Cakes

Sponge cake with tvorog-cream and poached plums

Hello to you, to a person who is reading this post or just glancing at photos of this moist and delicious cake with creamy filling, that was topped with aromatic spiced plum slices. The cake itself is a sponge cake, which is very simple to make and for that you need only four ingredients. I also added a drizzle of honey to the batter, honey gives a nice golden color to the cake and of course incredible flavor!

It has been ages since I made any layer cakes, so I decided to experiment with the cream. Tvorog is a dairy product, that used very often in Russian cuisine in such dishes like syrniki, sweet bakes and many other. Thus I took tvorog, mixed it with sugar and whipping cream, and I guess the cream became very Russian. 🙂 But I didn’t stopped there and added also gelatin to the cream. Honestly, it was my first attempt adding gelatin to the cake cream (with the exception of using it in panna cotta). I wasn’t sure that it would dissolve completely in the cream, and I beat it with electric blender. I love the result – cake was super tasty as well as the cream, and it’s gone very fast, especially if you serve it with some poached plums on a side.

If you have any tips and advises how to add gelatin to a cake cream, please do share with me! I’d like to know and learn how to use it properly.

Sponge cake with tvorog-cream and poached plums

Servings: 6-8
Time: 4hr+
Difficulty: moderate
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Using gelatin in the cream is totally optional (it just makes the cream more thick); you can easily omit it.

Ingredients

Sponge Cake

3 large eggs

100g white sugar

1/3 tsp runny honey

110g plain flour

100ml plum syrup (liquid form poached plums)

1 tbps cognac or other aromatic alcohol, optional

poached plums, for decor

Cream

220g tvorog (Russian cottage cheese)

150g icing sugar

200ml whipping cream (35%)

8-10g powdered gelatin

50ml cold water

Method

For the cake, in a large bowl beat eggs with sugar until pale and increase three times in size. Add honey and beat a little bit again. Sift the flour and carefully fold into the egg mixture with spatula.
Grease 20cm cake pan with butter, sprinkle with flour and pour the batter. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 40 minutes.
Leave the cake to cool in a pan for 20-30 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack or plate and leave to cool for 4 hours or overnight. Cut the cake into two layers. Brush each cake with the mixture of plum syrup and alcohol (if using).
For the cream, soften tvorog with a folk or electric blender. Add icing sugar and beat until combined. Add whipping cream and beat again.
Dissolve gelatin in cold water and leave for 10 minutes. Add to the cream and beat again.
Spread about half the cream on one of the cakes. Layer the second cake, and spread the remaining cream on the top and sides. Decorate with poached plums.

Spiced poached plums

5-7 soft plums (about 200g), sliced

80g white sugar (or more to your taste)

250 ml water

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

2 cardamom cloves

Method

In a small pan, add plums and sugar. Add spices and cover plums with water. Heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to boil, then reduce to low-medium heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until plums are soft. Leave to cool.

Enjoy!

Sharing with Angie FF#105 and co-hosts Lily and Julianna.

Sponge cake with tvorog-cream&poached plums

Russian sour cream cake

Hello-hello! May be some of you remember this post when I wrote about cowberries. I love these bright, sour and bitter beauties. These little cowberries is an excellent source of Vitamin C, and of course the best way to eat them as is or sprinkle with some sugar. A handful of these beauties make any cake only prettier, like I did – threw some on the top of this wonderful cake. I know, it’s not easy to find even frozen cowberries in stores, so go ahead and use cranberries (but I mean small ones). Honestly speaking, they are pretty similar. Russian sour cream cake

In Russia, we consume much of sour cream; we use it as a sauce for both sweet and savory pancakes, to dress salads, to make famous Beef Stroganof and etc. And it’s no wonder that we make sour cream cakes. The cake is very soft, aromatic and tender; and the big plus – you can use almost any fruits that you can find in your fridge – apples, plums, or may be some pears.. And even prepare it plane-without any fruits or berries, then cut a good freshly-baked slice and enjoy it with a cup of hot milky tea. 🙂

Russian sour cream cake (with plums and cowberry)

Servings: 6-8
Time: 1hr
Difficulty: easy
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I used 20cm baking tin.

You may substitute yellow plums for red; and use cranberry instead of cowberry.

Ingredients

200g sour cream (20% fat)

80g white sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional

1 medium lemon, zest, chopped

1/3 tsp baking soda

2 tsp lemon juice

150-180g self-raising flour

4-5 yellow plums, cut into 4-6 slices

100-150g frozen cowberry (no need to defreeze)

Preparation method

In a large bowl, whisk sour cream with sugar for 5 minutes. If using electric blender 2 minutes will be enough.
In a separate bowl, whisk eggs with vanilla, cinnamon and lemon zest ( you need only to combine ingrefients, dont overwhisk). Stir into sour cream mixture.
Dissolve soda in lemon juice and stir into the batter.
Gradually add flour.
Line and grease baking tin. Pour in batter. Arrange plum slices (lightly push them into batter) and cowberry. You may sprinkle with extra lemon zest and granulated sugar.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 35 minutes. Leave to cool in a tin for 10 minutes. Carefully take it out and serve.

Next day gently reheat the cake before serving.

Enjoy!

Sunny pie

Today is the winter solstice, it is an astronomical event that occurs twice a year (summer and winter solstice). Winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. During the paganism time in old Russia this day was a special celebration, which was called Yule night. It was a festive and holy day for the honour of greeting the baby-sun named Kolyada, that was born on this night, which slowly but steady began to be stronger and brighter. That means that with each upcoming day nights became shorter, days longer and sun shone brightly and warmly. In the night people had to get together (there was a superstition that to stay alone in this night was unluckily), they set a big festive fire, sang songs and burnt all old and useless stuff; people also prepared chickens and turkey, baked round pies and praised the Sun.

As you can see, I’ve tried to make a sun-looking pie. Rich and sweet pastry holds lemon-scented milky filling and all covered with lightly soured apricot puree. In a word, I liked this bright and tasty pie! It reminds me another pie that I made – ‘cottage cheese and cranberry pie’, so if you liked that one – give a chance to this sunny pie as well. 🙂

Lemon-tvorog pie with apricot top

Servings: 6-8
Time: 4hr
Difficulty: moderate
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I used 20cm loose-bottom baking pan.

*Tvorog is Russian cottage cheese, you can find it in many European or Russian stores.

Lemon-tvorog pie

Ingredients

sweet lemon pastry

400g tvorog*

100g butter, at room temperature

zest of 1 medium lemon

3-4 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 medium eggs

30g (3 tbsp) brown sugar

30g (3 tbsp) white sugar

60g golden raisins

hot black tea or water, to cover the raisins

2 tsp cornmeal

apricot top

Preparation method

While the pastry case is baking, prepare the filling.
In a small bowl, put raisins and cover with hot black tea or water. You can also add a tablespoon of cognac or brandy for extra flavour. Leave to soak while making the diary filling.
In a large bowl, whisk tvorog with butter until just combined. In another bowl beat eggs with sugars.
Add lemon zest and juice, vanilla and beaten eggs to the tvorog mixture, beat until just combined.
Drain raisins and mix into the filling along with cornflour.
Pour the filling into the pastry case. Pour the apricot puree over the tvorog filling.
Bake in preheated 190C oven for 45-50 minutes. If the top begins to burn – cover it with foil.
Let it cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then carefully transfer onto the serving plate. Enjoy!

P.S. The filling wasn’t smooth as you can see from the pics, if you like it -ok, if not- you may push tvorog through the sieve.

Sweet lemon pastry

170g butter, at room temperature

50g golden caster sugar

zest of 1 small lemon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg (40-45g), at room temperature

260g plain flour

Glaze: 1 small beaten egg yolk, optional

In a large bowl, whisk butter with sugar until just creamy. Add lemon zest, vanilla and egg and mix until just combined. Mix in flour. Cover the pastry with plastic wrap and chill overnight or up to 3 days until ready to use.
Roll out 3mm-thick (or as thick as you like) circle to cover your baking pan. You can also make ‘sun rays’ and stick them to the base and sides of the pan, but it’s optional step. If you have any pastry remains, roll out it and cut out cookies, then bake it on a baking tray for 10-12 minutes.
Put the pan with pastry into the freezer for 10 minutes.
Cover the pastry case with foil, add beans/rice/special stones for baking and bake in preheated 190C oven for 20 minutes. Then remove the weight, brush with the glaze (optional) and return to the oven for 5 minutes more.

Apricot Top (optional)

5 small sliced apricots (150g) (or sub with apricot jam)

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cornflour

20-30g (3 tbsp) golden caster sugar

Beat all ingredients with electric blender into a smooth puree. The apricot top was slightly sour, if you like sweeter -add more sugar.

Enjoy!

Sharing with wonderful and full of fun Fiesta Friday party!

Tsvetaeva Apple Pie

On this day, 8 of October, 123 years ago one of the greatest poetess in Russian literature – Marina Tsvetaeva drew the first breath.

She was born in the intelligent family: her father Ivan was a famous philologist, art critic and a professor of Fine Art in Moscow University and mother Maria was a pianist. Marina Tsvetaeva begun to wrote here first poetry being a 6 years old child, her poetry was written not only in Russian, but also in French and German languages. Her mother was terminally ill with tuberculosis and that time was believed that a change in climate could help to cure the disease, so young Marina spend quite a long time in Italy, Switzerland and Germany; lately she studied French literature in famous Sorbonne University.

Tsvetaeva published the very first poetry collection in 1910 on her own money..

Russian Civil war (1917-1922) was severe time for the poetess and here own family. She rejected Russian Revolution and wrote the cycle of poems about the war, glorifying those who fought against the communists. While here husband joined the White Army (anti-communist), she had no support and lived in starvation with her daughters.

In 1922 Marina Tsvetaeva left the Soviet Union and moved to Berlin, lately her family lived in Prague and finally settled in Paris. Unfortunately, living abroad didn’t made here life easier, they lived in poverty and were homesick for Russia. Tsvetaeva did whatever she could: began to write more prose because it made more money than poetry. Meanwhile, her husband and daughter were involved in NKVD (predecessor of KGB), and when French police interrogated Marina Tsvetaeva, she was shocked about news that her husband was a spy. Furthermore, police implicated here son in the murder of former Soviet defector.

Finally, in 1939 she returned to Russia..

Returning to the apple pie recipe and its name. It’s being said that such apple pie was served in the house of Marina Tsvetaeva and her sister Anastasia. Young Marina spent a lot of time with famous poets and writers on the literary evenings, and it’s been known that she served an apple pie to her visitors. I really want to believe that she really had an opportunity to participate and enjoy such evenings, where this tender and delicious apple pie was served. At least there was something striking and good in her life.

Tsvetaeva Apple Pie

Servings: 6-8
Time: 2hr
Difficulty: moderate
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You can make the dough one day ahead and keep it in the fridge.

Ingredients

Dough

150g butter, at room temperature

250g plain flour

4 tbsp sour cream, 30%

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp apple vinegar or lemon juice

Filling

3 sour medium apples

1/2 lemon, juice

250g sour cream, 30%

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract, optional

100g white sugar

2 tbsp plain flour

Method

For the dough, in a large bowl, add butter, sift the flour and mix until mixture resembles crumbs. Add sour cream. Dissolve soda in vinegar or lemon juice and pour in the dough mixture. Mix to combine. Knead a dough a bit, shape into a disk, cover in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take the baking tin, grease it and line with baking paper. Roll the dough into the circle to fit the baking tin. Put the tin into the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel (optional), core and thinly slice apples, sprinkle with lemon juice.
In a bowl, with electric or hand whisker beat sour cream with egg and sugar. Add vanilla, if using. Sift the flour. Whisk to combine.
Take the baking tin with dough from the fridge. Arrange apple slices. Pour over the sour cream mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 180C and bake for 25 minutes more. If the top begins browning too much, cover it with a foil.
Allow the pie to cool completely in the baking tin. Then carefully transfer the pie onto the serving plate. Slice and serve with cup of hot tea.

The remaining pie cover with a foil and keep in the fridge up to 2 days. The pie will be even better on the next day, as the cream becomes thicker.

The duo cake

Cheesecake or chocolate cake? This cake is perfect for those who can not choose! I called it ‘the duo cake’ because it combines both the chocolate cake and cheesecake. It turned out great from the first attempt, moreover this cake is so delicious, smooth chocolate part shades nicely into the cheesy-one. The cake has amazing aroma of dark chocolate, sweet vanilla and sunny orange. I hope you will give it a try! 🙂

The duo cake

Servings: 8-10
Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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All ingredients should be at room temperature.

For the recipe I used 20cm square cake tin, but round tin is also can be used.

Ingredients

Cheesecake part

500g cream cheese (Philadelphia)

70g white sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

1 egg

50ml double cream (30%), optional

1 tsp vanilla exctract

zest of one orange

Chocolate part

160g flour

40g cacao powder (unsweetened)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/3 tsp salt

100g brown sugar (or white sugar)

2 eggs

70g butter, melted

200g sour cream

Top
1-2 tbsp chopped dark chocolate (70-75% cacao)

orange zest

Preparation method

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar and cornflour, mix in egg until just combine, then fold in cream if using. Add vanilla and orange zest.
In another bowl, sift flour and cocoa powder, add salt, baking powder and soda.
In a bowl, beat eggs with brown sugar. Mix in melted butter and sour cream.
Pour egg mixture into flour, combine but don’t overmix.
Line 20cm square baking tin. Pour in chocolate mixture. Then pour cheesecake mixture onto the top of chocolate one. Sprinckle with chopped chocolate and orange zest.
Bake in preheated 180C oven for 45-50 minutes.
Let the cake cool complitely, then cut into squres.
I served mine with cranberries, their sourness suits well with the cake.

Enjoy!