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One of the first things that comes to mind when I think about the holidays is…food. Whether I’m crowded around a dinner table with family and friends or pulling my favorite cranberry and pear pie out of the oven to take to a holiday gathering, there’s something special about breaking bread with the ones you love.
Food, it seems, has a language of its own. In communities across the globe, food has a unique way of bringing people together. And this holiday season, we wanted to help you connect with your friends, family and with the World Relief community by sharing a few recipes from around the world in our new ebook — Breaking Bread Across Borders: Global Recipes from Refugee Kitchens.
This ebook is filled with stories and recipes from immigrants who are part of World Relief Western Washington’s Commercial and Teaching Kitchen — an innovative program that connects members of the community with their immigrant neighbors through workshops and events led by immigrant chefs while providing low-cost commercial kitchen space for immigrant caterers to rent and run their businesses.
For women like Katya, who owned a bakery when she lived in Ukraine, the commercial and teaching kitchen is a way to bring people joy while pursuing her passion here in the U.S.
“I love to bring joy to people with my baking,” Katya said. “You become a piece of people’s special events [when you bake for them]. You become a piece of the joy.”
Breaking Bread in Ukraine
Baking has long been a part of Ukrainian culture. Pastries, breads and cakes are an important feature of gatherings and holidays. Growing up in a small Ukrainian village, Katya’s grandmother taught her how to bake.
She recalls the way her grandmother would grind the Ukrainian flour herself to prepare treats for special occasions. Each cake was a labor of love, with most of the ingredients sourced from local land.
Her grandmother’s famous honey cake was made with honey from a beekeeping neighbor, and her delicious Sharlotka (also known as Ukrainian Apple Cake) was made from apples that grew on her very own apple trees.
While Katya’s grandmother baked her cakes in a traditional fire stove called a pich, Katya learned to bake in a modern oven. When she got older, she opened a bakery in Ukraine called Voloshka’s Cake, named for the small blue cornflowers that grow in fields between golden heads of wheat.
Eventually, Katya came to the United States with her husband and children in search of better opportunities. They arrived before war broke out in 2022. Katya said that although life in Ukraine had improved since the fall of the Soviet Union, the country still had a long way to go and she wanted her children to have more opportunities available to them in the U.S.
Today, Katya is a guest chef at the Western Washington Commercial and Teaching Kitchen. She’s also a key volunteer at kitchen events and dreams of one day opening a bakery in the U.S. — a dream that World Relief Western Washington is there to support.
Want to try Ukrainian Apple Cake? What about Kenyan Mandazi or Afghan Mantu Dumplings?
Recipes Around the World: Sharlotka Apple Cake
Cook time: 40 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Serves: 8
Special equipment needed:
- Kitchen scale for weighing ingredients
- 8-inch round springform cake pan
Cake Ingredients:
- 4 to 5 large apples
- 2 large eggs
- 90 grams of sugar
- 10 grams vanilla sugar*
- 15 grams ground cinnamon
- A pinch of salt
- 150 grams flour
- 1 teaspoon. baking powder
- 100 grams butter, softened
Topping Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
*Vanilla sugar can be found in some specialty stores or online. You can also make your own by adding 2 c. sugar to an airtight container, cutting 1 whole vanilla bean in half lengthwise, scraping the seeds into the sugar and burying the remaining pod into the sugar. Close the container, give it a shake and let it stand for about 1 week for the full vanilla flavor to incorporate into the sugar. It’s also delicious in coffee and tea!
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 360°F.
- Core and peel all the apples. Medium dice half of the apple and cut the other half of the apples into thin slices (a vegetable peeler will work). Set aside.
- Beat the softened butter with sugar, vanilla sugar and a pinch of salt for 1-2 minutes.
- Beat in eggs one at a time until incorporated.
- Sift flour with baking powder in a separate bowl, then add to the wet egg mixture. Mix until smooth, about 8-10 minutes.
- Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with butter and sprinkle a thin layer of flour or line it with parchment paper.
- Fold the diced apples into cake batter (Mix carefully so you don’t lose the air in the batter) and pour the batter into the greased or parchment-lined pan.
- Put sliced apples on top of the batter in a circular pattern, pressing down a little.
- Brush the melted butter on the apples and sprinkle with sugar (and cinnamon if using).
- Bake in an oven for 30-40 minutes. Check the readiness of the cake with a wooden skewer. The skewer should come out clean.
You can get more recipes around the world, just like this one delivered straight to your inbox. Download your copy of Breaking Bread Across borders, and enjoy breaking bread with your loved ones this holiday season.
Special thanks to Katya for sharing her recipe and story with us, to Amy Kuhl for helping us tell Katya’s story and to Jeff Reynolds for coordinating the Commercial Teaching Kitchen program and answering all our recipe-related questions.
Kelly Hill is the Senior Content Writer at World Relief. She previously served as Volunteer Services Manager at World Relief Triad in North Carolina. With a background in International and Intercultural Communication, she is passionate about the power of story to connect people of diverse experiences.