Category: Main Dishes

Origin: Lebanon

 

For how many people: 15

Preparation time: 45 min

Cooking time: 0 min

 

Story of the recipe or story of the chef:

When I was little, my mother used to prepare this cake for our birthdays. My friends really liked this cake and would ask my mother to make it on every occasion.

Melvina

 

List of ingredients:

• Sliced white bread:
• 9 slices for every layer and slices for the border
• 6 to 8 tubs of labneh
• 3 cups of tomatoes
• 2 cups of deseeded cucumbers
• 1  bunch of parsley
• ½ cup of dried mint
• 2 cups of ham
• Pitted green or black olives (to taste)
• Zaatar (thyme to taste)

 

Preparation Mode:

1.    Cut off the crusts from the bread.

2.    Dice the tomatoes, cucumbers, ham and olives. Finely chop the parsley.

3.    On a plate, arrange the bread slices (3×3) to form a square.

4.    Spread some labneh on the bread. Sprinkle with the tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley and dried mint. Season with salt.

5.    Arrange the same number of bread slices and spread some labneh. Top with the ham and olives. Sprinkle some zaatar.

6.    Arrange more bread slices on top.

7.    Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6.

Cover the cake completely with bread slices. For the borders, spread labneh on the bread so it sticks. Finish by spreading labneh over all of the cake.

8.    Decorate as you would any other cake: fill a piping bag with labneh. Decorate with tomatoes cut into flowers and use the parsley as the stem.

 

My top tips:

Before you start, prepare all of the ingredients in separate bowls. You can also make the cake in a rectangle or star by adding bread slices cut diagonally and placing each triangle (x4) in the centre of every side of the square.

 

* Yogurt, which has been strained to remove its whey or milk serum, preserving the yogurt’s distinctive sour taste.