In the days of the USSR, all cakes that were sold in pastry shops were created according to a well-defined GOST. Now these norms have long been forgotten by manufacturers, and therefore the taste of sweets has deteriorated significantly. But we have collected for you ten original recipes of Soviet culinary masterpieces!
1. Cake “Fairy Tale”
This dessert can be given any shape. In Soviet times, the Skazka cake was most often produced in the form of a roll.
You will need:
Biscuit: 4 large eggs, 120 g flour, 120 g sugar.
Cream Charlotte: 120 ml milk, 1 small egg or 2 yolks, 1 tbsp. l. cognac (optional), 200 g sugar, 220 g butter (82.5%), 15 g vanilla sugar, 30 g dark dark chocolate, green food coloring.
Impregnation: 100 g of water and sugar, 2 tbsp. l. cognac.
Decoration: 5-6 marmalade strawberries, 1 tbsp. l. candied fruit.
Cooking:
1. Beat with a mixer in separate bowls proteins and yolks with sugar, dividing its volume approximately in half. Combine, gently knead and add flour.
2. Pour the egg-flour mass onto a baking sheet covered with siliconized parchment, bake in the oven until lightly browned. Cover the warm biscuit with foil and leave to cool on the kitchen table.
3. For Charlotte cream in a saucepan, combine milk, egg or yolks, sugar, vanilla, cook after boiling for 3 minutes, cool to room temperature. Gradually add the egg-milk syrup to the whipped butter. Separate part of the cream and mix it with melted chocolate, tint a few more spoons of cream with green dye.
4. Cut off the uneven edges of the biscuit, dry them in the oven and grind in a blender.
5. Lubricate the cake with a mixture for impregnation, spread evenly with a spatula or Charlotte spoon (white), twist into a roll. Cover with chocolate cream, sprinkle the sides of the roll with crumbs.
6. Decorate the top of the cake with strawberries, use a pastry bag to plant leaves of green cream around them, arrange candied fruits in a chaotic manner.
2. Leningrad cake
Not the easiest to prepare, but the very famous Leningrad cake consists of shortbread cakes smeared with delicious butter and milk cream.
You will need: 0.5 kg of sifted flour, 200 g of sugar, 300 g of creamy margarine, 3 eggs, 300 g of quality butter, 350 g of powdered sugar, 400 g of condensed milk, 5 tbsp. l. cocoa powder, 1 tbsp. l. water, 1 tbsp. l. baking powder, 10-15 g vanilla sugar, a handful of walnuts.
Cooking:
1. Mix softened margarine, 2 eggs and 1 yolk, sugar in a food processor, gradually add flour, roll the dough into a ball and refrigerate for half an hour.
2. Cut the cooled dough into five approximately equal parts, roll out and bake in the oven.
3. Using a mixer at medium speed, beat the condensed milk, softened butter, powdered sugar (reserve 3 tablespoons for fudge) and two tablespoons of cocoa. Put the mixture in the refrigerator.
4. Beat egg whites with the remaining powdered sugar, gradually adding cocoa, add a spoonful of water.
5. Assemble the cake on a large flat plate, brushing the cakes with an even layer of chilled cream. Fill the finished dessert with fondant.
3. Cake “Prague”
Cake “Prague” is a favorite dessert of our mothers and grandmothers, but even today it has not lost its relevance.
You will need:
For cakes: 6 fresh eggs, 150 g sugar, 40 g melted butter, 115 g sifted flour, 25 g cocoa, 1 pinch of salt.
For cream: 1 pack of butter (82% fat), 130 g of condensed milk, 1 yolk, 1 sachet of vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp. l. cold water, 1 tbsp. l. cocoa.
For glaze: 2 tbsp. l. apricot jam, 100 g dark dark chocolate, 100 g butter.
For impregnation of cakes: 50 ml of water and cognac, 6-7 tbsp. l. Sahara.
Cooking:
1. Combine whites and yolks, beaten separately with sugar, add flour with cocoa, mix with cooled melted butter. Bake a chocolate biscuit, cool in the mold, then wrap with cling film and leave for 12 hours.
2. Boil the components for impregnation for five minutes, while the syrup cools, prepare the cream. Cook a mixture of condensed milk, egg yolk, water and vanilla until thick, cool and whisk together with softened butter, gradually add cocoa.
3. Biscuit blanks cut into three layers. Put the first cake on a dish, soak with syrup and distribute half of the cream. Cover with a second layer, brush with impregnation and the remaining cream. The third cake of the fields with the remnants of the syrup on the inside and lay on top of the cream. Spread the top and sides of the cake evenly with jam and place in a cool place.
4. Cool the melted chocolate with butter, cover the cake with the resulting viscous mass.
4. Cake “Kyiv”
Modern “Kyiv cakes” sold in stores have nothing to do with a real Soviet-era dessert. Until the 70s, such a cake in the USSR was prepared exclusively with cashew nuts, and the squirrels were “fermented” in a special way before whipping.
You will need:
For cakes: 200 g egg whites, 45 g sifted flour, 240 g sugar, 1 g vanillin, 150 g roasted cashews.
Cream Charlotte: 1 egg, 250 g butter, 150 ml fresh milk, 150 g sugar, 1 tbsp. l. cognac, 10 g cocoa, 1 g vanillin.
For decoration: marmalade figurines, red and green gel food coloring.
Cooking:
1. Pour the egg whites into a clean jar, cover with a lid and leave on the kitchen table for about a day. Then whisk, gradually increasing the speed and adding sugar with vanilla, in a steep foam. In three doses, pour nut crumbs into the meringue, mixed with 1 tbsp. l. flour and 40 g sugar. Pour the dough into two molds of the same diameter and bake in the oven at the same time for 2-3 hours at 110 degrees. Then turn off the oven and leave it overnight without opening the door.
2. For the cream, boil for 5 minutes over low heat a mixture of milk, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Whisk the butter, introducing the cooled egg-milk syrup and cognac into it in a thin stream. Separate a little cream for decoration, mix the rest with cocoa, smear the cakes, top and sides of the cake.
3. For decoration, paint small portions of Charlotte cream pink and green, using a syringe, plant a flowering chestnut branch with leaves. Decorate with marmalade figurines. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with nut crumbs.
5. Cake “Bird’s milk”
If you strictly adhere to the recipe according to GOST of the times of the USSR, then the prepared Bird’s Milk cake will turn out to be very tender and airy.
You will need: 560 g sugar, 350 g butter, 140 g sifted wheat flour, 2 eggs and 2 protein, 100 g condensed milk, 150 ml water, 75-80 g dark chocolate, 4 g agar-agar, 1/2 tsp. citric acid, 15 g vanilla sugar.
Cooking:
1. Beat 100 g of soft butter with 100 g of sugar, adding eggs, flour. Roll out two thin cakes, bake until golden brown.
2. Mix water with agar-agar, leave for a couple of hours, then bring to a boil, cook for one minute, add the remaining sugar, continue cooking until all the crystals have dissolved, cool.
3. Whisk soft butter (200 g) with condensed milk and vanilla sugar. Separately, beat the whites with citric acid until stable, gradually pouring in the cooled syrup with agar-agar, and then the milk-butter cream.
4. Place the cake on the bottom of the detachable form, distribute half of the cream, cover with a second layer and pour the remaining cream mass. Refrigerate for 4-5 hours, drizzle with melted chocolate frosting and remaining butter.
6. Cake “Apple tree”
The heroes of the Soviet film “Vanity of Vanities” were treated to just such a cake.
You will need:
For the biscuit: 90 g flour, 60 g potato starch, 100 g sugar, 210 g eggs without shell, 1 tsp. without a slide of soda, vanilla.
For the nut crust: 120 g egg whites without shell, 120 g sugar, 100 g nuts (cashews or hazelnuts).
For impregnation of cakes: 150 ml milk, 2 tbsp. l. brandy, 1 tbsp. l. Sahara.
For confiture: 242 g peeled apples, 150 g sugar, 8 g lemon zest, 0.5 tsp. agar-agar.
For protein cream: 314 g powdered sugar, 157 g egg whites, vanilla, 0.5 tsp. citric acid.
Cooking:
1. Gently mix the flour sifted with starch and soda into the eggs beaten into a lush foam with sugar. Pour into a mold, bake until tender at 200 degrees in the oven. Cut into two layers, cover with foil and cool.
2. For a nut cake, beat the whites with sugar, pour in the nuts, squeeze out a circle with a pastry bag equal in diameter to the finished biscuit layer. Pour the remaining protein cream out of the bag in random strips. Bake for about two hours, gradually lowering the oven temperature from 150 to 100 degrees.
3. Grind the pulp of an apple in a blender with sugar, cook for 12 minutes after boiling, pour in diluted in 2 tbsp. l. agar-agar water, carcasses for 8 minutes.
4. Proteins with powdered sugar, vanilla and citric acid, beat in a water bath.
5. Soak the cake with a syrup of milk, brandy and sugar, grease with apple jam, put a nut-protein circle and spread with jam again. Cover with a second biscuit soaked in syrup, cover with protein cream.
6. Tint the rest of the cream with food coloring and draw a branch of a flowering apple tree. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with protein-nut crumbs.
7. Cake “Napoleon”
In the distant Soviet times, puff pastry for this cake was prepared in such a way that it turned out to be 256 layers! Of course, you have to work hard, but it’s worth it. And one more thing: use only high-quality butter, because margarine will ruin everything.
You will need: 415 g fresh and fat butter, 445 g sifted flour, 170 ml water, 1 egg, 95 g sugar, 2 pinches of salt, 1 g citric acid, 1 egg yolk, 65 ml milk, 0.5 sachet of vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp. l. cognac, 1 tbsp. l. powdered sugar.
Cooking:
1. Beat an egg into 400 g of flour, pour in water with dissolved citric acid and salt, knead the dough, refrigerate for 35 minutes.
2. Mix softened butter (315 g) with 20 g flour, beat until fluffy. Transfer to a film, form a square layer, put in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the table with flour, roll out the dough, put a layer of butter in the center, fold it with an envelope, roll it into a rectangle no more than a centimeter thick. Wrap the edges to the middle and fold in half, you get 4 layers of butter, put in the refrigerator. Roll out again into a thin rectangle, fold towards the center and in half, refrigerate. Continue manipulating the dough 6-10 more times.
4. Roll out the dough into a layer 5 mm thick, cut into two rectangles 22 * 22 cm, bake in the oven, spreading the trimmings next to each other.
5. Whisk milk with yolk, add sugar and vanilla, cook for three minutes after boiling. Beat the remaining softened butter into a fluffy mass, pouring in a completely cooled milk mixture in a thin stream, add cognac.
6. Cover the puff cake with half of the cream, put the second cake, spread with the remaining cream. Sprinkle the cake generously on all sides with crumbled dough scraps and powdered sugar.
8. Cake “Honey cake”
The Soviet cake “Medovik” consists of soft, melt-in-your-mouth cakes with the addition of natural honey. The cream is used sour cream, it gives the dessert juiciness and slight sourness.
You will need: 3 cups sugar, 6 cups flour, 5 eggs, 3 tbsp. l. honey, 2 tbsp. l. baking powder, 700 g of high-quality fat sour cream, a handful of nuts.
Cooking:
1. Beat eggs into a small saucepan, put in a water bath, beat with a mixer with 2 cups of sugar. Add runny honey and baking powder, then 2 cups double sifted flour. Warm the dough under the lid for 25 minutes, then remove from the water bath and stir in 3 cups of flour.
2. Divide the dough into 10-12 parts, roll out thinly, cut out the same cakes, bake at 200 degrees.
3. Put the cooled cakes with a cream of sour cream mixed with sugar. Garnish with crumbs from scraps, sprinkle with crushed nuts.
9. Cake “Anthill”
In the USSR, the Anthill cake became popular in the 70s, since then its recipe has changed significantly. But still, according to GOST, it turns out much tastier!
You will need:
For test: 3 eggs, 100 ml fresh milk, 550 g flour, 1.3 tsp. soda, 0.5 cup sugar, 200 g butter, 2 pinches of salt.
For cream: 1 can of boiled condensed milk, 160 g butter, 4 tbsp. l. honey, 100 g poppy seeds, 50 g chocolate.
Cooking:
1. Grind flour with butter into crumbs, quickly mix in the rest of the ingredients and send the dough to the freezer. When it hardens well, rub on the track on a baking sheet, distribute with your hands and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.
2. Grind the baked dough with your hands into small fractions, mix with poppy seeds.
3. Whisk condensed milk with soft butter and honey, mix well with dough crumbs, moisten your hands with water and form a hill on the dish. Sprinkle with grated chocolate.
10. Cake “Bear in the North”
In Soviet stores, the Bear in the North cake was not sold, however, in almost every house, the housewives served this dessert for the festive table. The recipe, oddly enough, was exactly the same for everyone, hence the legend appeared that it was verified according to GOST.
You will need:
White cakes: 1 cup flour, sugar and sour cream, 1 tbsp. l. butter, 1 tsp. baking powder.
Chocolate cakes: 1 cup flour, sugar and sour cream, 1 tbsp. l. butter, 3 tbsp. l. cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder.
Sour Cream: 2 cups of high-quality fat sour cream, 1.5 cups of sugar, 70 g of walnuts, 100 g of dark chocolate.
Cooking:
1. Cook both types of dough at the same time in different bowls, mix all the ingredients with a whisk until smooth. Bake three cakes of each color, cool.
2. Beat sour cream with sugar with a mixer, spread the cakes, be sure to alternate them in color. Sprinkle the cream layers with toasted and chopped nuts. Cover the top and sides of the cake evenly with cream, sprinkle with grated chocolate, refrigerate for 7-8 hours.