Classic Soviet-era Anthill cake

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   How to make a Soviet-era Anthill cake? Prepare the products. First for the test. Take the oil of the best quality, natural, corresponding to GOST. Sour cream is suitable with a fat content of 20-25%. Take quite a bit of vanillin, on the tip of a knife. The salt in the sweet dough acts as a flavor enhancer.

2. Step 2:

   

   First of all, prepare the shortbread dough. How to make dough? Melt the butter in any of the ways described at the end of the recipe. I took a saucepan with a thick bottom, put butter in it and melted it on the smallest fire with constant stirring. Leave the melted butter to cool.

3. Step 3:

   

   And while it cools down, prepare the dry ingredients. Take a deep bowl and sift the flour into it. This will not only remove the garbage, but also saturate the flour with oxygen, which will make the baking more airy.

4. Step 4:

   

   Add vanilla and baking powder to the flour, mix them well until smooth.

5. Step 5:

   

   Pour sugar, salt, and sour cream into the cooled butter.

6. Step 6:

   

   Mix the mass well until smooth.

7. Step 7:

   

   Start kneading the shortbread dough by pouring the butter mixture into the flour in portions. First, stir with a spoon, then, when all the oil is added, knead with your hands. The dough will quickly become homogeneous, pliable, soft and absolutely not sticky. You may take more or less flour, so focus on the dough.

8. Step 8:

   

   Divide it into two parts, wrap each in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer for half an hour. This is done to make the dough easier to grate. I would advise dividing it into 4 parts, so the pieces will turn out smaller and harden faster, and the halves inside remained a little soft, it was not very convenient to rub them.

9. Step 9:

   

   After half an hour, take out the dough and grate it on a coarse grater.

11. Step 10:

    

    Take a baking sheet, cover it with baking paper. Spread the grated dough evenly over it. A rather thin cake should turn out, a thick one may not be baked. I have a standard oven tray — 30*40 cm.

12. Step 11:

    

    Put the baking sheet with the dough in the oven, preheated to 180 ° C. Bake the cake for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Determine the exact time and temperature by your oven.

13. Step 12:

    

    Remove the finished cake from the oven and cool slightly. Then break the cake into small pieces. It turns out crumbly and it is not difficult to do it at all. Set aside the sand crumbs for now and take care of the cream.

14. Step 13:

    

    Prepare the products for the cream. The oil for it, as well as for the cake, take the best, delicious, the quality of the cream will depend on it. Take it out of the refrigerator in advance, it should become soft. You can take condensed milk ready-made or cook it yourself. I have a purchase one.

15. Step 14:

    

    How to make cream? Put the softened butter in a bowl. Beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until a fluffy light mass. Do not beat longer, the butter may begin to delaminate.

16. Step 15:

    

    Add boiled condensed milk to the butter. Beat the cream until the condensed milk and butter are completely mixed. The cream should become homogeneous, a pleasant caramel color.

17. Step 16:

    

    Pour the sand crumbs into the butter cream. Mix the mass well so that each piece is smeared with cream.

18. Step 17:

    

    Put the resulting mass on a dish, forming a hill in the form of an anthill.

19. Step 18:

    

    Decorate the cake on top with something dark so that it looks like an ant hill — chocolate, poppy seeds or confectionery sprinkles, like mine. Put the cake in the refrigerator for a few hours so that the dough is soaked with cream as much as possible. And then serve it to the table. Bon appetit!