During the USSR era, all cakes sold in confectionery shops were created according to strictly verified GOST standards. Nowadays, these standards have long been forgotten by manufacturers, which is why the taste of sweets has significantly deteriorated. But we have collected ten original recipes for Soviet culinary masterpieces for you!
1. "Skazka" Cake
This dessert can be given any shape. In Soviet times, "Skazka" cake was most often made in the form of a roll.
You will need:
Biscuit: 4 large eggs, 120 g flour, 120 g sugar.
Charlotte Cream: 120 ml milk, 1 small egg or 2 yolks, 1 tbsp cognac (optional), 200 g sugar, 220 g butter (82.5%), 15 g vanilla sugar, 30 g dark chocolate, green food coloring.
Soaking Syrup: 100 g water and 100 g sugar, 2 tbsp cognac.
Decoration: 5-6 marmalade strawberries, 1 tbsp candied fruit.
Preparation:
1. Beat egg whites and yolks with sugar separately in different bowls using a mixer, dividing the sugar volume approximately in half. Combine, gently mix, and add flour.
2. Pour the egg-flour mixture onto a baking sheet lined with silicone parchment, bake in the oven until lightly golden. Cover the warm biscuit with cling film and let it cool on the kitchen table.
3. For the Charlotte cream, combine milk, egg or yolks, sugar, vanilla in a saucepan, cook for 3 minutes after boiling, cool to room temperature. Gradually incorporate the egg-milk syrup into the whipped butter. Separate a portion of the cream and mix it with melted chocolate, tint a few more spoons of cream with green food coloring.
4. Trim the uneven edges of the biscuit, dry them in the oven, and crush them in a blender.
5. Brush the cake layer with the soaking mixture, evenly spread the Charlotte cream (white) with a spatula or spoon, and roll it up. Cover with chocolate cream, sprinkle the sides of the roll with crumbs.
6. Decorate the top of the cake with strawberries, pipe green cream leaves around them using a pastry bag, and randomly arrange candied fruits.
2. Leningradsky Cake
Not the easiest to prepare, but a very famous Leningradsky cake consists of shortbread layers, spread with delicious butter-milk cream.
You will need: 0.5 kg sifted flour, 200 g sugar, 300 g butter margarine, 3 eggs, 300 g high-quality butter, 350 g powdered sugar, 400 g condensed milk, 5 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tbsp water, 1 tbsp baking powder, 10-15 g vanilla sugar, a handful of walnuts.
Preparation:
1. In a food processor, combine softened margarine, 2 eggs and 1 yolk, sugar, gradually add flour, form the dough into a ball and refrigerate for half an hour.
2. Cut the cooled dough into five roughly equal parts, roll out and bake in the oven.
3. Using a mixer on medium speed, beat condensed milk, softened butter, powdered sugar (save 3 tbsp for the glaze) and two spoons of cocoa. Place the mixture in the refrigerator.
4. Beat egg white with the remaining powdered sugar, gradually adding cocoa, add a spoon of water.
5. Assemble the cake on a large flat plate, spreading the layers evenly with chilled cream. Pour the glaze over the finished dessert.
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3. "Prague" Cake
"Prague" cake is a beloved dessert of our mothers and grandmothers, and it remains popular today.
You will need:
For the layers: 6 fresh eggs, 150 g sugar, 40 g melted butter, 115 g sifted flour, 25 g cocoa, 1 pinch of salt.
For the cream: 1 pack butter (82% fat), 130 g condensed milk, 1 yolk, 1 sachet vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp cold water, 1 tbsp cocoa.
For the glaze: 2 tbsp apricot jam, 100 g dark chocolate, 100 g butter.
For soaking the layers: 50 ml water and 50 ml cognac, 6-7 tbsp sugar.
Preparation:
1. Combine separately beaten egg whites and yolks with sugar, add flour with cocoa, mix with cooled melted butter. Bake a chocolate biscuit, cool in the mold, then wrap in cling film and leave for 12 hours.
2. Boil the soaking syrup components for about five minutes, while the syrup cools, prepare the cream. Cook the mixture of condensed milk, yolk, water, and vanilla until thickened, cool and beat together with softened butter, gradually adding cocoa.
3. Cut the biscuit base into three layers. Place the first layer on a plate, soak with syrup and spread half of the cream. Cover with the second layer, brush with syrup and the remaining cream. Pour the remaining syrup on the inside of the third layer and place it on top of the cream. Evenly spread jam over the top and sides of the cake and refrigerate.
4. Cool melted chocolate with butter, cover the cake with the resulting viscous mixture.
4. "Kievsky" Cake
Modern "Kievsky" cakes sold in stores have nothing in common with the authentic dessert of Soviet times. Until the 70s, this cake in the USSR was made exclusively with cashew nuts, and the egg whites were specially "fermented" before whipping.
You will need:
For the layers: 200 g egg whites, 45 g sifted flour, 240 g sugar, 1 g vanillin, 150 g roasted cashew nuts.
Charlotte Cream: 1 egg, 250 g butter, 150 ml fresh milk, 150 g sugar, 1 tbsp cognac, 10 g cocoa, 1 g vanillin.
For decoration: marmalade figures, red and green gel food coloring.
Preparation:
1. Pour egg whites into a clean jar, cover with a lid, and leave on the kitchen table for about a day. Then whip, gradually increasing speed and adding sugar with vanilla, until stiff peaks form. In three additions, fold in the nut crumbs mixed with 1 tbsp flour and 40 g sugar into the meringue. Pour the batter into two molds of the same diameter and bake in the oven simultaneously for 2-3 hours at 110 degrees Celsius. Then turn off the oven and leave overnight, without opening the door.
2. For the cream, simmer the mixture of milk, sugar, vanilla, and egg over low heat for about 5 minutes. Whip the butter, gradually pouring in the cooled egg-milk syrup and cognac in a thin stream. Set aside a small portion of cream for decoration, mix the rest with cocoa, and spread it over the cake layers, top, and sides.
3. For decoration, tint small portions of Charlotte cream pink and green, and pipe a blooming chestnut branch with leaves using a pastry bag. Decorate with marmalade figures. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with nut crumbs.
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5. "Ptichye Moloko" Cake
If you strictly adhere to the GOST recipe from the USSR era, the "Ptichye Moloko" cake will turn out very tender and airy.
You will need: 560 g sugar, 350 g butter, 140 g sifted wheat flour, 2 eggs and 2 egg whites, 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.
Preparation:
1. Beat 100 g soft butter with 100 g sugar, adding eggs and flour. Roll out two thin layers, 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 crystals dissolve, cool.
3. Beat soft butter (200 g) with condensed milk and vanilla sugar. Separately beat egg whites with citric acid until stiff, gradually pouring in the cooled agar-agar syrup, and then the milk-butter cream.
4. Place a cake layer at the bottom of a springform pan, spread half of the cream, cover with the second layer, and pour the remaining cream mixture. Chill in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours, then pour glaze made from melted chocolate with the remaining butter.
6. "Yablonka" Cake
The characters in the Soviet film "Sueta Suet" enjoyed this very cake.
You will need:
For the biscuit: 90 g flour, 60 g potato starch, 100 g sugar, 210 g shelled eggs, 1 tsp baking soda (level), vanilla.
For the nut layer: 120 g shelled egg whites, 120 g sugar, 100 g nuts (cashews or hazelnuts).
For soaking the layers: 150 ml milk, 2 tbsp brandy, 1 tbsp sugar.
For the confiture: 242 g peeled apples, 150 g sugar, 8 g lemon zest, 0.5 tsp agar-agar.
For the meringue cream: 314 g powdered sugar, 157 g egg whites, vanilla, 0.5 tsp citric acid.
Preparation:
1. Gently fold sifted flour with starch and soda into eggs beaten until fluffy with sugar. Pour into a mold, bake until done at 200 degrees Celsius in the oven. Cut into two layers, cover with cling film and cool.
2. For the nut layer, beat egg whites with sugar, add nuts, pipe a circle of the same diameter as the finished biscuit layer using a pastry bag. Pipe the remaining meringue cream in arbitrary strips. Bake for about two hours, gradually reducing the oven temperature from 150 to 100 degrees Celsius.
3. Blend apple pulp with sugar, cook for 12 minutes after boiling, pour in agar-agar dissolved in 2 tbsp water, simmer for 8 minutes.
4. Beat egg whites with powdered sugar, vanilla, and citric acid over a double boiler.
5. Soak the cake layer with syrup made from milk, brandy, and sugar, spread with apple confiture, place the nut-meringue circle and spread with confiture again. Cover with the second biscuit, soaked in syrup, and cover with meringue cream.
6. Tint the remaining cream with food coloring and draw a blooming apple branch. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with meringue-nut crumbs.
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7. "Napoleon" Cake
In distant Soviet times, the puff pastry for this cake was prepared in such a way that it had 256 layers! It will certainly take effort, but it's worth it. And one more thing: use only high-quality butter, because margarine will spoil everything.
You will need: 415 g fresh and rich butter, 445 g sifted flour, 170 ml water, 1 egg, 95 g sugar, 2 pinches of salt, 1 g citric acid, 1 yolk, 65 ml milk, 0.5 sachet vanilla sugar, 1 tbsp cognac, 1 tbsp powdered sugar.
Preparation:
1. Beat an egg into 400 g 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 cling film, form a square layer, refrigerate for 30-40 minutes.
3. Flour the table, roll out the dough, place the butter layer in the center, fold into an envelope, roll out into a rectangle no more than a centimeter thick. Fold the edges to the center and fold in half, resulting in 4 layers of butter, refrigerate. Roll out again into a thin rectangle, fold to the center and in half, refrigerate. Continue manipulating the dough 6-10 more times.
4. Roll out the dough into a 5 mm thick layer, cut into two 22*22 cm rectangles, bake in the oven, placing the trimmings next to them.
5. Beat milk with yolk, add sugar and vanilla, cook for three minutes after boiling. Beat the remaining softened butter into a fluffy mass, gradually pouring in the completely cooled milk mixture in a thin stream, add cognac.
6. Cover the puff pastry layer with half of the cream, place the second layer, spread with the remaining cream. Generously sprinkle the cake on all sides with crushed dough trimmings and powdered sugar.
8. "Medovik" Cake
The Soviet "Medovik" cake consists of soft, melt-in-your-mouth layers with natural honey. Sour cream is used for the frosting, which gives the dessert juiciness and a slight tang.
You will need: 3 cups sugar, 6 cups flour, 5 eggs, 3 tbsp honey, 2 tbsp baking powder, 700 g high-quality fatty sour cream, a handful of nuts.
Preparation:
1. Beat eggs into a small saucepan, place over a double boiler, beat with a mixer with 2 cups of sugar. Add liquid honey and baking powder, then 2 cups of twice-sifted flour. Heat the dough under a lid for 25 minutes, then remove from the double boiler and mix in 3 cups of flour.
2. Divide the dough into 10-12 parts, roll out thinly, cut out identical rounds, bake at 200 degrees Celsius.
3. Spread the cooled layers with cream made from sour cream mixed with sugar. Decorate with crumbs from the trimmings, sprinkle with crushed nuts.
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9. "Muraveinik" Cake
In the USSR, "Muraveinik" cake became popular in the 70s, and since then its recipe has changed significantly. But still, according to GOST, it turns out much tastier!
You will need:
For the dough: 3 eggs, 100 ml fresh milk, 550 g flour, 1.3 tsp baking soda, 0.5 cup sugar, 200 g butter, 2 pinches of salt.
For the cream: 1 can boiled condensed milk, 160 g butter, 4 tbsp honey, 100 g poppy seeds, 50 g chocolate.
Preparation:
1. Rub flour with butter into crumbs, quickly mix in the remaining ingredients and send the dough to the freezer. When it hardens well, grate it onto a baking sheet, spread with your hands and bake in a hot oven until golden brown.
2. Crush the baked dough into small pieces with your hands, mix with poppy seeds.
3. Beat condensed milk with soft butter and honey, mix well with the dough crumbs, moisten your hands with water and form a mound on a plate. Sprinkle with grated chocolate.
10. "Mishka na Severe" Cake
In Soviet stores, the "Mishka na Severe" cake was not sold, however, in almost every home, hostesses served this dessert for festive occasions. The recipe, strangely enough, was absolutely identical for everyone, hence the legend that it was verified according to GOST.
You will need:
White layers: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tbsp butter, 1 tsp baking powder.
Chocolate layers: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup sour cream, 1 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp cocoa, 1 tsp baking powder.
Sour cream frosting: 2 cups high-quality fatty sour cream, 1.5 cups sugar, 70 g walnuts, 100 g dark chocolate.
Preparation:
1. Prepare both types of dough simultaneously in different bowls, mix all ingredients with a whisk until smooth. Bake three layers of each color, cool.
2. Beat sour cream with sugar using a mixer, spread between the layers, making sure to alternate colors. Sprinkle the cream layers with toasted and crushed nuts. Evenly cover the top and sides of the cake with cream, sprinkle with grated chocolate, and refrigerate for 7-8 hours.