Bublanina

Instructions

• 1
  First, take all ingredients out onto the counter to reach room temperature (This step is very important to prevent the dough from curdling.).
• 2
  For bublanina, you don't always have to use only cherries, but any other fruit. Blueberries, strawberries, and even currants are also great.
• 3
  Grease the baking pan with butter and dust with semi-coarse flour.
• 4
  Wash, clean, and pit the cherries.
• 5
  Separate the eggs into two bowls for yolks and whites.
• 6
  Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Then beat in the egg yolks one by one, and finally the finely grated lemon zest.
• 7
  Mix the plain flour with baking powder, sift it into a bowl, and stir into the butter mixture.
• 8
  Now whisk the egg whites until stiff. Divide them into two parts and gently fold one after the other into the dough with a whisk (It's better to fold the egg whites into the base in two stages. The base, which contains more flour, tends to be heavy, so the first part of the egg whites serves to thin it, and only the second part to fluff up the dough.).
• 9
  Spread the dough evenly into the baking pan, arrange the cherries on top, and then bake in an oven preheated to 160 °C for 30 minutes.
• 10
  Dust the baked bublanina with powdered sugar and then cut it into squares.