New Years in Russia is a big deal and people take celebrating it very seriously. At least a month in advance they start buying champagne (before the prices go up), planning meals, and inviting people over. For various reasons the biggest of which being my performance schedule, Andrey and I planned a low key New Years Eve.

I had my premiere with the company in the New Years Concert on the 30th and 31st. So our plan was to prep a little food in advance, so after the show we could come home and have a nice meal, watch a Christmas movie, and toast the New Year. This as you might guess is not an acceptable New Years in Russia. But, we managed to fend off the many suggestions that we make other plans for the evening and we had our simple quiet New Years.

After my show we stopped by the ice park downtown. It was full of people beginning their celebrations. People were there to take photos with the impressive ice sculptures and festive lights. Kids were enjoying the ice slides that had been built and there were vendors selling shashlik, or Russian shish kabob. It was not too cold that night so we spent a little time there and I finally started to have that holiday feeling.

Once we arrived home Andrey set to work cooking the vareniki he had prepared before coming to the theater. As they cooked, we put on Christmas carols and broke open the prosecco. Part two of our menu was supposed to be belini with caviar, but the belini did not cooperate in the cooking process, so it ended up being caviar on toast, which was still quite good. We had our caviar while watching Miracle on 34th Street, but about halfway through it as Andrey began to drift to sleep in my lap I heard fireworks. We checked the time and it was 12:05! Oops. So, we made a late toast and went to the window to try and see some of the fireworks. And then the truth is we went to bed, boring I know, but I was exhausted.

The next morning we started the New Year off with French toast and the second half of Miracle on 34th Street. Then we finally tried the pie I had made for our dessert the night before. It was a chocolate coconut pie with a date and toasted coconut crust and it was worth the wait. I found the recipe on Oh She Glows and it is amazing!

We finished off our holiday with a long walk through the trees by the river and curling up on the couch for a few more movies. To me it was a very successful celebration and start to the New Year even if it did lack the usual fan fare.

Happy New Year!

For Russians New Years is much more important that Christmas, which is a purely religious holiday and since the Russian Orthodox Church runs on the old calendar, takes place on January 7th. But New Years does share some of the same traditions that Americans and most of Western Europe associate with December 25th. As a holiday it combines Christmas traditions that were originally outlawed under Communism, celebratory techniques often used to welcome the New Year, and some things that are just Russian together to make something that at first glance would appear to an American like Christmas, New Years, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one, no make it a couple, of days. 

Some traditions you might recognize are the pine tree, in this case called a New Years Tree, and Santa Clause. The New Years Tree is pretty much the same as the Christmas tree; some people get real trees some people use fake trees. People often decorate them with lights, ornaments, small toys, and tinsel. And presents are often placed under them. 

In Russia, Santa Clause is a bit different. He goes by Ded Moroz and while he looks similar to other holiday gift givers, older, white beard, often depicted in red, he has a unique helper, his granddaughter, Snegurochka. According to my brief research on the subject she is indeed a uniquely Russian holiday character. There is more than one story of how she came into being, but one of the versions is oddly similar to Frosty the Snow Man. She is very popular today as a part of New Years Celebrations (especially with little girls) and is always depicted with Ded Moroz. 

Also similar to our holiday traditions, many kindergartens put on performances for parents, but in the ones here the little girls dress as Snegurochka and the little boys as bears or rabbits. It is usual to show some dances and recite poems. Andrey's Mom still has a photos of him dressed as a bear for his holiday show. 

Now for what is a bit different. There are no stockings, candy canes, or Santa and elves at the mall in the Russian holidays, but many parents do schedule an actual visit from Ded Moroz and Snegurochka. In the days leading up to the 31st parents will schedule some actors to come to their house dressed as Ded Moroz and Snegurochka. The holiday characters bid a Happy New Year to the family and Ded Moroz has his sack of gifts, but before the children receive theirs they must recite a poem they have practiced for the occasion. 

On New Years Eve it is traditional to have a big dinner with ones family, in front of the TV. The menu, of course, changes from family to family, but for most people it will include caviar sandwiches, champagne, clementines or tangerines, and olivier salad, a Russian potato salad. For the adults at the table, like New Years celebrations around the world, the dinner involves a fair amount of drinking. And of course as a Russian celebration it would not be complete without toasts. At the dinner people say goodbye to the year that is coming to a close. 

When midnight strikes, it is time to welcome the New Year and wish luck and new opportunities to friends and family with a glass of champagne and sometimes a sparkler in hand. The President always makes a televised speech and then many people head outside to set off fireworks. I am told that at this point it will sound like a war is taking place. After the pyrotechnics the party continues on until morning with more drinking, eating, toasts, and the television as a constant background. It is not that common anymore, but some people do dress up in costumes and go outside to continue the party, happily greeting everyone they meet.

On New Years Day the celebrating continues. On this day it is traditionally to eat pelmini, Russian dumplings with meat inside and to continue drinking. Since New Years Day is the start of a 12-day holiday for most of the country people may continue the party for a few days, visiting friends and relatives to welcome the New Year together.

Here in Omsk our holiday festivities will also include the ice sculptures and lights the city puts up in a park downtown. I am not sure if this is a very old custom, but it seems to be popular now. In Moscow they have a full-blown Winter Festival from December 25th-January 5th, which I am sure is more elaborate. Our little winter wonderland will open on December 26th. We went down there today and it is starting to look pretty impressive with huge ice sculptures, a giant New Years tree, and lights being strung everywhere. Here is a preview of one of the sculptures, more photos to come after the park officially opens.

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. 

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.

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.