Normally, I am not a big fan of cakes. To me the cake tends to be too dry and the icing too sweet. But from my very first taste this traditional Siberian cake had me hooked. It is just slightly sweet and because each thin layer of cake is covered with the cream it is not dry at all.
I first experienced with this cake during my first trip to Russia. We went over to the apartment of one of Andrey's best friends and his wife had made cheremuhovo cake for dessert. It was like nothing I had had before, but so delicious. Andrey and I were so enamored with the cake that we immediately went about securing a stash of the key ingredient, cheremuhovo flour, to take back to New York with us. It has become our special occasion cake, we bake it for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and anytime we are having people over to celebrate. And I have not served it to anyone who has not been very impressed.
Now you are probably wondering what cheremuhovo is. Cheremuhovo, черемуховый in Russian, directly translates to bird-cherry tree and you can find it in a botany book. They are small berries with tiny seeds inside that to my knowledge do not grow in America. These berries are ground into a flour which retains a little crunch from the seeds and is part of what makes the cake so unique.
I first experienced with this cake during my first trip to Russia. We went over to the apartment of one of Andrey's best friends and his wife had made cheremuhovo cake for dessert. It was like nothing I had had before, but so delicious. Andrey and I were so enamored with the cake that we immediately went about securing a stash of the key ingredient, cheremuhovo flour, to take back to New York with us. It has become our special occasion cake, we bake it for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and anytime we are having people over to celebrate. And I have not served it to anyone who has not been very impressed.
Now you are probably wondering what cheremuhovo is. Cheremuhovo, черемуховый in Russian, directly translates to bird-cherry tree and you can find it in a botany book. They are small berries with tiny seeds inside that to my knowledge do not grow in America. These berries are ground into a flour which retains a little crunch from the seeds and is part of what makes the cake so unique.
Makes an 8 layer cake
Ingredients:
Cake:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups sour cream or kefir
2 tsp baking soda
2 pakets cheremuhovo
2 cups white flour
Cream:
3 cups sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
Directions:
1. Preheate the oven to 350 F or 180 C and butter four cake pans.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together.
3. Add sour cream and mix.
4. Add baking soda and cheremuhovo flour and mix thoroughly, scraping the sides down as you go.
5. Add the flour in 4 parts mixing completely.
6.Now the tricky part, divide the batter into fourths. After several failed math equations, I have determined that it is about 350ml of batter per cake pan.*
7. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes in the pan.
8. Carefully remove the cakes from their pans and place on a cooling rack.
9. Once the cakes are completely cool use a bread knife to slice each cake in half, so you have 8 cakes.
10. Make your cream by wisking the sour cream and sugar together.
11. Place the first cake layer on a plate and cover it generously** with cream and place the next layer over it. Keep doing this until you are done. They cream will run off the edges of the cake, don't worry about it at the end you can run around the outside of the whole cake with a spatula and smooth it out.
Notes:
*If you have 4 cake pans you can eye ball the measurement, but if you only have two I recommend measuring the amount of batter.
**Do not be stingy with the amount of cream you put on each layer, the taste of this cake comes from the cream soaking into each layer, so put more than you think you should and if you run out just make more.
Ingredients:
Cake:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups sour cream or kefir
2 tsp baking soda
2 pakets cheremuhovo
2 cups white flour
Cream:
3 cups sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
Directions:
1. Preheate the oven to 350 F or 180 C and butter four cake pans.
2. Beat eggs and sugar together.
3. Add sour cream and mix.
4. Add baking soda and cheremuhovo flour and mix thoroughly, scraping the sides down as you go.
5. Add the flour in 4 parts mixing completely.
6.Now the tricky part, divide the batter into fourths. After several failed math equations, I have determined that it is about 350ml of batter per cake pan.*
7. Bake the cakes for 20-25 minutes, remove from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes in the pan.
8. Carefully remove the cakes from their pans and place on a cooling rack.
9. Once the cakes are completely cool use a bread knife to slice each cake in half, so you have 8 cakes.
10. Make your cream by wisking the sour cream and sugar together.
11. Place the first cake layer on a plate and cover it generously** with cream and place the next layer over it. Keep doing this until you are done. They cream will run off the edges of the cake, don't worry about it at the end you can run around the outside of the whole cake with a spatula and smooth it out.
Notes:
*If you have 4 cake pans you can eye ball the measurement, but if you only have two I recommend measuring the amount of batter.
**Do not be stingy with the amount of cream you put on each layer, the taste of this cake comes from the cream soaking into each layer, so put more than you think you should and if you run out just make more.
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Now this cake is by no means healthy, but it is so delicious that on special occasions I make an exception and make it. Normally I don't consume dairy, so my recipes don't use dairy, but I am not sure there is a way to make this recipe dairy and sugar free without losing its taste. Let me know if you have any ideas.
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