The Prague cake is known in many variations.Where did they come from? Oddly enough, they came from the recent past, when this cake was so popular with Soviet citizens that state (and there were no others at the time!) culinary and confectionary shops were unable to satisfy the demand for this miracle cake. As a result, the Prague cake became a scarce product, and enterprising housewives, each in her own way, tried to reproduce the Prague recipe at home. Some turned out to be close to the original, while others got similar, but slightly different, but no less delicious cakes. And be that as it may, we inherited so many recipes for this cake that it is almost impossible to choose the most “real” one. But each such recipe can confidently claim the title of “Homemade Prague Cake”. What tricks did Soviet housewives not resort to in order to make a cake with the same taste as the store-bought Prague. They baked sponge cake with sour cream or almonds, whipped cream with condensed cocoa, tried to make sour cream for this cake. In general, our predecessors succeeded in the culinary field and left us their recipes for the Prague cake. Here are some of them.
"Prague" on an oil biscuit
This recipe was probably born from someonehousewives by intuition. She once tried the Prague cake and decided that a home confectioner could also handle this cake, and it could also be prepared at home, for example, like this. Ingredients:
- Eggs - 6 pieces;
- Creamy margarine - 70 g;
- Sugar is an incomplete glass;
- Flour - 1 glass;
- Cocoa - 3 tablespoons;
- Baking powder for the dough - 1 teaspoon;
- Jam for impregnation.
For the cream:
- Butter - 250 g;
- Condensed milk - 1 pot;
- Cocoa powder - 2 tablespoons.
For the glaze:
- sugar - 1 cup;
- water - 8 tablespoons;
- cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon.
Preparation:Carefully separate the egg whites from the yolks. Grind the yolks with sugar, add melted (liquid) margarine and flour mixed with cocoa powder. Mix everything thoroughly and set aside. Next comes the whites. Whip them into a stiff foam, and then gradually, in small portions, add them to the dough. Pour the dough into a prepared, greased baking pan and put it in the oven. Bake the cake until a dry matchstick tests. Remove the finished sponge cake from the pan and cool. While the sponge cake is cooling, you can prepare the cream. To do this, beat the softened butter with condensed milk and cocoa. First, lightly beat the butter, and then add condensed milk to it (a tablespoon at a time). At the end of cooking, add cocoa powder to the cream. Cut the cooled sponge cake into three identical layers. Soak the bottom and middle parts with any jam (currant, apricot, raspberry) and grease with cream. Assemble the cake by placing the layers on top of each other and pour chocolate glaze on top. To prepare the glaze, pour water into a saucepan, pour sugar there and cook over low heat until the sugar dissolves. Then add cocoa and cook until our glaze begins to thicken.
Almost classical "Prague"
Well, this recipe rightfully claims to be the closest to the original Prague cake in a homemade version. For it you will need the following ingredients:
- Eggs fresh - 6 pieces;
- Sugar - 1 part glass (150 g);
- Flour - half a glass (115 g);
- Cocoa powder - 2 tablespoons;
- Butter - 4 tablespoons (40 g);
- Jam or confiture.
For the cream:
- Butter - 200 g;
- Condensed milk - 120 g;
- Egg - 1 piece;
- Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon;
- Vanillin.
To soak the cakes:
- Sugar syrup;
- Orange juice;
- Fruit liqueur.
For the chocolate glaze:
- Milk chocolate - 1 tile;
- Butter - 100 g.
Preparation:First, prepare the biscuit dough. Separate the egg yolks from the whites and grind the yolks with sugar. Then, using a mixer, turn it into a fluffy, white eggnog. In a separate saucepan, beat the whites into a foam and mix them with the beaten yolks. Then mix the flour with cocoa powder, sift it, add it to the egg mixture and mix everything carefully. Melt the butter over the fire, cool it a little and pour it into the biscuit dough (along the edge of the saucepan). Mix everything again and put the dough into a baking pan, which we grease with butter and sprinkle with flour in advance. Put the pan in a preheated oven for half an hour and start preparing the cream and impregnation for the cakes. Pour the yolk of a raw egg into a saucepan (we won’t need the white) and mix it with water (one tablespoon), then add condensed milk. Put the saucepan on very low heat and simmer until thickened. Cool the finished egg-milk syrup and beat the cream with it, gradually adding the syrup to the butter. Add the cocoa powder at the very end. For the impregnation, boil the sugar syrup (150 g of sugar per 100 g of water) and cool it a little. Then squeeze the juice out of a fresh orange, add it to the syrup and boil everything again. Pour a little liqueur into the cooled impregnation. While we were preparing the cream and impregnation, the sponge cake had time to cool. Cut it into three identical layers and soak them with syrup (soak the top layer from below). Coat the two bottom layers with cream and place them on top of each other. Cover the top layer and sides of the cake with jam or marmalade and pour over chocolate glaze. For the glaze, melt a bar of chocolate with butter in a water bath. Note: If you cool the hot sponge cake briefly (five minutes) in the pan and then let it sit for six hours, it will be very easy to cut. To prevent the cooling sponge cake from getting soaked from the bottom, move the rack over it. The custard base for the butter cream can be boiled in a water bath. This way, it is guaranteed not to burn. You can also use alcoholic balms-additives for impregnation. For example, "Belorussky" or "Rizhsky" balm. You can make a regular sponge cake, a sour cream sponge cake, a sponge cake with soda or butter for this homemade "Prague" cake. You can whip up butter cream with condensed milk or with a custard base with eggs or flour. You can soak the cake with liquid jam syrup or cook the soak and add liqueur or cognac to it. And you can call your cake whatever you like: Prague, Old Prague, Chiffon Prague, Prague cake. If you make a cake from chocolate sponge cake (three layers) with chocolate butter cream and chocolate glaze, then you can safely count yourself among those who know how to make a homemade Prague cake. Cook for your own joy and for others' sweetness. And cook with pleasure! We recommend reading:
