There is practically not a single person who would not like the Count Earlage Cake. This delicacy is difficult to resist not only to the sweet tooth, but also to people who do not eat sweets. If you like to pamper your family and friends with this homemade dessert, then take a note on the article.
Italian roots
To describe the moment of birth of the Count's Ruins cake, one should delve deeper into its more detailed description related to the appearance in the confectionery business of such an amazing substance as meringue. Meringue got out of the hands of the Italian pastry chef Gasparini, who lived in the Swiss city of Meiringen in the seventeenth century. The confectioner, with the excitement and passion inherent in all Italians, loved to experiment and once, carried away by whipping egg whites with sugar, he got a very cool, strong foam. Having laid it on a heated baking sheet in small, spoonful sizes, he dried the foam and got a magnificent, crunchy, moderately crumbly dessert, which he called meringues. The name, as you can see, echoes the name of the city.
French meringue life
After some time, the French recipe for the dessert and, renaming it in their own way - meringue - began to sell it in large quantities to spoiled French gourmets.
Meringues were used both as a decoration and as a basis for other desserts. Well, the cake itself was invented by Soviet confectioners, who took meringue as a basis. And, laid out in layers, flavored it with a huge amount of magnificent cream. And if there are two recipes for the cake - based on biscuit and classic, based on meringue, then over the course of time there have been a large number of recipes for making cream for the Count's Ruins cake.
Sponge cake
If you took a biscuit as a basis for a cake, then in order to get it, prepare the following products in advance:
- chicken eggs - 4 pieces;
- white sugar - 2 cups; brown - 1.5 cups;
- sour cream - 450 grams;
- soda - on the tip of a knife;
- flour - 200 grams;
- condensed milk - 1 can;
- vinegar - 1 teaspoon.
The Count's Ruins cake recipe at home has the same cooking sequence as it does in industrial production. Let's start by making the dough. Put sour cream in a deep bowl and pour in the composition of the soda that was extinguished with vinegar. Mix well with a spoon, and then beat with a mixer for about three minutes. Then you need to set the resulting cream aside for relaxation. At this time, you need to beat the eggs with sugar. Before starting cooking, it is best to remove the eggs from the refrigerator so that they warm to room temperature. So they will give a more magnificent foam. Replace the nozzle on the mixer with a whisk and beat the eggs for about ten minutes, see for yourself, until you get a strong foam. After this, a thin stream must be added to the resulting mixture of condensed milk and beat at high speed for another five minutes.
Then you need to reduce the speed of whipping to a minimum and carefully add sour cream with soda. Again, carefully move everything with a mixer at minimum speeds.
Second phase
The cooked flour, about 200-300 grams, must be sieved in advance so that no lumps come across. The sifted flour combines better with the rest of the mass, and the dough is more tender and thin.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. In hot molds, and they will need two, pour a few tablespoons of melted butter and spread the dough, evenly distributing it throughout the form. To make the surface smooth, you can dip a tablespoon in cold water and conduct the test several times, as if aligning the borders. Bake in the oven for about half an hour. Take out, cool. Then cut one cake in half. Spread one half with cream, cover with the second half. Break the other cake into several dozen pieces, mix with cream and put on a whole biscuit. Pour the rest of the cream and decorate to your own taste. This recipe for the Count of Ruins cake at home, created from biscuit, is very popular.
Meringue cake
Another option is meringue. The meringue cake recipe is as follows. We will need:
- chicken eggs - 4 pieces;
- granulated sugar - 200 grams;
- a pinch of salt;
- lemon juice - 1 teaspoon.
The cooking steps are as follows. In this recipe for meringue cake, unlike biscuit, chicken eggs should be cooled as much as possible in the refrigerator before cooking.
Deep, preferably metal, dishes should be thoroughly washed and dried, and then degreased. Lemon juice is perfect for this. Then wipe it dry again. We break eggs and add proteins exclusively to the cup. Recall eggs must be chilled. Add salt and start whipping with a mixer at the smallest powers, gradually increasing speed. Light foam should form. At this stage, pour in the lemon juice and continue to whisk for several minutes at the highest speeds. Gradually add sugar or powdered sugar in small portions, it depends on who you like and continue to whisk. If you use a hand mixer, note that it is best to make movements in the form of a figure eight. Such movements allow you to beat the mass thoroughly and evenly. Beat up until sugar is completely dissolved. This usually takes about fifteen to twenty minutes. The result should be a dense, thick, airy foam that does not drain from a spoon or mixer blade.
We lay out the finished mass with a confectionery syringe or an ordinary teaspoon on a hot baking sheet and place in the oven to dry. The temperature for drying meringues usually ranges from 90 to 100 degrees. Cooking time is about an hour. Make sure that meringues do not brown, because this is a snow-white dessert. In the baking process, you can open the oven several times so that the meringues are ventilated.
What method of cooking the bulk of the cake to choose - decide for yourself. Now let's move on to the main thing - making cream for the Count's Ruins cake.
Condensed Cream
This is one of the most delicious toppings. Cream for the cake "Count ruins" from condensed milk is prepared quite simply. Of the products you will need:
- one can of condensed milk, not boiled;
- butter - 250 grams;
- vanilla sugar - 25 grams;
- a few grains of salt.
Put the butter in a deep bowl. Before whipping, it is advisable to divide a piece of oil into several tens of small pieces. So it will be easier and faster to beat it into a homogeneous mass. Beat for two to three minutes. Add vanilla sugar. Beat one more minute. Continuing to whip, add the condensed milk in one spoonful, in portions, and continue to whisk at high speed until an air mass is obtained. The cream is ready. Now it remains to combine it with cakes, pour with chocolate, sprinkle with nuts, best finely chopped walnuts, and raisins. Put the cake in the refrigerator for two hours. Serve in a good mood and hot tea.
Chocolate cream with condensed milk
Recipe cream cake "Count ruins" can be performed in an exclusive version. For example, with chocolate. The products for such a cream will need the same as for the classic condensed cream, plus chocolate. Chocolate can be taken in a bar and melt it in a water bath. You can buy a pack of regular cocoa and add to your taste at the time of whipping the bulk of the cream. Do not forget about allergic reactions. In an impulse to please family and friends with an unusual dessert, be sure to check if anyone has an allergy to chocolate so that your work is not wasted.
Prune Cream
How to make cream for the cake "Count ruins" unique and interesting, many housewives ask on the forums. Many do not like raisins, and it does not make sense to use it to decorate a cake. But you can use prunes to make cream to give the cake an individual touch. As a basis, you can take any cream recipe. The bottom line is to properly cook prunes. Before adding it to the cream, it must be peeled, if any, and then finely chopped, wiped through a sieve, chopped in a meat grinder or in a blender. Such a kind of puree can be added to the cream. After adding, beat well again.
Sour cream
Cream for the cake "Count ruins" from sour cream is prepared as simple as possible. What does that require? You will need:
- sour cream of 15 percent or 20 percent fat content - 500 grams;
- granulated sugar - 1 cup (if sugar is not very sweet, then 1.5 cups);
- a few grains of salt.
Before buying sour cream for cream, be sure to verify its expiration date. If you have the opportunity, get sour cream from home producers. For example, in a village or in the courtyard. Sour cream, cooked at home, does not contain preservatives and additional elements. the cream from it will turn out to be incomparably tastier, healthier and more appetizing.
Put sour cream in a deep bowl. It’s better to start whipping it at low speeds, gradually moving to high. After the sour cream has turned into a dense thick lush mass, add sugar in small portions. Beat another ten minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved in sour cream. It is better to choose sour cream of low fat content. Firstly, such a cream will turn out to be more liquid and lighter, better permeate cakes. Secondly, with such sour cream, the cream will turn out to be less high-calorie. And this, you see, plays an important role in the absorption of desserts, because it is very difficult to refuse another additive of a magnificent cake.
Sour cream and condensed milk
The recipe for the Count's Ruins cake with sour cream can be made complex. For example, add condensed milk. Required Products:
- sour cream - 400 grams;
- condensed milk - 200 grams;
- granulated sugar;
- salt on the tip of a knife;
- vanilla.
First, spread the sour cream in a deep bowl. We begin to whisk it at low speeds, gradually adding vanilla and salt. Increasing speed, add condensed milk in a thin stream, continue to whisk at high speed. Then add sugar. Beat until a homogeneous, lush, dense mass is obtained. Done. Now you can add cream to pre-cooked cakes, decorate and serve. It is best to decorate such a cake with chocolate, nuts, dried apricots and raisins.
Charlotte Custard
Cake "Count ruins" with cream of yolks also turns out very tasty. The exquisite delicate taste of this cream finds fans from the first meeting. To prepare it, you need a simple set of products:
- butter -200 grams;
- milk - 125 grams;
- granulated sugar - 100 grams;
- chicken eggs - 3 pieces;
- vanillin on the tip of a knife or a teaspoon of brandy.
We start cooking. A step-by-step recipe for a classic custard starts with separating the yolks from the proteins. Put them in a deep bowl. Pour sugar and grind mixture until smooth. It is better to grind with a wooden spoon so that the yolks do not acquire a metallic shade of taste. Add vanillin or cognac. Mix again. Stirring, add milk. It is better to divide it into three parts and add in small portions. After the egg mass is mixed with milk, put the dishes on the fire. The fire must be strong. An important condition is continuous stirring, be sure to run a spoon along the bottom so that the mixture does not stick. As soon as the composition begins to thicken, reduce the fire to a minimum, and, while continuing to stir, bring to full thickening. After cooking, leave the cream for the cake "Count ruins" cool. After that, you can finish the preparation of the cake.
Additional ingredients
As additional products for decoration, you can use not only chocolate and dried fruits. The cake will look great with peaches, grapes, pineapples or strawberries. You can use a mixture of chocolate: milk, bitter and white, laying them out in original layers. Cake can also be decorated with coconut.
Life hacks
If you are an inexperienced or inexperienced housewife, or use the classic step-by-step recipe for custard for the first time, you can use a water bath. Of course, the cooking time will increase significantly, but the mass will definitely not burn, and it will have a delicate creamy taste. If the cream is thickened with lumps, you do not need to panic. Just grab a blender and beat the mixture. As a result, the cream for the cake "Count Ruins" will be very delicate, airy and velvety. And so that the mass cool down quickly, you can put the dishes in which you prepared the cream in a pan with cold water.