Cake called "Count's""Ruins" can be bought today in any store where there is a confectionery department. However, any homemade cake will still be tastier! After all, at home you can try a variety of recipes, you can use different fillings, impregnations, glazes and creams. You can choose your favorite type of base and bake biscuit or protein cakes or take ready-made cookies. And the cooking process itself gives no less pleasure than the subsequent enjoyment of the taste. In addition, there is an opportunity to please loved ones and guests with an unusually delicate taste of homemade baked goods. The recipe for the cake "Count's Ruins" may seem complicated at first glance. However, not everything is as difficult as it seems. In addition, this cake or pie is a great opportunity to use an unsuccessful biscuit prepared for another dessert. In general, every housewife needs to know the recipe for the Count's Ruins cake, because no one is immune from mistakes and failures in the kitchen! By the way, this cake is also known under other names, for example, "Count's Castle", "Love Castle", "Royal Castle", "Pincher", "Actress's Whim", "Curly Boy". There are as many options for its preparation as there are names. You can use only meringue or only sponge cake, make a layer in the sponge cake from protein dough, use chocolate or nuts, butter or sour cream. The step-by-step recipe for any option looks like this:
- baked a biscuit or sand base;
- divided the cake into two cakes;
- one cake was cut into small pieces;
- shot down sour cream or oil cream;
- they gathered a cake: the pieces of the second crust were laid on the base;
- melted down with melted chocolate.
This is a kind of algorithm by which a pie or cake called "Count's ruins" is prepared. However, the recipes for its preparation are quite varied.
Sponge cake "Count's Ruins"
Classic recipe for making this cakeinvolves the use of protein dough. But it turns out no less delicious from biscuit cakes. True, in this case our cake will more resemble a classic pie with sour cream. Well, if it's a pie, then it's a pie. The main thing is to bake a delicious and fluffy biscuit for it, the recipe for which we offer you. Ingredients:
- 2 cups of flour;
- 1 cup of sugar;
- 2 eggs;
- 1 tablespoon of starch;
- 50-100 grams of sour cream;
- 100 grams of chocolate;
- Half a teaspoon of soda;
- Half a teaspoon of table vinegar;
- 1 bag of vanillin.
For the cream:
- 1 cup of sour cream;
- 1 cup of sugar;
- Vanillin.
Preparation:Making a sponge cake for a cake does not take much time. First of all, you need to separate the yolks from the whites and beat the whites into a thick foam. Then you need to mix the yolks with sugar until it dissolves, add flour, sour cream, soda slaked with vinegar, starch, a few spoons of protein foam and mix everything thoroughly. Then you need to carefully add the remaining foam to the resulting mass. The result should be an airy dough. The sponge cake must be poured into a greased and floured form and bake the pie in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for about forty minutes. The baked and cooled sponge cake must be cut into small pieces. Next, you need to prepare the cream for the cake. To do this, you need to beat the sour cream with sugar and add vanillin to the cream. Now you need to assemble the pie: put pieces of cut sponge cake dipped in cream in a slide on a cake plate. Pour melted chocolate over everything and put it in the refrigerator to soak and harden. The finished pie can be served with tea or coffee, or you can enjoy it with milk or cocoa.
Cake "Count's Ruins" with double cream
This version of the Count's Ruins cake is alreadya cake, not a pie. The recipe for its preparation will be more complicated than the previous one. It is prepared with two types of cream - condensed milk cream and protein cream. By the way, the preparation of this cake allows you to experiment with not only different creams and fillings, but also with different dough. Ingredients:
- 1 cup of flour;
- 2 cups of sugar;
- 200 grams of butter;
- Half a glass of powdered sugar;
- 5 eggs;
- 5 egg whites;
- Half a can of condensed milk;
- Half a can of boiled condensed milk;
- 50 grams of dark chocolate;
- Half a glass of chopped walnuts;
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda;
- Salt.
Preparation: The recipe is not that simple.To bake a cake according to this recipe, you need to make both a sponge cake layer and a meringue layer. To prepare the layer for the "Count's Ruins" cake, you can use any sponge cake recipe. For example, beat five eggs with one glass of sugar in a blender or with a mixer. Next, add flour and baking soda, quenched with vinegar, and mix the dough thoroughly. Now you need to cover the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper, but do not grease the sides of the pan with oil to avoid uneven dough rise. Next, you need to pour the sponge cake dough into the pan and bake the pie in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees for about thirty minutes. Cool the baked sponge cake and cut into two layers. After baking the sponge cake, you need to prepare the meringue for the cake. To do this, mix three egg whites with one glass of sugar, add salt and beat until thick foam forms. Next, spread parchment paper on a dry baking sheet and put the meringue on it, scooping up the whipped egg white foam with a teaspoon. To separate the foam from the spoon, use a second clean dry teaspoon. Bake the meringue in an oven preheated to 100 degrees for about an hour. Cool the finished meringue and put it separately on a large plate. Before preparing the protein cream for the meringue, the whites need to be cooled. Then mix them with powdered sugar and beat with a mixer. Add chopped nuts to the protein cream in parts and mix it carefully. Now you can make cream with condensed milk. To do this, mix softened butter with boiled condensed milk and beat until smooth. Add plain condensed milk and beat the mass again until fluffy. Now you should assemble the cake. The first sponge cake layer should be greased with cream with condensed milk, covered with the second layer, and the top should be covered with a thick layer of the same cream. Then each meringue should be dipped face down into the protein cream and placed dry side up on the surface of the sponge cake, forming another even layer. All the meringues greased with protein cream should be laid out in rows in the form of a cone. The surface of the resulting "Count's Ruins" should be poured with melted chocolate from a teaspoon. If desired, the finished cake can be sprinkled with chopped nuts.
Cake "Count's Ruins" made of meringue and dried fruits
Classic version of "Grafskikh""Razvalin" is not only a sponge cake, but also a delicate, fragile meringue cake, which is also known as "Actress's Caprice". But the recipe can be varied, for example, by adding dried fruits to the cake. Ingredients:
- 5 eggs (proteins);
- 2 and a half glasses of sugar;
- 1 can of condensed milk (boiled);
- 200 grams of butter;
- 1 glass of walnuts;
- 1 cup prunes;
- 1 cup dried apricots.
Preparation:How to bake a classic version of the "Count's Ruins" cake from meringue? You can use either a microwave or an oven to dry the meringue. The recommended temperature for baking meringue is 80-100 degrees. Do not overheat the oven, otherwise the meringue will crack and darken. You can use any of the known recipes for making meringue. But the classic version looks like this. First, separate the whites from the yolks and cool the whites well. Then beat the cooled egg whites until a white, steep foam forms. Check the foam's sufficient thickness by turning the pan over. If the whites do not flow out of the inverted pan, the foam is ready. Now begin to gradually add sugar to the whites, continuing to beat them. Bake the meringue for the cake in the oven for about an hour. To do this, put the protein dough on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, forming small cakes or one layer from it. Place the baking tray in a preheated oven and do not open it until the meringue is completely ready. Then turn off the oven and leave the meringue in it until it cools completely (preferably overnight). Break the finished meringue into pieces and fry the nuts in a dry frying pan. Mix the meringue with the nuts and add the dried fruits to this mass. To do this, first pour boiling water over the dried apricots and prunes and let them swell. Then dry the dried fruits, chop finely and add to the bowl with the meringue and nuts. Now you need to make the cream. To do this, beat the softened butter with a mixer, add a can of boiled condensed milk and continue beating the cream until fluffy. Put the cream into the meringue mass with dried fruits and nuts and form a cake in the form of a slide. Put it in the refrigerator to harden.
Cake "Count's Ruins" with prunes
Another classic recipe is "Count's Ruins". However, the method of its preparation is somewhat different. We will make this cake with prunes, and assemble it from protein cakes. Ingredients:
- 5 eggs;
- 1 cup of sugar;
- 200 grams of butter;
- 200 grams of walnuts;
- 300 grams of prunes;
- 1 can of condensed milk;
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or a quarter teaspoon of citric acid crystals;
Preparation:To make the "Count's Ruins" from meringue with prunes, you need to properly dry the base of the cake - meringue. To do this, first of all, you need to carefully separate the whites from the yolks. By the way, if even a drop of yolk gets into the white, it is better not to use it, since you will have to beat it for a long time, and the result may not be successful. So, cool the egg whites, add lemon juice to them and beat with a mixer until a white foam is obtained and hard peaks form. Now add sugar to the mass in parts, pouring it in a thin stream, and beat until it is completely dissolved, and the protein foam becomes fluffy and elastic. Now cover the baking sheet with parchment paper or grease it with vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 100 degrees and lay out the protein dough on the baking sheet in small cakes. It is best to spread it with a pastry syringe, but you can also use a teaspoon. The main thing is to keep a distance between the meringues so that they do not stick together during the drying process. By the way, the oven should not be opened under any circumstances for the first thirty to forty minutes so that the meringue does not settle. It is also necessary to monitor the temperature. If the oven gets too hot, the meringue will crack and darken. After an hour or an hour and a half, turn off the oven, but do not take out the baking sheet. And only when the oven has completely cooled down, take out the finished meringue. While the meringue is cooling, start making a simple butter cream for the cake. To do this, beat softened butter with condensed milk. However, with such a cream the cake will have a very sweet, even cloying taste, so we will dilute it with prunes. Steam the prunes by pouring boiling water over the berries. Remove the pits from the prunes and finely chop the pulp. Grind the walnuts, add them to the prunes and mix. Now assemble the cake. Place the "foundation" - tightly packed meringue cakes - on a plate. Grease this layer with cream and sprinkle with prunes and nuts. In this way, place all the meringue cakes in a hill, not forgetting to dip them in cream and layer them with prunes. Decorate the top of the cake with prunes and nuts. If you use this recipe for cooking, you can also make a different filling, for example, from cranberries or cherries. Put the finished cake in the refrigerator so that the cream hardens. Then the cake will be easier to cut into portions. It is best to cut it with a thin sharp knife, and to avoid crumbling the meringue, you can dip the knife in boiling water. Here is such a different pie or cake "Count's Ruins" you can make it from biscuit dough or meringue. By the way, you can also use ready-made protein cookies or biscuit (honey) cakes for it. And knowing the cooking process, you can modernize the recipe. For example, you can make cream with sour cream and powdered sugar, and also add fresh berries, nuts and chocolate to it. In short, choose a recipe and decide what you will make - a pie or a cake. Experiment and cook with pleasure. Bon appetit and success in the culinary field! We recommend reading:
