Children's "Smeshariki" Cream Cake

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   Hidden under the Italian meringue cream is a cake called "Snickers." To bake the chocolate sponge for a large 26-cm "Snickers" cake, you'll need: 6 eggs, 240 grams of sugar, 50 grams of cocoa powder, and 1 packet or 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder. If your cake pan is a smaller diameter, 20–21 cm, divide the amounts by 1.5. For example, 6 eggs divided by 1.5 is 4 eggs, and so on.

2. Step 2:

   

   Beat the eggs with the sugar on high with a mixer for 5 minutes, until pale and increased in volume. Sift the flour, baking powder, and cocoa through a sieve. Then add the dry flour mixture to the eggs beaten with sugar in several additions, gently folding with a spatula so the batter doesn't deflate. Pour the batter into a pan lined on the bottom with baking paper. Bake the sponge for 30–35 minutes at 350°F (180°C).

3. Step 3:

   

   Don't take the finished sponge out of the pan right away. First, flip the sponge over and let it cool completely on a wire rack. Ideally, the sponge should rest for at least 4 hours. Then take it out of the pan and cut it in half.

4. Step 4:

   

   The third layer in the "Snickers" cake is meringue. For the meringue, take the whites of 3 medium eggs and 180 grams of sugar.

5. Step 5:

   

   All the bowls and the mixer whisk must be completely dry. Beat the whites with the sugar to stiff peaks.

6. Step 6:

   

   On a sheet of baking paper, draw a circle by tracing the bottom of the springform pan you baked the sponge in. Spread the meringue a little inside the drawn circle, since the meringue spreads out 1–1.5 cm as it dries. Bake the meringue for about an hour at 250°F (120°C).

7. Step 7:

   

   Now let's make the buttercream.

8. Step 8:

   

   Beat the room-temperature butter with a mixer. Then gradually add the boiled condensed milk a spoonful at a time, continuing to beat the cream.

9. Step 9:

   

   Toast the peanuts in a dry skillet and let them cool. Once the toasted peanuts have cooled, the skins rub off very easily.

10. Step 10:

    

    To soak the layers, cook a syrup of sugar and water in a 1:1 ratio. If you like, you can add a spoonful of cognac.

11. Step 11:

    

    There's no need to cook the syrup for long, just until all the sugar dissolves. Let the syrup cool.

12. Step 12:

    

    Let's start assembling the cake. Lay down the first chocolate sponge layer and soak it well with syrup. Then spread half of the buttercream over it. Sprinkle on half of the toasted peanuts. Add the meringue layer. Spread the remaining cream over it, sprinkle with peanuts, and cover with the second sponge layer on top. Soak the top sponge with syrup. Leave the cake to soak for a few hours, or better yet overnight.

13. Step 13:

    

    Making the Italian meringue cream starts with cooking the syrup. Pour 300 grams of sugar into a small saucepan and add 80 ml of water. Put it on the heat to cook. Stir constantly at first until all the sugar dissolves, then you can stop stirring. Start beating the whites with the vanilla sugar. The syrup needs to be cooked to 250°F (120°C). When the syrup is ready, add a pinch of citric acid and pour it into the whites in a thin stream, continuing to beat the cream with the mixer.

14. Step 14:

    

    Print out any picture you like on a sheet of paper. Slip the sheet into a clear plastic sleeve. Then take 3–4 squares of chocolate, put them in a piping bag, and melt them in the microwave in 10–15 second bursts.

15. Step 15:

    

    Snip off the tip of the piping bag and trace the outlines of the picture with the chocolate. The chocolate shouldn't be hot, or it'll be too runny and just drip.

16. Step 16:

    

    Put the sleeve with the chocolate picture in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. Pull out the sheet of paper — you won't need it anymore.

17. Step 17:

    

    Level the cake with a thin layer of the meringue cream. Once the chocolate has set, flip the sleeve picture-side down and lay it on the cake. The chocolate picture will stick to the cream and transfer easily when you peel away the sleeve.

18. Step 18:

    

    Tint small portions of the meringue cream different colors with food coloring. Leave a little under half the cream uncolored for the sides of the cake. Transfer the cream of one color into a small bag or paper cornet and snip off the tip.

19. Step 19:

    

    Squeezing out a bit of cream at a time, color in the picture dot by dot. It's best to pipe the cream dots all in one direction.

20. Step 20:

    

    Take a new piping bag or make a new paper cornet, fill it with cream of another color, and keep coloring in the picture.

21. Step 21:

    

    Using a special "grass" piping tip, pipe a grassy meadow.

22. Step 22:

    

    Fill the space left at the top of the picture with white cream using a No. 30 small closed star tip. You can tint the cream blue if you like — that'll be the sky over the Smeshariki. Decorate the sides of the cake with zigzags of white cream using the same tip.

23. Step 23:

    

    The cake looks very pretty when sliced.