How to make a cake even and beautiful. How to cover and glaze cakes How to make a cake smooth even

Miscellaneous

There is probably no person who loves homemade cakes more than store-bought ones. And for good reason. After all, a cake baked at home is much healthier and tastier.

For home baking, housewives try to use only high-quality and fresh products and avoid artificial colors and food additives.

How to cover a cake to surprise and amaze guests, not everyone knows. My task is to explain to you all the nuances of making decorations and cake coverings.

If you want to improve your culinary business and bring joy to your family and friends, this article will come in handy.

How to decorate cakes

A birthday cake can be adequately decorated not only by experienced confectioners, but also by home cooks. This does not require a long study, a few hands-on exercises are enough, and you can already show others how to make a beautiful cake.
The main thing is to be patient and be attentive, and you will succeed.

Decorating cakes, in most cases, cost:

  • Cream.
  • Jelly.
  • Meringue.
  • With mastic.
  • Ising.

Let's dwell in more detail on each method.

Cream

How to pour the cake? Appetizing and attractive cake looks thanks to butter cream. And all because he has a lot of advantages.

First, it doesn't blur; secondly, it does not settle; thirdly, delicious. And finally, to prepare such a decoration, you will need only two ingredients: butter and condensed milk.

The butter must be removed from the refrigerator in advance so that it has time to soften.

To prepare the cream, take food in the following amount:

half a pack of butter and 5 tbsp. tablespoons of condensed milk (you can use boiled, so the cream will acquire a light beige tint).

  1. Beat the softened butter first until fluffy and fluffy.
  2. Then add the condensed milk, without ceasing to beat the mass with a mixer, and bring everything to a homogeneous state.
  3. Transfer the finished cream to a pastry bag with a curly nozzle and start decorating the cake. If you don't have a special device, it's okay, you can find a way out.
  4. Take a regular plastic bag, just tight, and fill it with cream.
  5. Cut the corner to form a small hole. That's all, the rest depends on your imagination and skill.

You can add a rich chocolate shade to the cream by adding cocoa powder. Use other colors as well, such as carrot juice, beet juice, or spinach juice.

Squeeze the mass onto the cake in a thin strip, depicting various geometric shapes (circles, zigzags, wavy lines) or floral motifs (flowers with leaves).

Meringue

The confectionery that you prepare for some celebration looks boring without decoration.

Of course, any housewife wants to glaze or decorate it, and not just like that, but exquisitely and tastefully.

The meringue is perfect for decorating birthday cakes for both adults and children.

You just need to choose the right theme, and then the cake will take on a new sound. Looking at it, it will be immediately clear what kind of holiday the guests will celebrate.

To make a lush and long-lasting meringue, you will need: 250 g sugar and 5 egg whites.

We start preparing meringues for cakes by thoroughly cooling the proteins in the refrigerator.

To save time, put them in the freezer. It will take a few minutes and the proteins are ready to use.

Then:

  1. Beat the whites with a mixer until foam forms. You can add a pinch of citric acid; in an acidic environment, the process will be more successful and faster. Remember that the utensils for whipping must be absolutely clean and dry, otherwise your efforts will be in vain.
  2. Add sugar in two tablespoons, do not turn off the mixer. Beat the mixture each time until smooth.
  3. When all the sugar is used, work the mass with a mixer for another 10 minutes. As a result, you will get a lush and dense meringue of a snow-white color.
  4. This is not the end of the meringue preparation, it must undergo heat treatment.
  5. Preheat oven to 100 degrees. Place a sheet of parchment of a suitable size on the bottom of the baking sheet, and squeeze flowers or circles onto it.
  6. The meringue will be ready no earlier than one hour later.

Such decoration, no doubt, will decorate any cake if you make roses and other flowers on its surface.

Little ones will love the taste of meringue, in addition, they love when sweets have a crunchy texture.

Mastic

Recently, cakes have been decorated with mastic very often. Working with her is not entirely easy, but the end result will exceed all expectations.

A variety of figures, including animals and people, can be fashioned from mastic. With its help, real scenes from fairy tales or real life are created on the surface of the confectionery.

Try it, in the process you will be transported to distant childhood, when in labor lessons you fiddled with plasticine.

Yes, mastic resembles plasticine in its properties, it is just as viscous and plastic. And you can prepare such material for decoration with your own hands, the main thing is that you have all the necessary ingredients.

For milk mastic, these are: condensed milk; powdered sugar; powdered milk. Add food coloring if desired, but only drop by drop so as not to overdo it.

So, mix the dry ingredients in a small saucepan and pour in condensed milk in parts. You should have an elastic mixture that won't stick to your hands.

Add the dye little by little, as if mixing it into the mass. If you need two or three colors of mastic, separate the starting material and continue with food grade dyes.

Marshmallow mastic is prepared from:

chewing marshmallow; water; butter; lemon juice or citric acid; starch; icing sugar. Add food coloring to the mastic if necessary.

Preparation:

  1. Melt the marshmellow in the microwave or in a water bath.
  2. When the mixture is thin, add the dye.
  3. Dissolve citric acid in water, add to the melted marshmallow and stir.
  4. Add 50 g of butter.
  5. Mix the powdered sugar with starch in a 1: 3 ratio.
  6. Add the resulting mixture in parts to the rest of the ingredients until you get a plastic dough of a uniform consistency.
  7. Place the dough on a board sprinkled with powdered sugar and knead with your hands for another ten minutes.

Before you cut the figurines out of the mastic, it must be rolled out into a thin layer. Gather the scraps together and, having rolled a ball out of them, wrap in plastic.

The mastic dries quickly, therefore, when working with it, you need to act quickly and harmoniously.

Marzipan

Nut butter or marzipan are great for decorating pastries. Only two components - sugar paste and almond flour, when mixed, form an elastic mass that tastes great and retains its shape well.

Marzipan is used to make a coating to cover the cake, as well as various figurines. The latter do not crack, even if they have a large volume.

Ingredients: ¼ glass of water; 200 g granulated sugar; 1 cup toasted almonds

Preparation:

  1. Peel the almonds, lay them on a baking sheet and dry until golden brown.
  2. Grind the product in a blender. You should get a free-flowing mass of particles of a very fine fraction.
  3. Cook a thick syrup from sugar and water, conduct a ball formation test.
  4. Pour the almond flour into the syrup and cook the mixture for another 3 minutes, then pour it into a bowl, the inside of which is greased with butter.
  5. When the mass has cooled, pass it through a meat grinder, then roll it into a ball and use to decorate the cake.

Trim on all sides before covering the cake, then roll the marzipan on a board and cut out a circle to the appropriate diameter. Transfer it carefully to the surface, press down from above and from the sides, cut off the excess.

There is another way to decorate - cut out the petals from the layer and form flowers from them, add the leaves, and you will get a real flower meadow that can be transferred to the cake. Take care of the color of the parts in advance, for this there are food colors.

It happens that the mass came out not thick enough and spreads. You can fix the situation by adding powdered sugar to the marzipan and slightly kneading it with your hands on a cutting board.

If the mass is tight and does not roll out well, sprinkle it with water and only then begin to form a layer out of it.

When you decorate the cake, transfer it to the refrigerator shelf, where it should spend 7-8 hours and only then get to the festive table.

Icing

The universal decoration, which will be discussed now, looks like a frosty pattern on the windows. Icing is often used to decorate a wedding cake, as it gives it romance and tenderness.

Icing does not spread, it is firmly attached to the surface. In general, you definitely need to know his recipe.

Take:

3 squirrels; 500-600 g of icing sugar; 1 small spoonful of glycerin for internal use; Art. a spoonful of lemon juice.

Cooking steps:

  1. Separate the whites from the yolks and refrigerate.
  2. Beat them for a couple of minutes on a low speed.
  3. Pour in glycerin, icing sugar and lemon juice.
  4. Beat the mixture until it is firm and crisp white.
  5. Cover the dishes and place in a cool place.
  6. Wait until all air bubbles have burst, then transfer the icing to a pastry syringe using a nozzle with a very narrow opening.

When decorating a cake, you can draw the most intricate patterns, make inscriptions both on top and on the sides.

It is important that the surface of the product is covered with icing or fondant that will not stick and run off the cake.

For the pattern to freeze, it needs time and a cold room. After a few hours in the refrigerator, the cake will be ready to serve to guests.

Take care of the treat in advance, and then your efforts will not be in vain.

  • A bright and beautiful cake will turn out when decorated with a multi-colored decoration. Use food coloring in jelly, cream or frosting, and then the aesthetic side of the confection will be at its best.
  • You can buy food coloring at retail outlets or prepare it yourself. For these purposes, the juice of root vegetables or greens is useful, you just need to chop them and squeeze them. The juice must be boiled slightly so that it becomes thicker and does not affect the consistency of the cream.
  • Do not make congratulations and other inscriptions over the entire surface, so the cake will look clumsy, just use 1/4.
  • Think over the design design in advance, create a sketch first on paper and only then transfer it to the cake.

My video recipe

The more beautiful the cake, the more it arouses appetite and admiration of others. Therefore, today we offer you quick, simple and effective ways to decorate a cake at home.

One of the easiest ways to decorate a cake or pie is to sprinkle it with powdered sugar or cocoa over a stencil.

Anything from a special ready-made stencil, napkins with carved holes to a wide variety of objects can serve as a stencil!

The decorating process is very simple: we put the stencil on the surface of the cake, sprinkle with powder or cocoa using a sieve and carefully remove the stencil.

All this looks especially impressive if you use a contrasting background before using a stencil. For example, make the background white with powdered sugar, and sprinkle cocoa on top through a stencil, or vice versa.

Option 2: make the frosting

You can easily decorate the cake quickly and beautifully by filling it with icing on top. You can also sprinkle on top with multi-colored sprinkles.

2.1. Milk glaze for quick and easy decoration of a cake, Easter cake

  • Butter 50 gr.
  • Powdered sugar 3 tbsp
  • Milk 1 tbsp.

Ingredients.

Melt the butter over low heat, then cool slightly.

While stirring, add the icing sugar, then the milk.

As a result, you should get such a homogeneous white thick mass.

Cover the top of the cakes or buns with the finished glaze. Leave the glaze to freeze.

2.2. Chocolate icing for cake decorating

  • Cocoa powder 1 tbsp
  • Powdered sugar 3 tbsp
  • Butter 30 gr
  • Milk 2 tablespoons

We observe the proportions. The main thing is to stir constantly so that the chocolate icing does not become crusty.

Mix milk with sugar and cocoa, bring to a boil, remove from heat. Cool slightly and add oil, mix well. The oil makes the glaze shiny. The chocolate icing is ready!

Option 3: Butter cream will help you quickly and easily decorate the cake!

Whisk 100 gr. softened butter with a mixer until a fluffy mass is obtained. Then gently inject 5 tbsp. l. condensed milk (can be boiled), without stopping whipping. The cream should be smooth and fluffy.

To color the resulting cream, use special dyes, juice of cherries, beets, carrots, spinach, cocoa or coffee (instant).

You can "draw" original borders, ruffles, flower arrangements, etc. on the surface of the cake using a pastry bag or a syringe with various attachments. Alternatively, a cornet (a sheet of thick paper rolled up in a cone with a cut off bottom end) is quite suitable for this purpose. After filling a homemade confectionery envelope with cream and holding it with your hand, you need to squeeze it slightly, squeezing out the right amount of confectionery mass.

You can also make a kind of a pastry bag out of an ordinary thick plastic bag or "file" by simply cutting off a small corner and tying the free end of the bag.

Option 4: whipped cream

Not all housewives can boast of the ability to properly whip cream for a cake, but following simple rules, you can learn this. First, you need to choose cream of the desired fat content, at least 30%. Before whipping, the cream is pre-cooled in the refrigerator for two to three hours. If you do not cool the cream before whipping, then in the process it can stratify and become unsuitable for decorating baked goods. The container in which whipping is planned and the whisk should also be pre-cooled, for this purpose they can also be placed in the refrigerator shortly before whipping. When choosing a container, you need to take into account that during the whipping process, the volume of cream will increase, it is not recommended to transfer them to another dish after the mixer starts working, it is better to choose a large bowl in advance. You can whip the cream to decorate the cake with a good hand whisk, but this will take a lot of effort from the hostess. You need to start whipping at a low speed, gradually increasing it, the whipping process must be stopped in time, otherwise the cream may lose its airiness. The average whipping time is 6 to 8 minutes.

If desired, you can add sugar or powdered sugar to them, which will dissolve faster in the total mass. Additionally, you can use vanilla sugar for flavoring. If you can't whip the cream into a lather, you can try adding lemon juice.

To decorate cakes with cream, you will need a pastry bag (syringe) with different types of attachments, with which you can spread the cream on the surface of the cake with openwork patterns, create inscriptions with thin lines, draw flowers, stars and other small shapes.

Option 5: Chocolate will help you decorate the cake quickly and easily!

The easiest and fastest way to decorate the cake with chocolate chips. To do this, you just need to grate the chocolate on a coarse or fine grater.

But there is also a more interesting and unusual way to get shavings: put the chocolate for a while in a warm place, and then cut thin shavings from the tile with a knife. They will begin to roll up immediately. Arrange these curls on a plate and refrigerate. Sprinkle them on the cake at random when they are completely set.

Option 6: fruits, berries!

How to quickly decorate a cake at home? Try the fruity version!

Canned, fresh fruits and berries are a great idea for a quick home decoration. In any season of the year, you can find a suitable option: in winter - kiwi, citrus fruits, apples, bananas, in summer - strawberries, cherries, raspberries, apricots. At any time of the year, you can use exotic fruits - mango, pineapple.

You can easily decorate the cake with berries and cream - an option for novice housewives!

  1. Cover the finished round cake with cream: on top - evenly, use a piping bag with a toothed nozzle on the sides, forming corrugated vertical stripes on the sides.
  2. Divide the surface of the cake into 8 parts and mark them with the edge of a knife, tracing strips on the cream.
  3. Take about 150 grams each of raspberries or blackberries (or others that will contrast in color).
  4. On each "slice" of the cake, lay out the berries carefully in one layer and separate the parts from each other with a thin strip of cream.

Fruit jellied on the surface of the cake is a very effective and bright decoration. It will take a little more time, but only for the jelly to solidify.
In order for the layer to be dense and not spread, it is advisable to decorate the cake for several hours, and keep it in the cold until serving.

  1. Cut the fruit into thin slices, place them on the surface of the cake smeared with dense cream.
  2. Arrange the slices in even rows, and place the carving fruit flowers.
  3. Make jelly. To do this, you can use a store (dilute it with water, as indicated on the package) or make jelly from regular gelatin based on water or juice. Match the shade of the fill to the color of the fruit, or use a colorless one.
  4. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

And now you have a biscuit ready and even a filling taste has been invented. There is little left to do. Gather your courage and collect the cake. Ideally, the cake shouldn't look like the Leaning Tower of Pisa or any other unstable figure. The smoother the assembly, the easier and more convenient it is to work with the cake in the future. The smoother the build, the more professional the cut will look. We will talk in more detail about how and with what tools to organize all this.

Basic set of tools.

  • pastry table;
  • pastry bags;
  • spatula;
  • confectionery ring;
  • acetate film;
  • substrates;
  • plastic or wooden tubes.

A pastry table is a must have for a pastry chef. Moreover, both professional and beginner. Without it, assembling and aligning the cake is extremely difficult and even exhausting. Of course, it is quite possible to level the cake without it, but for this you do not have to have a lot of skill. The table can be selected in height and diameter to suit your personal preferences. In addition to the standard options, there are also tables that can be tilted.

With the help of pastry bags with wide round nozzles, it is insanely convenient to distribute creams and other fillings between the layers of the biscuit. Of course, you can do without them, but in this case, you can forget about even, slender layers.


Spatulas of various sizes are your helpers not only in matters of alignment, but also in matters of "internal". Using a spatula, you can easily distribute the cream between layers during assembly without using forms.


Pastry rings and split molds of various shapes and sizes are the best friends of an equal cake. If you don't have much practice, then assembling the cake in the ring is the best solution. If you add an acetate film to the ring, you are on your way to success.

Acetate film.

Acetate or side wrap is one of the most useful tools when assembling cakes. If you're collecting a mousse cake in a ring rather than a silicone mold, an acetate wrap is the only possible way to achieve an even edge. The use of a film when assembling cream cakes in a ring is one of the successful solutions. It is this technique that allows you to achieve a perfectly straight edge. With it, you will not have to puzzle over the question: "how to remove the confectionery ring and not cut off the half of the cake." Among other things, the acetate film is ultra-essential when assembling tall cakes. With its help, you can easily "build up" the sides to the desired length.


If the filling of your cake contains berries, berry puree, juices and similar ingredients, then do not forget that all of the above tends to oxidize when in contact with metal. It is better to collect such cakes without using a confectionery ring at all, or in a ring with the obligatory use of a side film.

Assembly without ring.

At first glance, assembling a cake without a ring is much easier, but this simplicity is deceiving. Yes - such an assembly does not require many tools, but it, like any responsible process, requires precision and care. With such an assembly, you cannot do without a pastry table. It will allow you to see inaccuracies and flaws. It is most convenient to spread the cream using a pastry bag. When assembling without a ring, you can use a pastry spatula. It will help even out the creams toppings. For any kind of assembly, pay attention to the biscuit. All biscuits must be the same diameter or size.


Ring assembly.

The ring assembly is a great option for beginners. If you are still afraid of the word "cake", then this particular type of assembly will help you cope with all your fears. From a ring or shape, the cake will not lean anywhere, will not squint and will not run away. The ring will strictly fix the shape of the future cake. It is easier to align it later. When assembling the filling and cream in a ring, we also recommend distributing using piping bags. You can use both fixed diameter molds and sliding rings. The latter are more versatile. With them, you don't have to buy dozens of shapes of different diameters.


Dam and radial assembly.

A familiar problem for everyone: how to assemble a cake with a soft, delicate filling. For example, with a Kurdish or jelly. What if the jelly is poured into a ring of the same diameter as the biscuit and just put it on the biscuit ?! If you haven’t tried this method yet, then don’t try it - it doesn "t work! The so-called“ dam. ”This method involves embedding any delicate filling in a cream ring. In the case of jelly, cream It is most convenient to lay it around after placing the layer on the biscuit.If your filling is less stable, then it is recommended first of all to make a ring of cream and only then put the layer in this ring.


For a more "fair" distribution of the filling in the layers, a radial assembly is used. It allows you to more evenly distribute flavors. Also, the radial assembly is good for tiered cakes - with its help you can equally share the physical pressure and make the cake more stable and strong. For this assembly fork, you will need several pastry bags (according to the number of creams and fillings). Layers are laid out in radial circles one after another. It is more convenient to lay out stable creams first, and only then fill the remaining voids with more delicate layers.


Assembly of tiered cakes.

The assembly of multi-tiered tori primarily presupposes the correct strategy from the calculation of physics. The lower tier, as a rule, should be more stable and dense. For him, it is better to use dense biscuits and creams. Each of the tiers can be put under a press before assembly. The cake may shrink during the aging process, but this can be easily corrected when finishing. Each of the tiers of the cake should be placed on a backing that will hide when the cake is lined with cream. Substrates are primarily needed for the convenience of cutting the cake itself. In each of the tiers, except for the upper one, plastic or wooden skewers are installed. This is to relieve the pressure of the longline on the longline.

Girls, I'll show you how I level the cake) I collected the cake on working plywood and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours. I smeared it on the sides a little and just a little on top. We leave a little cream for the crumb. I pulled it out of the refrigerator, put a substrate on top on which we will give the cake (if on an openwork napkin, then I put the parchment first, then the napkin, then the substrate) and sharply wrap the cake. Now, we now have it upside down)

Now, even if the cake is even on the sides (sometimes it happens)) I still cut a little, just a little. This sponge cake grew in me, and a mushroom formed, I had to cut off more.

When we cut it off, it became even, it seems like you can immediately apply the cream under the mastic, but since it's summer now, the heat, and the fillings are different, so that I certainly don't drip, I make a crumb, even if some kind of cream decides for myself in the heat flow (after all, not everyone follows the rules for using the cake before cutting), then the crumb absorbs everything into itself.

I add another 1-2 tablespoons to these scraps. any cream (if there is no cream, then add vegetable cream), beat with a mixer. I don't know how to describe the consistency, but so that there is more to the cream than to a dense mass, it should be easily applied with a knife, like a cream and do not reach for a knife. We coat the cake with this crumb, first on the sides, applying the crumb just above the top line of the cake, then on top

We smooth those sides that formed on the sides on the plane of the cake

We leveled it and put it in the refrigerator for an hour, or, if we are in a hurry (as I had today) for 5-10 minutes in the freezer (but no more !!) During this time we make a cream for mastic, I forgot to take a picture, I'll just tell you in words. Beat about 200 grams of butter into a fluffy mass with 1-2 tablespoons. sah. powder. I take 200 grams. a cup, pour half of the white chocolate glaze and half of the black, put it in a micro-freeze, as it melted, mix well so that everything melts until the end, when it cools down a little, pour it into butter with powder and beat it well at high speed, the cream brightens. We take out the cake and coat the sides first in a circle. While I was smearing, then where I started to smear the cream has already become solid, and now it is easy to level it, I level it from the bottom up so that a small side is also formed at the top, then I smear the top and the sides from the sides I smooth onto the top of the cake

I don't put it in the fridge anymore, because while I roll the mastic, the cake will return to normal temperature and won't sweat. I cover with mastic ... And then I ask you not to laugh ... well, I don't have a special pastry iron, but I have an iron from a building materials store, but with a special pad - it is soft and glides very well on the mastic.

With an iron I level the top first, then the barrel, the iron must be held perpendicular to the substrate, and so I level the top-side, top-side, until it is even, and in no case iron the sides (well, except when you need a streamlined or semicircular shape )

Well, that's all ... Perhaps I am doing something and not right, but everyone must find something for themselves that suits him ... this alignment suits me, the cake does not sag and does not flow.

How to make a cake not only tasty, but also smooth and beautiful? How to sprinkle the sides of the cake with crumbs beautifully?

Dear girls!

How to sprinkle the sides of the cake with crumbs beautifully? - The more I look at the photos of the cakes posted on the site, the more I want to help and suggest - everything is done simply, and the appearance of your delicious products will be more attractive.

We all baked and baked cake cakes. Is it worth repeating the well-known fact that a lot depends on the oven? Therefore, let's leave the oven alone and focus on our possibilities.

It is ordered in the recipe to "roll out the dough into a cake with a diameter of such and such" - we obediently roll it out. What's next? And, I remember, wind the dough on a rolling pin and transfer it to a baking sheet (this is me from my experience, if anything, maybe there are no such recipes now). Well, they baked a cake - it turned out not very round, and here the edge is thicker, there it is thinner - was it? Nothing, we'll then smear the edges with cream and hide all the flaws, no one will notice anything.

Until recently, I thought so too - what turned out delicious, ate everything instantly, what to talk about? Homemade cake, this is not a pastry shop.
...
Here on Povarenka this cake is laid out, but ... in fact, the insult for this wonderful recipe was the impetus for this post. Unfortunately, the simplification of the recipe is not always beneficial. I will give examples based on this honey cake, but this is for example only, any of us have enough life experience to understand what is at stake.

Now there are many convenient kitchen accessories (not all of them are equally needed and useful, by the way), but the most important thing is that we need a beautiful and regular cake

- a ring for the cake and a split form of the same diameter (straight sides and fastened on the side with a fastener). (There is a one-piece form, where the bottom is pulled up, and the corrugated walls expand upward - this will not work).


The ring for the cake is a metal ring 3 centimeters high, without features.


While I did not have it, I took a regular baking dish made of aluminum foil of the diameter I needed (the walls should be straight) and just cut out the bottom from there. (I live in Israel, we have a lot of such forms, they cost a penny).

We took baking paper. They put it on a table (or on a silicone mat in drawn diameters, they show through the paper). * I'm not like a reinsurer ... but I'm used to greasing this paper, approximately a circle of the size I need, by eye - just butter from the refrigerator, it is easy to draw on the paper and that's it. There is practically no such oil, it is rather out of habit *

The dough for the crust can be of any consistency - from liquid, which is poured, to one that can be spread only in pieces - in short, your dough must be distributed in any way according to a given shape. There are no problems with liquid dough - poured it and that's it. With thick - lay it in pieces in a mold, like plasticine, crush it with your hands, for thick and viscous honey cakes, moisten the palms of your hands easily with water. Well, on the table, on paper, laid out the dough of the size we need (approximately), try on the shape so that there is no "shortage" around the edges, let it be in excess, this is only a plus, it will go for sprinkling. Have you measured it? Fine? We take this sheet and transfer it with the dough to a baking sheet, and only now we put the mold on top. If the dough is thin, then pour directly into the mold onto the paper on the baking sheet.

Honey skins are baked very quickly. While the cake is baking, I manage to make 2-3 more blanks on cake paper.

The cake is baked - take out the baking sheet, remove the sheet of parchment along with the cake (I put this sheet on the wire rack). If I took a ring from an aluminum foil mold, then you simply take it (the mold) with your hand (it is completely non-hot) and put it on the next cake, and immediately in the oven. If the metal ring is hot, do not take it with your bare hand (this is why I do not like to take the detachable form itself, it is high and it is easy to burn yourself).

What we see in the ring and what is missing without the ring - in the ring, the dough rises like a biscuit, the cake is 1.5-2 cm high, honestly, in an ideal round shape.

We take a knife and cut out a biscuit along the edge of the metal ring (I don’t grease the ring with anything), it turns out a very beautiful cut, it’s nice to look at. Put the cuttings from the outside in a bowl (go for sprinkling).
Without a ring - an ordinary pancake: in the center it is thicker, along the edges the thickness of the cake tends to zero, the circle is far from ideal. Alas.

We baked the cakes. We made a cream (it is better to do it according to the original recipe, on the Povarenka the recipe is downward). There should be a lot of cream. Plums - there should be a lot of plums too, cut into long thin strips, the cake layer 24 cm will be practically covered by them (drain - 2 layers, do not forget). Nuts - I understand what they found and bought in the nearest super, but after the second cake I went to the market to look for delicious nuts and found them. You are making a cake for yourself, for your family.

The last cake, which usually goes for sprinkling - by this moment it should already be clear to you that just this cake (if there is still a need for it) may not be a round cake at all. We laid out the dough as much of it was left and baked it a little harder (but not to the state of "a little bit and burned out" and do not dry it out)

We begin to assemble the cake in a split form. On the bottom in the form, you need to put a little cream, just a drop, the bottom cake will stick and will not slip (this will be important when you move the cake anywhere). The cakes fit tightly into the mold. In general, if you guess to weigh the empty dish in which you will make the cream, then at the end of the preparation of the cream, you can weigh this dish again and understand how much cream you need for 1 layer (in this case: 4 cakes + cream on the side surface, count as another cake, in total, we roughly divided the resulting weight into 5 parts). For the first cake, take this cream out of the bowl and understand how much it is, how many spoons, then you don't have to weigh anything.

Now it is important not to save money, they calculated 200 g (this is an option for cream with vanilla pudding), which means that you spread these 200, spread it over the entire surface, do not save on the edges! If some edge of the cake almost reaches the edge (it happens - we are all people, we are all human), then add more cream to this problem area. The cream will not run away from the mold anywhere, but it will even out absolutely everything. The second cake and so on. Upper layer. The right portion of the cream again.

In general, a lot of cream is obtained (which is only a plus) - this is not too much, but just the right amount. For example, I prefer to put a layer of cream on the cake, on this cream plums or nuts, and add the cream on top again, and then the next cake. For what? - then the cake will be well soaked from the bottom too, I like it better. It is naive to expect that the side of the dry crust that lies entirely on one prune will be as soft and nourished as the one covered with cream.

Now put the cake in the refrigerator, even for a few minutes (5 is enough), just during this time we have time to make the sprinkling - we mixed the crumbs and the remaining nuts. You can crush the whole thing with a rolling pin (nuts or scraps of the cake should be in the bag), but if you have a blender, it will turn out much faster, more beautiful and easier. If there is no blender, it's okay, a rolling pin will help out. The main difference, as I noticed, is that if the nuts are crumbled with a rolling pin, they can get a little oily. By the way, at first I sort out the nuts (I learned from my own bitter experience, when I came across a piece of shell in a cafe in a nut-box, it was very unpleasant), rinse it, then dry it in the oven - it's all fast.

After a few minutes, we take out the cake from the refrigerator.

* Now another lyrical digression. I want to make the cake big, right? Well, so that there was something to eat. I understand that I had the largest family until the children grew up and left. But if you do everything right, then the cake will turn out to be about 10 cm high. The sprinkles on the sides will also add at least 1.5 cm in diameter. And the question will immediately arise - do you have a dish of this diameter? Not just a large dish, but so that the flat surface is no less than the diameter you need? (that is, the sides of the dish or plate no longer count) And if you decide to bring this beauty to work, then HOW will you transport this giant ??? Therefore, I do not recommend increasing the diameter, the shape is 24 cm - and then the cake will be huge, believe me *

We got to the exciting stage - sprinkles (you are not tired of reading? The materiel will be over soon). I must say right away that it turned out to be the most time-consuming operation! Therefore, after the first such cake, I began to look for a solution.

I found it and I'll tell you now. If you have such a spatula for cream - well, if not - then a silicone spatula will also work, but it has a long handle, which is not so convenient for me personally.


We take out the cake from the refrigerator. Carefully unfasten the form and remove it (the bottom remains, of course). Now attention. At this stage, you can decide if you need to do any sprinkling of the sides of your cake at all - I'm serious. The cake looks very nice and presentable. The sides are perfectly even and smooth, all the layers are visible, the thickness of the cream layer between the layers is not less than 1 cm.Often the edges of homemade cakes are dry, but not in this case, when you collect the cake in a mold and put out all the necessary portion of the cream without stint ... If you decide that this is enough, you can decorate the top of the cake, gently return the shape to its place and return the cake to the refrigerator until hour X.

And who decided to walk like that, do we continue?

Get out your prepared cake platter. (I bought a cardboard plate with a diameter of 28 cm from a disposable tableware store). Place a sheet of parchment paper on a platter, and now place your cake here, gently holding it under the bottom (it's metal). See what happened - the parchment near the cake rose like frills. Now, when you sprinkle the cake, nothing will spill on the table, everything remains in this paper.

Now, to make it convenient - take a large-diameter pan, turn it upside down, and place your dish with cake on it (so that it is convenient to rotate the cake and you do not need to bend over too much).

Use a spatula for crumb, bring the spatula to the cake and gently press the crumbs from the bottom up. Part of it crumbles, of course - nothing, again with a spatula for cream grab a portion of the delicious crumbs at the base of the cake and again easily press them against the side surface of the cake. They turned the plate a little - and all over again. On the table itself, you have no crumbs, and no waste at all (and remember before, the whole kitchen is in crumbs ... how much to clean up later ... brrr)
Now you can easily transport the cake, move it with this paper, remove it at the very last moment.

The cake is very big. I remembered the math, and counted everything into a smaller form (it's easy).

Questions (I am constantly asked at work, so I immediately answer):
What if there is no such shape or ring for the cake?
It will simply spread on the sheet, unambiguously. Better take a foil mold and cut out the bottom. If this is not possible, then you can get out like this: find a frying pan slightly larger than the required diameter (pay attention to the handle of the pan! So that it does not hurt excruciatingly at the moment when you try to squeeze the pan into the oven, you get the idea). On a frying pan - be sure to a sheet of baking paper (cut out a circle). How to bake - cut a circle of the desired diameter from the baked cake (on a plate), only hold the knife perpendicularly so that the edges of the cake are even, then everything will turn out as in the picture above. But this is quite an extreme case.
If there is no detachable form - try to find a paper one, they are usually straight in height and without frills. Didn't find such a shape in the store - don't panic, take the same baking paper, fold it in several layers, make yourself a ribbon - about 10 cm high, and now make yourself such a shape, fasten a couple of sheets together so that the ribbon is long enough ... (The circumference for a shape with a diameter of 24 cm: P = Pi * d = 24 Pi ≈ 75.398208 cm, do not forget to add a couple of centimeters to your pattern so that the edge goes over the edge and secure this edge. Girls, I did not find the symbol of the Greek letter Pi = 3.14 - geometry, grade 6).

Why is a honey cake with cream worth a day in the refrigerator?- but is impregnated. An analogy is literally how we defrost food from the freezer, placing them on the refrigerator shelf overnight, and in the morning they can already be used. So is the cake - the cakes are soaked, but, figuratively speaking, they do not stick together into one pancake, which will be if you leave the cake just on the table overnight (although the taste probably should not suffer in this case).
The taste becomes completely different - bright rich honey, sweet and sour.
(Well, they also put it in the refrigerator for safety reasons, so as not to spoil if it's hot, and even the cake will retain its shape when slicing. But I'm talking about honey with sour cream, other cakes may have their own nuances.)

Here is another problem - if you have a child who is able to open the refrigerator on his own, then an inquisitive child will not be satisfied with just contemplating a cake in the refrigerator and will certainly find an opportunity to break off a piece for testing. I place the cake in a low, large diameter (28 cm) pan with a lid (with parchment paper, the cake is very easy to move, do not save on paper) so that the cake does not accidentally absorb any foreign odors, and so that the whole refrigerator does not smell of honey aroma.

About me - never a cook or a pastry chef by profession But an active user in the kitchen Therefore, advice is more likely from the heading "News from the fields".

At first I decided to post a cake recipe with photos of each stage described here, but I thought that now I will only bake it on January 1, and by this time you will have all your delicious cakes baked, so I decided to make a post now so that someone has time take advice. I'm new to the site, and of course I don't know much - tell someone if it is possible to post a recipe similar to the one on the site, but more detailed, or something, and with your own comments.
Thanks.
I wrote everything for a long time, but everything is done very quickly and without hassle

I wish you all beautiful and delicious cakes!
Julia

P.S.
If I unknowingly broke the rules of the site, then do not attack with the whole chorus and do not hit with ladles, I will correct myself! better tell me where to read these rules, and how to upload links correctly.
Photos - not mine, taken from the Internet. because here I am only telling you what these kitchen tools are and how to use them.