Anna's Cake- At Long Last!

My favorite part of this trip was chillin' with Anna in her kitchen. I love making real connections with people, and you just can't fake it in the kitchen. You know what I mean? We began the evening with a great dinner Anna had prepared. The guys got to talking and watching sports and Anna and I retreated to the kitchen to make pierogi. (Oh, I totally know how to make those now too.) I took pictures of the process and everything. In order to have room to work in, the dinner dishes needed to be done. (On an interesting side note, they hand wash there. They also have one compact cube of a washer and dryer combined. Neat, huh?) I offered to help with the dishes, but as I was company, she declined. So I sat and we talked as she made the dough. We talked about the differences in our cultures, about the month they spent in Sri Lanka (they've been almost everywhere) and about our presidential election. We talked about our personal philosophies, about what was most important to us. I offered to do the dishes again, and this time she let me. I took that as a pretty big compliment.
The name of this cake translated is Molder cake, or Mulder if you're an X-files fan. Because mold and cake don't go together for me, I've re-christened it "Anna's Cake". I love collecting recipes, so I had to get a photo of her book.
Here's how to make it:

List of Ingredients:
5 cups white flour
3 sticks of butter (not margarine)
6 eggs, separated. You'll use both the yolks and the whites.
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cup jam (she uses a mixture of apple and plum)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs cocoa powder

Prep work: Grease a 9x13 pan, preheat to 350 degrees.

First, you get a big bowl if you mix by hand, like Anna does, or a mixer bowl if you're a lazy American. Add flour and butter, egg yolks, baking powder, almond extract and 1 tsp of sugar. You put your right hand in, you take your right hand out, you put your right hand in, and you mix it all about.....When it's evenly mixed, you form it into three balls. One ball goes in the freezer, one in the fridge, and one goes back to the mixer. Add the cocoa powder to the ball in the mixer,

reform it into a ball and set it aside. Crumble the ball from the fridge in the pan and press it until it's even. Then you spread the jam on top. Then you crumble the chocolate ball and sprinkle it evenly over the jam. Then you take your favorite kitchen appliance and put it to work beating the egg whites. Marek, Anna's husband was up for the job. Beat the eggs until nice and foamy, adding the 1 1/2 cups sugar and vanilla as you go. When they're spreadable, not hard, spread them over the chocolate on the pan. Then this is the best part: you take the ball out of the freezer and grate it with a cheese grater over the egg whites. Then you pop it in the oven for 40 minutes. Allow it to cool before you serve it.Thank you Anna!
Yum.