Fluffy sponge cake, sweet chocolate butter cream, fruity sour cherries and delicate chocolate glaze unites in itself the popular Soviet cake "Gusinye lapki". It tastes creamy, sweet-sour, soft, chocolatey – simply heavenly delicious. The cake, which used to be offered in many Soviet confectioneries, you can make yourself at home according to this recipe. It is perfect for a special occasion or for afternoon coffee at the weekend.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Russian, Soviet
Prep Time 1 hourhour10 minutesminutes
Cook Time 35 minutesminutes
Resting time 5 hourshours
Servings 12
Equipment
Ø 24 cm large baking pan
piping bag with star and hole nozzle
Ingredients
for the dough
4eggs
120gsugar
110gflour
10gcornstarch
butter to grease the baking pan
for the cream
200gcream
200gbutterroom-warm
150gsugar
20gcocoa powder
1tbspliqueurroom-warm (e.g. liqueur of preserved cherries)
vanilla
for the cherry filling
350gsour cherriesfrozen
150mlliqueurany
for the sugar syrup
40mlwater
20gsugar
2tbspliqueur(e.g. liqueur of preserved cherries)
for the chocolate glaze
100gdark chocolate
50gbutter
for the decorating
approx. 35gdark chocolatefinely chopped
somedark chocolatefor "goose slippers"
fresh sweet cherriesalternatively
Instructions
Preparation of the cherry filling
Put frozen sour cherries in a container and pour liqueur over them without thawing them first. Let them steep for at least 4 hours and then drain them thoroughly.
Preparation of the dough
Line the bottom of the baking springform pan with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter.
Beat eggs and sugar until they form a light and fluffy mixture.
Mix flour with cornstarch and add it to the egg-sugar mixture to make an airy thick batter.
Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 25 minutes. Afterwards, let the sponge cake cool down a bit in the baking pan, take it out and let it cool down completely.
Preparation of the sugar syrup
Boil water and sugar briefly while stirring constantly and let the sugar syrup cool down.
Add liqueur and mix.
Preparation of the cream
Put cream and sugar in a thick-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly so that the sugar dissolves before boiling. Then simmer the cream syrup, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes, and let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Beat butter with vanilla until fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the cream syrup in batches, whipping it each time until it is a homogeneous cream.
Add cocoa powder and whip to a homogeneous chocolate cream.
Add liqueur and whip again briefly to a homogeneous cream.
Preparation of the cake
Cut the sponge cake lengthwise into two equally thick cake layers.
Soak the two cake layers with the sugar syrup.
If necessary, leave some cream for decorating and put it aside for the time being. Spread one of the two cake layers with the cream, spread sour cherries on top and spread the remaining cream on top. Place the second cake layer on top.
Preparation of the chocolate glaze
Melt chocolate together with butter.
Spread the chocolate glaze on top of the cake and lightly brush the sides of the cake with the glaze. Then immediately sprinkle the sides with the finely chopped dark chocolate. Let the chocolate glaze dry briefly in the refrigerator.
Melt some dark chocolate and let it cool briefly to make it less runny. Pour the chocolate into a piping bag with a narrow hole nozzle and use it to draw goose slippers on the cake.
Decorate the top of the cake with the set aside cream by filling it into the piping bag with the star nozzle and piping in mounds.
Alternatively, decorate the cake with fresh sweet cherries and chill for 1 hour.
Notes
You can also soak sour cherries in liqueur overnight and then let them drain, as long as you prepare the other components for the cake.
If you want to make the cake without alcohol, just let frozen sour cherries thaw and drain thoroughly. You can simply omit alcohol in the cream and sugar syrup.
To bake the sponge cake, you need a Ø 24 cm baking springform pan.
Butter, the cream syrup and liqueur must be room-warm and all three about the same temperature before whipping into the cream, so that they can combine well.
Vanilla choices include vanilla sugar, vanilla powder, vanilla extract or vanilla bean scraped out.
Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the cake "Gusinye lapki" above in the post.