Ladyfingers Cake with Sour Cream Frosting
The most delicate, light cake made from choux pastry. The cake is built from long choux-pastry fingers, much like ladyfingers, soaked in a delicate sour cream frosting. Their hollow centers make the dessert light, almost airy. No sweet tooth will turn down a slice of this delicate treat.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather the ingredients for the choux pastry. Use large eggs, and be sure they're at room temperature. The choux pastry can also be made with just water or just milk. Use all-purpose or high-grade flour, since a high gluten content is very important for choux pastry.
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Step 2:
Cut the butter into pieces and put it in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
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Step 3:
Add the milk, water, and salt to the butter. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the butter fully melts.
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Step 4:
Bring the mixture to a boil.
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Step 5:
As soon as it starts to boil, turn the heat to low and add all the (!) sifted flour at once.
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Step 6:
Vigorously stir the flour into the liquid. Mix the dough until it's completely smooth. Stirring constantly, keep the pan over low heat for 1–2 minutes so the flour cooks through. The dough should pull away from the sides of the pan. Take the pan off the heat and let the dough cool to warm. To speed that up, you can transfer it to another container.
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Step 7:
I beat all the eggs together right away. You can also add them one at a time. Don't add eggs to hot or too-warm dough, or they'll scramble and the cookies won't rise well.
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Step 8:
Pour 1/4 of the beaten eggs into the slightly warm dough (or beat in 1 egg). Stir briskly so the egg is fully worked through the whole dough.
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Step 9:
Add each next portion of egg only after the previous one is fully mixed in. The dough should be thick, smooth, and slowly drop off the spoon in a ribbon.
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Step 10:
Using a piping bag, pipe the dough onto a baking sheet in finger shapes, spaced a little apart. They'll grow as they bake. If you don't have a piping bag, you can use a sturdy bag with a corner snipped off.
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Step 11:
Bake the choux fingers in an oven preheated to 375°F (190°C) for 25–30 minutes, until golden. Don't open the oven while they bake, or they'll deflate. Cool the finished fingers completely. I got 2 sheets of them.
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Step 12:
For the frosting, use higher-fat sour cream so the frosting is thicker. This is so the cake holds its shape well.
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Step 13:
In a bowl, combine the sour cream, sugar, and vanilla sugar and mix. Let the frosting sit for 10 minutes so the sugar dissolves.
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Step 14:
Start assembling the cake. Dip each cookie in the frosting so it's coated on all sides.
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Step 15:
To shape the cake, you can use a bottomless springform ring (mine is 8 inches / 20 cm across). Set it on a flat plate. Lay down a layer of the frosting-coated choux fingers.
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Step 16:
Lay out all the cookies layer by layer, dipping each in the frosting. Cover the top of the cake with the remaining frosting. Save a little to coat the sides later. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4–5 hours so the dessert soaks through and the frosting thickens.
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Step 17:
You can decorate the cake with chocolate melted in a double boiler. Put the chocolate pieces in a cup.
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Step 18:
Set the cup over a pot of boiling water. Stirring, melt the chocolate until liquid.
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Step 19:
Carefully remove the springform ring from the chilled cake and coat the sides with the reserved frosting. Apply the hot melted chocolate.
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Step 20:
Decorate the cake however your imagination and taste lead you. Enjoy!
- Be prepared to need more or less flour than the recipe calls for. Go by the desired consistency of the dough, not the amount of flour. To avoid mistakes, read up on flour and its properties!
- Keep in mind that everyone's oven is different. The temperature and baking time may differ from those in the recipe. To make any baked dish a success, take advantage of the useful information about how ovens work!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Whole cow's milk - 68 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.5% fat - 64 kcal/100g
- Milk 3.2% fat - 60 kcal/100g
- Milk 1.5% fat - 47 kcal/100g
- Concentrated milk 7.5% fat - 140 kcal/100g
- Milk 2.5% fat - 54 kcal/100g
- Sour cream 30% fat - 340 kcal/100g
- Sour cream 25% fat - 284 kcal/100g
- Sour cream 20% fat - 210 kcal/100g
- Sour cream 10% fat - 115 kcal/100g
- Sour cream - 210 kcal/100g
- Chicken egg - 157 kcal/100g
- Egg white - 45 kcal/100g
- Egg powder - 542 kcal/100g
- Egg yolk - 352 kcal/100g
- Ostrich egg - 118 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Butter 82% - 734 kcal/100g
- Unsalted table butter - 709 kcal/100g
- Unsalted peasant butter - 661 kcal/100g
- Salted peasant butter - 652 kcal/100g
- Clarified butter - 869 kcal/100g
- Salt - 0 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Wheat flour - 325 kcal/100g
- Chocolate 70% - 539 kcal/100g
- Dark chocolate - 539 kcal/100g
- Vanilla sugar - 379 kcal/100g
