Cake "Day and night"
I traditionally make such a delicious cake at home for the holidays that fall on the cold season: it does not contain fresh berries and fruits, which are difficult to get in winter and early spring. On the other hand, it is quite satisfying and high-calorie, but in the cold it can be afforded. His recipe was given to me by a friend of my grandmother Belova Zinaida Petrovna - Vera Sergeevna many, many years ago. We often came to her clean and cozy one-room apartment in Tyoply Stan in the south-west of Moscow, filled with whatnots with multi-colored violets, and where it certainly smelled of delicious pastries ... So for me this soft cake based on sour cream biscuit with cocoa and vanilla, soaked in light sour cream with pieces of walnuts - one of my childhood memories.
Ingredients
Servings 8–12- thick sour cream 25-30% fat - 350 g
- granulated sugar - 130-140 g
- vanilla sugar - 2 tsp with medium slide
- cocoa powder - 30 g
- eggs - 1 + 1 pc. (weighing about 65-68 g)
- sour cream 18-20% fat - 280 + 280 g
- granulated sugar - 115 + 115 g
- baking soda - 1 + 1 tsp without a slide
- natural vanilla sugar - 1 + 1 tsp. with medium slide
- potato starch - 10 + 10 g
- premium wheat flour - 195 + 195 g
- cocoa powder - 10 g
- walnut kernels - 100 g
Cooking
Step 1
Turn on the oven and heat it to 3-3.2 (170 ° C). Grease the bottom of a Ø 28 cm non-stick baking dish with butter.
Step 2
For a dark cake, measure the amount of granulated sugar and wheat flour required by the recipe (mixing it with cocoa powder and potato starch) in separate containers.
Step 3
Beat the egg in a separate container with a mixer into a lush foam, pour sugar into it in portions, stirring it with a mixer each time, until a thick, stable white foam forms.
Step 4
Add vanilla sugar and sour cream to the egg. Mix gently, add baking soda and mix again.
Step 5
In portions, sift the mixture of flour, cocoa and potato starch through a sieve into the egg-sour cream mixture, each time kneading the dough with a mixer in one direction at medium speed (neatly, but not for long). The dough should turn out to be homogeneous, rather thick and flow in relief into a container from the beaters.
Step 6
Pour the prepared batter into the baking dish, gently rock the baking dish from side to side or spread the dough with a spoon so that it spreads evenly over it. Bake on the number 3-3.2 (170 ° C) for about 35-40 minutes. Check the readiness of the cake with a match or a wooden stick (the stick is dry).
Step 7
When the first cake is baked, let it cool in the mold for 10 minutes, then lay it on a flat surface and let it cool completely. And in this, make a light cake, as described above, only you do not need to add cocoa to it.
Step 8
While the cakes are cooling, warm the nuts in the oven for c. 3.5-4 (190-210°C) min. 3-5. Then cool them, chop coarsely with a knife and grind in your hands so that they become oily.
Step 9
From the cooled cakes, if necessary, cut off the burnt places (bottom and edges) with a bread knife (with sawing movements so as not to damage their structure). Prepare a serving dish.
Step 10
For the cream, beat cold sour cream with granulated sugar and vanilla sugar with a mixer (the process may take about 5-7 minutes, while the volume of the whipped mass should double).
Step 11
Put the cocoa cake on a serving dish, grease it with ⅓ of the cream and pierce it repeatedly with a thick wooden stick or fork (optional) for better impregnation. Sprinkle the cake with half of the prepared nuts.
Step 12
Cover the cocoa cake with the second white cake, lightly press the latter with your hands on top, then brush with another ⅓ of the cream, you can also repeatedly pierce it with a fork or wooden stick (optional). After that, level the surface of the cream with a spoon. In the center of the cake, sprinkle the remaining nuts in the shape of a circle.
Step 13
In the rest of the cream, sift 30 g of cocoa powder through a sieve and gently beat the mixture with a mixer. Lubricate the sides of the cake with about half of it (using a knife or spatula, leveling their surface), and spread the other evenly with a spoon around the circumference of the top of the cake in small “heaps”. Using a wooden stick or fork, mix the chocolate cream with white chaotic movements, creating graceful swirls on the surface of the cake.
Step 14
After that, wipe the edge of the serving plate with a slightly damp paper towel to remove any remaining cream. Close the finished cake on top (preferably with a special high lid from a cake storage dish so as not to smear the cream) and put in the refrigerator to cool for 3-4 hours. Then the cake can be served to the table. Enjoy your meal!