In the late 70's, Bird's milk cake suddenly became the most popular cake in the USSR overnight. In the morning, dozens of people gathered at the Prague restaurant who wanted to buy it. In those years, the recipe was kept a closely guarded secret, but today everyone can make the very legendary Bird's Milk cake, which today is hardly found in stores.
History of creation
The bird’s milk cake saw the light thanks to the legendary confectioner of the Prague restaurant, Vladimir Guralnik. He literally made a revolution in the world of culinary, because he began to use agar-agar, and no one had previously used it in this area. Today, agar-agar is very widespread in cooking, for example, newfangled molecular cuisine is impossible without the use of agar-agar.
The story of the cake begins with the fact that the Czechoslovakian ptasie Milechko sweets were tried by the Minister of Food Industry and instructed to cook something similar, but according to a new recipe. It was then that the “Bird's milk” candies were invented on gelatin. These sweets served as a prototype for the famous cake. Goralnik and his team worked on this cake for several months. Vladimir wanted the dough to be not ordinary biscuit, but completely new. Then they created the dough, something similar to the dough for muffins.
Name history
A rather original name was given to the bird's milk cake . According to GOST, the cake was named after candies, which served as the basis for its preparation. And the sweets were named in honor of the Czechoslovak sweets "Birdie Milk." According to an ancient legend, bird milk is a real miracle, the greatest wealth. This is exactly what the birds of paradise fed their chicks .
Cake cakes "Bird's milk"
The bird milk cake recipe according to GOST recommends starting the procedure with the preparation of cakes. There are several options for cakes for this dish.
The classic cake cake was invented by Guralnik himself. Today it is used less and less, but it is not forgotten at all. Classic cake is very similar to the dough for the cake and is prepared according to almost the same recipe. For cake "Bird's milk" you need to prepare two layers of dough. For one layer you will need (on a shape with a diameter of more than 26 cm):
- 100 grams of sugar;
- 100 grams of melted butter;
- 2 eggs;
- 150 grams of sifted flour;
- vanillin to taste.
In order to cook cakes, you must:
- Beat melted butter with sugar. In order for the oil to melt well and become soft, it is necessary to pull them out of the refrigerator 2 hours before cooking. If you don’t have two hours, you can cut the butter in very small pieces and leave it on the board for 10 minutes. During this time, it will have time to slightly melt. Beat butter with sugar with a mixer at medium speed.
- Add vanillin and eggs to the mass, beat until tender.
- Pour the sifted flour, beat for 2-3 minutes, and then knead with a spoon until tender.
The dough is ready! Now you need to put it in a demountable baking dish with a spoon and put in the oven preheated to 230 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Cake recipe "Bird's milk" according to GOST
After you have cooked the cakes, you can start cooking the Bird's Milk Cake itself. The cake is prepared in accordance with GOST about 2 hours. In order to make a souffle, you will need the following ingredients:
- 2 egg whites;
- 4 grams of agar agar soaked in 150 ml of water;
- 450 grams of sugar;
- 1 teaspoon of citric acid;
- 200 grams of oil;
- 150 grams of condensed milk (you can also use boiled);
- vanillin to taste.
It is extremely difficult for the first time to properly prepare a souffle, because many pitfalls have a bird's milk cake. The classic recipe according to GOST provides for soaking agar-agar, and then heating it to a certain temperature. To prepare a souffle you need:
- Beat butter and condensed milk, add vanillin.
- Water with agar agar must be left for several hours. Then, in a saucepan with a thick bottom, bring agar-agar with water to a boil, constantly stir thoroughly with a spatula. Boil for a minute, then pour in all the sugar and start stirring. On medium heat, bring sugar with water and agar to a boil, as soon as the mass doubles, remove from heat. If a thread stretches behind the shoulder blade, then the syrup is ready.
- Leave the syrup for 10-15 minutes.
- Beat the squirrels in a deep bowl, add citric acid and beat for another 5 minutes.
- Pour syrup into a bowl with a thin stream, constantly whisking. After adding all the syrup, the mass should increase several times in volume. Beat the souffle to a very dense state.
- In the souffle add whipped butter and condensed milk (step 1), beat for several minutes.
Then put one cake into the cake mold. Pour half of the souffle, put one more cake on top, pour the second half of the souffle. Put in a bird milk refrigerator for several hours. Cake according to GOST is ready!
Gelatin Recipe
Cake "Bird's milk" according to GOST with gelatin is more popular today, since it is quite difficult to find agar-agar. But with gelatin, the cake is not at all like the one that was once cooked in the Prague restaurant. Rather, it will resemble candy.
In order to make a cake with gelatin, you can use the recipe for agar, but replace it with 20 grams of gelatin. It should also be soaked for several hours in 150 ml of water.
It should be borne in mind that cake with gelatin freezes for several hours longer than with agar-agar.
Recipe with Vodka
Cake "Bird's milk" according to GOST with vodka is not very popular today, however, it turns out to be very tasty.
Ingredients for Souffle:
- low-fat cottage cheese - 250 g;
- eggs - 3 pcs.;
- vanilla - to taste;
- Grated zest of 1st lemon;
- cherry vodka - 30 ml;
- sugar - 80 g;
- fresh cherry - 20 pcs.;
In order to prepare a souffle, you must:
- Beat low-fat cottage cheese, egg yolks, vanilla.
- Pour the grated zest of lemon, and pour cherry vodka. Mix everything thoroughly.
- Beat egg whites in another cup, add sugar. Add proteins with sugar a little bit to the curd mass, whisk thoroughly.
- To clear Vichy from the bones. You can cut the cherries in half.
- Pour a detachable form with the resulting souffle, add cherries. Put in an oven preheated to 220 degrees for 25 minutes.
There is such an unusual recipe for the cake "Bird's milk." Cake according to GOST is ready! When serving soufflé on the table, you can pour cherry or chocolate syrup on top .
Colored cake with three layers
Cake "Bird's milk" (GOST USSR) was originally a classic white cake. Today, both confectioners and housewives are trying to change recipes and bring something new. For example, it has become fashionable to prepare Bird's Milk from three layers instead of two or one. For this, three different souffle colors are used. Souffle prepared according to the classic recipe is laid out in three cups, a gel food coloring is added to each. The cake turns out to be very interesting in appearance, but the taste does not change much, except that the dough becomes a little more.
How to decorate
Chocolate glaze most often decorated the cake "Bird's milk" according to GOST. The Soviet public catering knew neither mastic, nor marzipan, nor marshmallows. But today, grocery and pastry shops offer a huge amount of jewelry for pastry. Therefore, even a homemade cake can look like a restaurant cake.
- Decoration with chocolate icing and marshmallows. Heat 190 ml of cream and sugar in a saucepan until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat, add pieces of dark or milk chocolate, and then stir until chocolate turns into a liquid mass. Add 30-40 grams of butter, stir a few more minutes. Leave the icing to cool for 5 minutes, pour the icing on the cake. Refrigerate for 15 minutes, sprinkle marshmallows with small marshmallows on top. Put in the refrigerator until completely frozen.
- Cake decoration with mastic. Mastic today is quite widely used in the confectionery business. After all, anything can be molded from it! 1 kg of white mastic can cost about 300-400 rubles. To cover a cake with a diameter of 26-28 cm with a thin layer (it needs to be rolled out quite thinly so that it does not spoil the taste of the cake), about 400-700 grams will be needed. Mastic can be painted with gel dye, or you can buy already colored. Cakes with this coating are usually decorated with edible sequins and sprinkles. In order to stick them, you need to use a special confectionery glue.
When decorating a cake, it is important to show imagination. You can be inspired by pictures from culinary magazines, books, etc.