Big Royal cake

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   Let's do the sourdough first.

2. Step 2:

   

   To do this, pour the cream into a bowl and heat them slightly in the microwave. The temperature of the cream should be about 38-40 C, no more, otherwise the yeast will simply die! Pour in the sugar and mix.

3. Step 3:

   

   Knead fresh pressed yeast with your hands and add it to a bowl with cream and granulated sugar. We leave the bowl with yeast for 5 minutes, during this time the yeast will soften and dissolve much easier.

4. Step 4:

   

   After 5 minutes, mix the mixture very thoroughly with a whisk or spoon so that the yeast completely passes into the solution.

5. Step 5:

   

   Sift the flour and add it to the bowl.

6. Step 6:

   

   Stir until a thick dough is obtained. Cover the bowl with sourdough with a damp towel or cling film and put it in a warm place for 1-2 hours. During this time, the sourdough should increase several times.

7. Step 7:

   

   While the sourdough is coming, let's take care of other ingredients.

8. Step 8:

   

   First we separate the yolks from the whites of 10 eggs. We pour the proteins into a jar, close it with a tight lid and send it to the refrigerator, we will not need them. Add 3 more whole eggs to the yolks.

9. Step 9:

   

   Add granulated sugar and vanilla sugar to the bowl.

10. Step 10:

    

    Beat with a mixer until a fluffy foam is obtained. We set the bowl aside.

11. Step 11:

    

    Prepare the cardamom. We put the cardamom boxes in a mortar and crush them with a pestle, they should open.

12. Step 12:

    

    We take out the black seeds.

13. Step 13:

    

    And grind them into powder. If desired, you can take a ready-made ground cardamom or, if you do not like it, you can not use it at all.

14. Step 14:

    

    After 1 hour we get our sourdough. During this time, she came up well.

15. Step 15:

    

    Add beaten eggs with sugar and ground cardamom to the sourdough.

16. Step 16:

    

    Reshape with a spoon or whisk until smooth.

17. Step 17:

    

    Add the sifted flour. By the way, since everyone has flour of different quality, you may need a little more or a little less of it, so in order not to clog the dough with extra flour, add it in small portions.

18. Step 18:

    

    And knead the soft and sticky dough.

19. Step 19:

    

    We introduce soft butter into the resulting dough in small portions. After each new portion of butter, the dough is thoroughly kneaded.

20. Step 20:

    

    At the exit we should get a very soft, tender and smooth dough. If desired, you can knead such dough with a bread maker or a mixer with dough nozzles.

22. Step 21:

    

    We lubricate a bowl or, as in my case, a large saucepan with a thin layer of vegetable oil and put a ball of dough into it. Cover the container with the dough with a film or towel and leave it warm for 1-2 hours or until the dough increases 2-3 times.

23. Step 22:

    

    While the dough is coming, we combine raisins (I have a mixture of light and dark) and cranberries. Pour the dried fruit mixture with hot water and leave it to swell slightly for 5-10 minutes.

24. Step 23:

    

    Drain the water, and throw the dried fruits on a sieve.

25. Step 24:

    

    We shift the raisins with cranberries onto paper towels / napkins so that the remaining water goes away.

26. Step 25:

    

    Peel the almonds lightly with a knife.

27. Step 26:

    

    After 1-2 hours, we take out our dough.

28. Step 27:

    

    Add dried fruits and nuts to it.

29. Step 28:

    

    Mix the dough thoroughly so that the dried fruits and nuts are evenly distributed in the dough. Again cover the container with the dough with a towel / film and leave for 15-20 minutes to rest.

30. Step 29:

    

    We divide the rested dough into parts. We roll each part of the dough into a neat ball.

31. Step 30:

    

    Grease baking pans with oil and sprinkle with flour or line with baking paper. By the way, if you use disposable paper molds, it is also better to lubricate them with oil, since sometimes they do not use the highest quality paper and it will be difficult to separate the finished cake from such a wrapper. So, we fill out the prepared forms with a test. By the way, the dough should fill the form by 1/3, then your cakes will not run away from the edges of the form :)

32. Step 31:

    

    Leave the filled molds in the heat for 40-50 minutes or until the dough increases 1.5-2 times. Before baking, the top of the cakes, if desired, lubricate with a shaken egg (it is not necessary to do this).

33. Step 32:

    

    Bake the cakes in a preheated 170-180 C oven for about 20-50 minutes until a beautiful golden crust. Please note that the time I give is not accurate, as it will be very different depending on the size of the cake and on the characteristics of your oven. On average, cakes weighing about 500 g will be baked for about 40 minutes. If suddenly, during baking, the tops of the cakes will quickly brown, then cover them with a sheet of foil on top.

34. Step 33:

    

    Remove the finished cakes from the mold and leave to cool on the grill.

35. Step 34:

    

    Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.

36. Step 35:

    

    2 protein is poured into a deep container. In small portions, add the sifted powdered sugar to them.

37. Step 36:

    

    And with a spatula we begin to rub the proteins with powder. Rub until the glaze becomes thick, homogeneous and snow-white.

38. Step 37:

    

    At the very end, add 1 tbsp lemon juice to the glaze and mix thoroughly.

39. Step 38:

    

    We cover the tops of the cooled cakes with the finished glaze and sprinkle with confectionery sprinkles. We leave the cakes for a few hours so that the glaze dries.

40. Step 39:

    

    That's it! The royal cake is ready!

41. Step 40:

    

    Happy Easter to you! Christ is risen!