Ryzhyk Cake

Name: Ryzhyk Honey Cake with Condensed Milk and Walnuts
Prep time: 1 h 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Flour 4 cups (520 g); Condensed milk 1 can; Sugar 1 cup (180 g); Honey 5 tbsp (105 g); Margarine 100 g; Butter 300 g; Eggs 2; Vanillin 2 g; Baking soda 1 tsp (6 g); Walnuts to taste; Prunes to taste

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3 h 30 mins

“Mom! Is anyone having a birthday today?”
“No. Why?”
“I just really want some cake…”

Well, yes! Cake is first of all a symbol of a birthday, at least for me. What kind of birthday is there without a cake? It looks like a birthday, but it brings no joy.

The word “torte” comes from the Latin tōrta, meaning “round bread.” In modern Italian, torta already means cake. It is a dessert, since it is unlikely to occur to anyone to enjoy cake before meat or soup. Though I admit I know plenty of people for whom cake happily replaces the first course, the main course and everything else.

A cake is a kind of pie made of several baked layers soaked in creams, jams, preserves and even alcohol. As a rule, the top is decorated with fruit, glaze, chocolate or candied fruit. Oh, what beautiful cakes I have seen! A feast for the eyes! For the vast majority of cakes the layers are baked from sponge batter, though shortcrust is common too. Wafer cakes are a category of their own, but they are more like pastries.

Many years ago, when I was courting my wife, she used to win me over with a unique cake that she and her grandmother made. To this day I don’t know, and don’t want to know, what it is really called. In our family it is called “Ryzhyk” (Ginger). So we are making Ryzhyk cake. It takes a long time and is not easy, but it is worth it, and it is hard only the first 5-6 times. After that it becomes a reflex.

11 ingredientsTo the recipe

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2 h

Fried Pumpkin Dessert with Honey and Walnuts

Ingredients

1 large cake

Flour 4 cups
(520 g)
Condensed milk 1 can
Sugar 1 cup
(180 g)
Honey 5 tbsp
(105 g)
Margarine 100 g
Butter 300 g
Eggs 2
Vanillin 2 g
Baking soda 1 tsp
(6 g)
Walnuts to taste
Prunes to taste

Step-by-step recipe

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First of all, Ryzhyk needs very good condensed milk in a metal can. The condensed milk has to be boiled right in the sealed can. Pour plenty of water into a pot so the can is completely submerged, and boil for about 1 hour from the moment the water comes to a boil. Then let the can cool in the air. It is best to do this the day before you make the cake.
The base of the dessert is honey layers.
In an enamel or glass bowl, whisk two eggs, 1 cup of sugar (180 g) and a 2 g packet of vanillin with a mixer until foamy.
Add 70 g of margarine and 1 tsp of baking soda (6 g). Carefully add 5 heaped tablespoons of honey (160 g). Any honey will do in principle, but preferably not crystallized and not dark. Linden or wildflower honey works best, and then the cake is bright and pleasing to the eye.
Pour water into a large pot or a wide frying pan and bring it to a boil. You need to set up a so-called “water bath.” The bowl with the whisked eggs, sugar, honey and margarine must fit completely into the container of hot water. Keep heating the water bath, stirring the contents of the bowl gently, until everything is combined and the mixture is smooth.
Add 4 cups of flour (520 g) to the bowl and knead a firm dough. The dough should be soft and firm, smooth and without lumps. It should not stick to your hands.
Divide the dough into 7 (seven) parts and roll them into balls.
One at a time, press each ball by hand into a round flat disc about 5 mm thick, to fit the baking pan you have. It turned out to be very convenient to bake in a pizza pan. The cake will end up the same size. The layers come out thin, equal in size and evenly baked.
Grease the pan with a little margarine, lay the dough on it and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for 12-13 minutes, or 7-8 minutes at 200°C. By and large the baking mode is not so important. What matters is that the layer bakes through, begins to brown from underneath and takes on a slightly reddish tint. That is where the name Ryzhyk (Ginger) comes from. Something between orange and dark yellow.
Bake all the layers one by one, and let them cool.
While the layers cool, mix the cream.
Take real butter, not something that only looks like it. Leave the butter out of the fridge to soften. With a mixer, mix the condensed milk you boiled the day before with the butter. You should get a cream of a pleasant light coffee shade.
Of the seven baked layers, you need six for the cake. Choose the one that, in your opinion, turned out worst, and set it aside.
Spread the layers with cream one by one and stack them on top of each other. Coat the sides and top of the cake thoroughly with the remaining cream.
Shell the walnuts and toast the kernels in a very hot frying pan until browned and fragrant. In a blender, grind the remaining seventh layer and the walnut kernels into crumbs. Sprinkle this mixture thickly over the top and sides of the cake.
Decorate the top with walnut kernels and sweet prunes.
But however much you want to taste it, the cake is not ready yet. It needs to soak up the cream. Put the dessert in the fridge overnight.
And only the next day, a birthday or another holiday, can you start celebrating. Ryzhyk cake is worthy of a celebration.