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 minutesminutes
Cook Time 25 minutesminutes
cooling time 2 hourshours
Servings 12
Ingredients
for the batter
3eggs
3egg whites
150gsugar
150gflour
30gcornstarch
8gvanilla sugar
1pinch ofsalt
for the cream
100ghalvafinely grated (sunflower, sesame or peanut halva without nut pieces)
300gbutterroom-warm
200gsweetened condensed milk
3egg yolks
70mlwater
for the sugar syrup
120mlwater
80gsugar
2tbsprum(cognac or liqueur)
for the sprinkling
90ghalvafinely 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.