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Cake "Slavyanka" – nostalgia USSR dessert with secret ingredient
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Cake "Slavyanka"

Heavenly fluffy, creamy and tender is the cake "Slavyanka", which has a unique flavor. The secret ingredient that made this cake a gem during the Soviet era is halva. With this recipe, you'll make the Soviet cake yourself, which was so popular back then and has since been forgotten. It's pretty simple and requires only a few ingredients.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Russian, Soviet
Prep Time 50 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
cooling time 2 hours
Servings 12

Ingredients

for the batter

  • 3 eggs
  • 3 egg whites
  • 150 g sugar
  • 150 g flour
  • 30 g cornstarch
  • 8 g vanilla sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt

for the cream

  • 100 g halva finely grated (sunflower, sesame or peanut halva without nut pieces)
  • 300 g butter room-warm
  • 200 g sweetened condensed milk
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 70 ml water

for the sugar syrup

  • 120 ml water
  • 80 g sugar
  • 2 tbsp rum (cognac or liqueur)

for the sprinkling

  • 90 g halva finely grated

Instructions

Preparation of the batter

  • Beat eggs, egg whites, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt to a light and fluffy mixture.
  • Mix flour with cornstarch and add it to the egg-sugar mixture to make an airy, thick sponge mixture.
  • Spread the batter evenly on a baking tray lined with baking paper, bake the sponge cake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 15 minutes and let it cool.

Preparation of the sugar syrup

  • Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and boil briefly, stirring constantly so that the sugar dissolves before it boils. Let the sugar syrup cool.
  • Add rum to the sugar syrup and stir.

Preparation of the cream

  • Put egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and water in a small saucepan with a thick bottom and mix with a whisk to a homogeneous mass. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, then simmer until thickened, about 1 - 2 minutes, and let the pudding mass cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
  • Beat softened butter for about 5 minutes until fluffy creamy light mass.
  • Add pudding mixture to butter in batches, beating each time to form a homogeneous cream.
  • Alternatively, transfer about 2 tablespoons of butter cream to a piping bag to decorate the cake.
  • Add finely grated halva to the remaining butter cream and gently whisk until homogeneous.

Preparation of the cake

  • Cut off about 0.5 - 1 cm thick edge from all sides of the sponge cake and crumble it finely.
  • Cut the sponge cake from the short side into three rectangles of the same size and soak them with the sugar syrup.
  • Spread the three sponge cake layers generously with the halva butter cream and stack them on top of each other. Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining cream.
  • Mix the sponge crumbs with finely grated halva and sprinkle over the top and sides of the cake.
  • Decorate the cake as desired with the butter cream transferred to the piping bag and chill for at least 2 hours.

Notes

  • To check if the sponge cake is done baking, gently press on its surface with a finger about the middle. If it springs back after being pressed, and no marks remain visible, it is done.
  • You can simply omit alcohol in the sugar syrup or use a fruit syrup instead, for example.
  • Use sunflower, sesame or peanut halva without nut pieces. For this, follow my notes here above.
  • Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the cake "Slavyanka" above in the post.