wanna pin this recipe?

If you’re looking for more vegan Easter recipes, here are some ideas:

-> Vegan Hot-Cross Buns

-> Vegan Walnut Potica 

-> Healthy Vegan Carrot Cake

Potratna Potica a.k.a. Wasteful Cake

My favourite potica of all time is not even traditional rolled potica. It's this potratna potica aka wasteful cake that will make you drool.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Proof time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine european, Slovenian

Servings 12 pieces

Ingredients

  

Leavened Dough

• 250 g flour all purpose
• pinch salt
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 pack vanilla sugar or ½ tsp vanilla essence
• 25 g sugar demerara
• 2 tsp dry active yeast
• 150 ml plant milk

White Sponge Cake (make it twice)

• 70 g flour all purpose
• 20 g sugar demerara
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 70 ml plant milk
• 1 tbsp rum
• 1 tbsp oil coconut - melted

Dark Sponge Cake

• 50 g flour all purpose
• 20 g cocoa powder dark
• 20 g sugar demerara
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 80 ml plant milk
• 1 tbsp rum
• 1 tbsp oil coconut - melted

Cheese Filling

• 400 g natural tofu
• 70 g sugar demerara
• 40 ml lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 200 g plant yogurt natural flavour
• 20 g corn starch

Walnut Filling

• 300 g walnuts ground
• 70 g sugar demerara
• ⅓ tsp cinnamon
• 150 ml plant milk

Instructions

 

For the Dough

• Place all the dry ingredients into a large bowl - flour, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla sugar, and dry yeast. Mix them well. Then add lukewarm milk, room temperature would be just fine. Mix and then knead until you get a soft, smooth ball of dough. It should take about 3 minutes. Cover the bowl with a wet kitchen cloth and let it rest and rise for an hour or 90 minutes until doubled in size.

Sponge cakes

• You'll need three layers of sponge cakes - one dark and two white ones. Make each of them separately. While one is baking, prepare the next one.
• Mix all the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, and baking powder (and cocoa powder for dark cake) - in a smaller bowl. Melt coconut oil. Add milk, rum, and coconut oil to the dry ingredients and mix well with a whisk. Don't over-mix it!
• Use the baking tin you'll use for making potica. Place parchment paper inside and pour in the first batch of batter. Even it out and bake for 10 minutes. In the meantime prepare the next batch of batter, but make sure to not add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until the previous cake is baked. Mix wet ingredients with dry ones just before pouring the batter into the tin.
• When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and let it rest for 2-3 minutes. Then take it out and place it on a cooling rack. Repeat the procedure with the rest of the cakes.

Cheese Filling

• Place all the ingredients for the filling into a blender. Blend well until you get a smooth cream. In case the cream seems too thick, add a bit more yogurt. Let the cream in the blender or take it out and place it in a bowl where it will wait until you need it again.

Walnut Filling

• If walnuts are not ground yet, ground them. You can do that in a food processor. Then place ground walnuts in a bowl along with cinnamon and sugar.
• Warm up plant milk until boiling hot. Pour boiling hot milk over the walnut mixture and mix well until you get a walnut cream. The cream will thicken up with time so don't worry if it seems runny at the beginning.

Putting it all together

• Take your leavened dough, it should be doubled in size, soft to the touch, and airy. Flour a clean working surface well. Place the dough on top of it and sprinkle some flour over the dough, too. Take your rolling pin and roll out the dough into a large square. It should be big enough to wrap your baking tin in it.
• Place parchment paper in the baking tin you baked the sponge cakes in. You can also grease it. Then gently lift the rolled-out dough and place it into the tin. You'll have to gently lift the edges to make sure the dough is inside the tin and is forming some kind of shell. It should be placed close to the corners and walls to make space for fillings. Make sure to be gentle with the dough so you don't tear it. Make sure there's some left outside as you'll need to cover potica with it - kind of like closing a box with a lid attached to it.
• You'll first put in some walnut filling. I used 4 tbsp for the first layer. Spread it out into an even layer.
• Place the white sponge cake over it and press it gently.
• Then pour some cheese filling on top of the white sponge cake. It will probably drip around the cake but don't worry, it will look nice either way. Just make sure to pour enough on top to cover the cake with it.
• On top of the white filling goes the dark sponge cake. No need to press it down this time.
• Pour more cheese filling on top of that dark sponge cake and cover it up.
• Next comes the second white sponge cake. It might be easiest if you put the thick walnut filling on top of the white sponge cake first and then place them both inside the baking tin. Make sure the walnut filling is evenly spread out.
• Once all of the fillings are inside, it's time to wrap it up. Don't worry if the last sponge cake and walnut filling are not leveled with the top of the baking tin. It's okay if potica is a bit higher.
• Now take the remaining dough that should be attached to the dough inside of the tray and place it on top of the walnut filling. Using scissors, cut away the extra dough and tuck the edges into the tray. Cut away the extra parchment paper, too.
• Using a toothpick, make some holes in the dough on top so the air will have somewhere to go. This way the top part of the dough will not lift up while baking.
• Bake potica at 180°C for 40 minutes until golden brown. Once baked, take it out of the oven and let it cool down for 10-15 minutes. Then take it out of the baking tin, remove the parchment paper, and place your potica on the cooling rack. Let it cool down completely. You can cover it with a clean kitchen cloth, just make sure it's not washed with a softener otherwise potica will taste like soap.
• Before serving, you can dust it with powdered sugar.

Keyword potica, potratna potica, traditional food, vegan potica, wasteful cake