Making a gift to a man is not an easy task. And to come up with such a present that would surprise him and leave memories for a long time is doubly difficult. There are plenty of reasons for congratulations to the male half of the population: birthdays, professional holidays, memorable dates, unexpected events, but you never know what. In any case, I want to bring great joy to the hero of the occasion. And every holiday is invariably accompanied by a laid table. Here you can give free rein to imagination, surprising everyone with a variety of dishes. One of them can be made the main, bright, memorable - a cake in the shape of a tank. Such a gift will surely please not only the beloved man, guests will also appreciate it, noting the artistic taste and talent of the hostess at home.
A similar present will be relevant in the case when a man has a military profession. For the celebration of Defender of the Fatherland Day, a cake tank is the best fit. The original congratulation can be presented as a symbol of courage and perseverance in the fight against life's hardships. And for a young son, such a “toy” will certainly cause real delight. Having prepared a cake tank, the photo of which you see in the article, and having treated the kids with it, the birthday mother will become an authoritative expert in the field of military equipment.
At first glance, the task of creating an unusual confectionery will seem very difficult. But do not despair, in fact, everything is much simpler and more understandable. We suggest decomposing the task of creating a culinary surprise into its components.
Tips
First you need to decide on the appearance of the military machine. You can look through the technical literature, which offers a description of tank designs. Revising military films will also help shape the upcoming military-style cake. And if there is a boy in the family, then among the many toys, more than one unit of military equipment will be found.
Having decided what the future cake tank will look like, it is advisable to print close-up photographs of it on the printer. This will greatly help in the design work, when it will be necessary to create many different incomprehensible details on the machine body.
The next step is to choose the base of the tank. It is necessary to determine what baking will be inside the military product. The cake should be dry and soft so that there are no difficulties when cutting. For these purposes, biscuits and shortcakes from butter dough are suitable.
Impregnation for them is better not to apply, and if you can not do without it, then you should do this in very moderate amounts. The choice of cream for a cake tank depends on the tastes and preferences of the hostess. The best option may be an oil layer, chocolate cream or ordinary boiled condensed milk. It is extremely undesirable to use creams based on sour cream, since the excess moisture contained in them will prevent the retention of the shape of the finished product. The last stage of the preparatory stage will be the selection of the most important - the material for the design of the cake.
If the hostess is an experienced confectioner, then it will not be difficult for her to decorate the product with the help of a pastry bag with butter cream. You can also lubricate the product with tinted jam or jam. But it’s best to make a cake tank out of mastic. Such decoration material is very convenient to use even for those who bake a cake for the first time. You just need to remember the childhood and fascinating activities of modeling from plasticine.
How to make a cake tank? Now we will tell. To make it easier for housewives to determine the type of goodies, it is proposed to consider several recipes for making a sweet base.
Cake Charlotte cream tank with hot milk
To make the dough, we need:
- 3 eggs;
- 5 g of baking powder;
- 120 ml of milk;
- 170 g of sugar;
- vanillin;
- 60 g butter;
- 170 g of flour;
- salt (pinch).
To prepare the dough, you need to warm the milk and dissolve the butter in it. Separately, beat with a mixer at high speed the eggs with sugar until the volume is tripled. Add flour mixed with baking powder into the mass and distribute it evenly. Pour the hot milk-butter mixture into the dough and mix.
Bake the cake in a detachable form by placing it in a preheated oven. If you cook using a slow cooker, then you can avoid burning cakes.
Cooking cream
You will need:
- 200 g butter;
- 4 tbsp. l granulated sugar;
- 100 ml of milk;
- two chicken eggs.
For Charlotte Cream, the ingredients should be put out of the refrigerator in advance so that they have the same temperature. Drive eggs into milk and add granulated sugar. Put on medium heat and, stirring, bring to a boil. Boil the mixture for three to four minutes. After that, cool to room temperature.
Beat butter with a mixer at medium speed until white, then gradually add the milk mixture. The result is a very lush and delicate cream, which will only add vanilla sugar for flavor.
This cake has another unusual component - kiwi jam. To cook the original jam, you need to clean and chop several (4-5 pcs.) Ripe fruits in a blender. After adding sugar (150-200 g) and lemon juice (2 tablespoons) to them, put it on a medium heat. After boiling pour in gelatin (1/2 sachet), mix and continue cooking for about ten minutes. In the cooled mass to add color, you can add a few drops of green food color.
Making a cake
Having cut the finished biscuit into several parts, it is necessary to fold it in the form of a base for the tank. Using a cream, lay all the cakes. Outside, the cake-tank, the photo of which you see in the article, is smeared with a thick layer of green jam. It is convenient to do this with a soft pastry brush. The waffle tube will serve as a barrel. First, it needs to be coated with a thin layer of cream and kept in the refrigerator for solidification, and then covered with green mass. The wheels of the tank can be made from round biscuits or waffles. The product is easy to prepare and is available even for a beginner cook.
How to bake a cake tank "Prague"
To prepare such a treat, you will need:
- 2 eggs;
- 2 tbsp. flour;
- 0.5 tsp soda
- 1 tbsp. Sahara;
- half a can of condensed milk;
- 1 cup sour cream;
- half a pack of cocoa.
Cooking process
Beat chicken eggs with a mixer with powdered sugar until lush foam. Continuing mixing, gradually introduce sour cream, then condensed milk.
Pour the flour previously sifted and mixed with cocoa powder and baking soda into the mixture. The consistency of the dough should look like thick sour cream. In a preheated oven, bake alternately three cakes.
To make it convenient to remove the finished cakes from the mold, it should be pre-lubricated with oil and lined with parchment paper.
The cream contains butter (150 g), condensed milk (half a can), egg yolks (two or three pieces) and cocoa powder (half packs). By thoroughly mixing and whipping all the components, you can get a gentle oily cream in a pleasant chocolate shade. Finished cakes are cut into individual parts in accordance with the prepared drawing. The silhouette of a military machine is formed from them. The cake tank is evenly greased with cream and refrigerated overnight for impregnation and solidification. You can decorate it the next day with the help of pastry mastic, which will smooth all the contours of the product and help make it more realistic.
Making an elastic mass
You will need:
- 850 g of powdered sugar;
- 400 g marshmallows.
- 4 tbsp. l water;
- 1 tsp vanillin.
The easiest way to prepare an elastic mass is from marshmallows - ready-made soft marshmallows. It is sold in the form of multi-colored sweets such as “Bon Paris”. In addition, you will need powdered sugar.
Candy should be slightly warmed up in the microwave until it melts. In this form, the sweet mass becomes soft and plastic. It must be thoroughly kneaded, gradually adding powdered sugar. If the mastic is tough, then you just need to slightly warm it, knead it with your hands and continue to knead. If the mixture begins to crumble, drip water or lemon juice into it. In the process of cooking add a little food coloring green.
It is very convenient to roll out mastic, placing it between sheets of polyethylene. Then, without difficulty, it can cover the entire surface of the cake. The thickness of the mastic should be approximately three millimeters. A thicker layer creates excess volume. And if rolled out very thinly, then the surface is easily damaged. Also, spots from the cream can appear through a thin layer.
Next step
To make the finished “sheet” of mastic lay on the cake smoothly and without folds, you need to roll it with a large margin of diameter. Then the coating will stretch evenly under its own weight. After that, all excess can be cut off with a knife. To give a glossy shine to the mastic surface, you can lubricate it with a brush with a layer of honey-vodka solution.
Final step
The last stage of the work is an exclusively creative process. Carefully looking at the photo of the original, you should create the necessary design elements from the mastic.