“Anthill” is a combination of simplicity of preparation, minimalism of ingredients and magnificence of tastes. We can say that he has only one drawback - calorie content, so they are often undesirable to feast on. A 100-gram serving contains as many as 452 kilocalories - a luxury for those who support slim shapes. But for those who do not care about slight weight fluctuations - why not treat yourself to a delicious dessert? Cooking the Anthill cake step by step according to the recipe, described in detail in this article, will help novice confectioners to cope with the task perfectly.
A few words about the cake
A similar cake exists in Canada and is called a funnel cake, in Austria it is “Strauben”, in India it is called “jalebi”, although they all do not look as spectacular as our “Anthill”. This baking is good in preparation in that it can be cooked even by a middle-aged child or a man completely unfamiliar with the kitchen, since there is nothing complicated (as, for example, with biscuit or custard dough). This is a step-by-step guide on how to bake Anthill cake, just for them.
The dessert is made from small pieces of shortcrust pastry, smeared with cream of boiled condensed milk, but sometimes in a hurry some sweet lovers make it from ordinary cookies bought in a store. The taste changes significantly not for the better, but this does not stop those who are thirsty for this delicacy. Therefore, if there is a desire to bake the Anthill cake according to the classic recipe, then you should prepare the pieces of cookies yourself.
Product proportions
The ingredients in this recipe are designed for 6-8 servings, but if it's a bit much, then you can calculate your proportions by dividing the data, say, in two. To prepare the "Anthill" cake with a prescription at home, you need to take:
- 220 grams of butter or margarine with high fat content;
- 2 eggs;
- 100 ml of milk or sour cream, cream can also be used;
- 3 tbsp. wheat flour;
- a pinch of soda mixed with several crystals of citric acid;
- 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar.
A cream will require a can of condensed milk and a pack (250 grams) of butter.
Another recipe (without milk) looks like this:
- 180 grams of margarine;
- 280 grams of flour;
- 1/2 tbsp. Sahara;
- a pinch of soda + citric acid.
The dough according to the second recipe turns out to be more sandy, crumbly, while the portion is designed for a small cake, which is very convenient for 1-3 people.
Cooking dough
In order to prepare the basis for the Anthill cake, eggs, sugar and milk are mixed step by step. Beat the mixture a little with a blender and combine with the butter melted in a water bath, constantly mixing at low speeds. When the mass becomes uniform, add in small portions the flour mixed with soda, achieving a tight lump of dough. It is advisable not to knead it for too long, because any fat-based dough (butter in this case) does not tolerate such treatment, turning into too hard cake when baking. It is recommended that the dough be kept in the refrigerator for an hour or two wrapped in cling film so that it comes to condition.
How to bake a cake base?
Those who saw the finished cake in a section, noticed that it consists of a loose structure formed by small lumps of baked dough. But this is not a cookie, broken into pieces (sharp corners would have been visible), but something resembling small tubercles of earth near an ordinary anthill. It is because of this similarity that the cake was so named. How to bake the Anthill cake so that it looks like the recipe says?
This is a very simple procedure: you need to pass the frozen dough through a meat grinder with a large nozzle. Spread the obtained “spaghetti” from the shortcrust pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment at a small distance so that they do not stick together during baking. When all the dough has been crushed, place the baking sheet in the oven, set the temperature mode to 180 degrees and bake until a pleasant golden hue, which usually takes no more than twenty minutes.
What can be added to the cream?
The classic anthill cake recipe uses a regular cream with condensed milk, which is combined with butter and whipped into a light mass. As for which condensed milk you need to take, boiled or not, opinions differ, so this does not play a special role, since each option is good in its own way. The cream is prepared using a mixer, because whipping the butter with a whisk is not an easy task, especially for a novice confectioner. If desired, you can add a little vanilla to flavor the cream.
Some recipes use cocoa powder or a melted chocolate bar to give the finished product a special taste, which is especially true for lovers of chocolate flavor.
Replace the cream of condensed milk with sour cream, as some economical housewives do, is not worth it, as this will be a complete violation of the classic recipe. Its taste will become completely different, which means that it is unethical to name the resulting product with the "Anthill" cake. Only following the traditions, you can save the classic recipes that have come down to our days from the past. If you constantly modify something and at the same time affirm that this is a traditional recipe, then you can completely forget the truth.
Cake making
Divide the finished pieces of the base for the cake into small pieces (usually they stick together a little) and place in a wide bowl, send the whipped cream there and mix the contents of the dishes thoroughly. The traditional recipe doesn’t add anything else to this process, but many-sided variations of recommendations on how to bake Anthill cake suggest that chopped walnuts, roasted peanuts, poppy seeds and even steamed raisins can be added. All these additives do not contradict the taste of goodies, so they can be safely used.
When the whole cake blank is well mixed, put it in a slide on a flat dish, forming a cone resembling an ant house. Then take it to a cool place and let it brew for at least six hours (preferably at night) so that the cake is well saturated.
How to decorate the finished product?
Usually, all the photo recipes of the Anthill cake present it in its usual form, not decorated with anything on top: after all, if you coat with cream, the spectacular appearance will be lost. Some pour chocolate icing. This is acceptable, although it distorts the original taste, and the look, too. In case of urgent need, you can lightly sprinkle with walnuts, crushed not very finely, which will give additional visibility to the loose state inherent in an ant house.
Some useful tips
It is not necessary to bake dough pieces to a brown tint, then they are poorly saturated, the cake will remain dry even with a large amount of cream.
Cake "Anthill" does not apply to too soft pastries, such as sponge cakes or custard cakes, but there is one trick to make it more tender. To do this, you need to increase the amount of cream by half and in the process of molding do not rush to lay out a slide from the pieces, but let the mass lie in a bowl.
This cake has one more peculiarity: if it stands for more than 24 hours, it will begin to dry out again, even wrapped in film, so you should not stand it for a long time, hoping that it makes it more delicious.
It happens that among the kitchen items there is no meat grinder. In this case, you can freeze the dough in the chamber, and then grate, using the largest holes. Lay out the resulting pieces on parchment with a thin layer and bake, as described above in the recipe.