How to decorate a Prague cake at home: photo ideas, design tips

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Many believe that the world-famous "Prague" cake came to Soviet cuisine from the Czech Republic. Despite the seeming logic of this conclusion, it has no basis: the famous dessert was developed by the head of the Moscow restaurant of the same name, Vladimir Guralnik. Chocolate cakes with delicate butter cream and fondant immediately fell in love with Soviet citizens and quickly spread throughout the confectionery of the Union. At that time, confectioners thought little about how to decorate the Prague cake: they limited themselves to butter roses and chocolate icing. Today, in free sale, you can find mastic, fresh berries, all kinds of toppers and other designs, which will not be difficult to repeat even for an inexperienced housewife.

Experimental pastry chef

Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik initially studied confectionery art in one of Moscowcolleges. Actually, how did he study? I tried to take into account that there is a GOST and all cooks of the Soviet Union must strictly follow it. Vladimir often did not agree with the proportions and sequence of adding ingredients, but delicately kept silent, apparently guessing that his time had not yet come.

Then followed an internship in several pastry shops, a job at the Prague restaurant and a painful rise to chef. Only after receiving the coveted position, the man decided on the first experiments.

Despite the difficulty of introducing new recipes, Soviet restaurants had the right to experiment, and Guralnik took advantage of this: it is believed that during his life he developed more than 30 original recipes, each of which took its rightful place in GOST.

Viennese cake with Czech name

But back to "Prague". Guralnik, who studied with his Czechoslovak colleagues for quite a long time and is well acquainted with the underside of foreign cuisine, decided to take the Viennese chocolate cake "Sacher" as the basis for his new chocolate dessert. The conscience did not allow the pastry chef to simply copy the original recipe, replacing the name, so he decided to modify the Viennese pie, adding personality to it: this is how butter cream and chocolate fudge were born, which became the hallmark of the Soviet dessert.

The first samples showed that the audience accepted the dessert extremely positively, so it was soon included in GOST and could be prepared in any confectionery.

Cream cake

Due to the fact that the original "Prague" was conceived by Guralnik as a gourmet dessert, it was very difficult to prepare. In addition, the confectioner needed not only all his talent and skills, but also rare, outlandish products, which were almost impossible for a mere mortal to get. This primarily referred to the cake's alcoholic ingredients, such as Chartreuse and Benedictine liqueurs, as well as Cuban rum.

But "Prague" still walked around the country, and a few years later, Soviet housewives called almost any chocolate cake with butter cream that way. This explains the incredible number of a wide variety of desserts under the general name "Prague".

Cooking cakes

And yet, if you want to try the same taste from childhood that all the citizens of the Union loved so much, try not to deviate a single step from the Gost recipe.

To make a biscuit take:

• 5 eggs;
• 170g sugar;
• 30g softened butter;
• 30g alkalized cocoa;
• 120 g flour;
• 1 tbsp l. liqueur "Benedictine".

Separate the whites from the yolks, cool and beat until hard peaks, adding 100 g of sugar at the end of the beating. Rub the yolks thoroughly with the remaining sugar. Mix with half of the protein mass. Add cocoa to the flour and sift twice through a fine sieve: this is done in order to saturate the bulk ingredients with oxygen.

Flour andGently mix the yolk mixture, put the remaining proteins in the bowl with the dough and use a spatula to bring the dough to a homogeneous state. At this stage, it is strongly not recommended to use a mixer, as there is a great danger of damaging air bubbles and spoiling the biscuit. Add softened butter and liqueur to the dough. Stir.

Split form with a diameter of about 20 cm, grease with butter and sprinkle with flour. The so-called French shirt will not allow the biscuit to stick to the walls of the form. Put the finished dough into a mold and bake in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 30 minutes.

Testing with a wooden skewer will help determine the readiness of the cakes. Put the finished biscuit on the wire rack, cool and keep in a cool place for at least 15 hours.

Impregnation

However, the design of the Prague cake is still far away. When the biscuit has completely cooled down and stabilized, it should be cut into three equal parts with a thread and soaked in sugar syrup.

To prepare the impregnation, use 139 g of granulated sugar and 120 ml of water. Put the ingredients in a saucepan, add 1 tbsp. l. liqueur "Chartreuse" and cook over medium heat. To find out if the syrup is ready, add one drop of the resulting sugar water to a cup of ice water, and then try to roll it into a ball. If the syrup smears on your fingers, continue cooking, if not, proceed to the next step.

Pour the finished mixture into a bowl and beat until white with a mixer: now the impregnation is ready for use. Spread the sugar syrup on the bottom two layers and let them sit at room temperature for 6-7 hours.

Cream

Prague filling - butter-custard. Cooking it is not at all difficult, but you must strictly follow the recipe, otherwise it may exfoliate and you will have to start all over again. So, mix in a bowl 3 yolks, 1 tsp. boiled water and 7 tbsp. l. condensed milk. Put the mixture in a water bath and cook for at least 20 minutes. As soon as the cream begins to thicken, remove it from the heat and add 70 g of dark chocolate to the bowl. Let it melt and let the cream cool down a bit.

After 2-3 hours, add to the future filling 200 g of softened butter, 1 tbsp. l. rum and beat thoroughly with a blender. Layer the cake, leaving the sides and top dry.

Fruit flavor is the hallmark of "Prague"

Still, Guralnik was not such a strong fan of chocolate: obvious fruity notes can be traced in his cake. Use about 100 g of apricot jam to thoroughly coat the top and sides of the dessert. Leave for a couple of hours in the refrigerator. Fill the finished cake with chocolate fudge or icing.

Your "Prague" is ready!

Classic Decor

The finished cake is usually covered with fondant. This is a great alternative to melted chocolate. To prepare it, take 4 tbsp. l. milk, 1 tbsp. l. alkalized cocoa, 150 g of sugar, 50 g of butter and 1 sachet of vanilla sugar. Place all ingredients except oil in a small saucepan, bring to a boil and cook for 8 minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat and add the butter to the mixture. Punch with a blender. When doing this, hold the device slightly at an angle so that air bubbles do not form in the glaze. Cool the finished fudge to 40 degrees and pour over the chilled cake. If you don't have a candy thermometer, don't worry. Put some of the mixture on the inside of your wrist. The fondant should be warm, but not piping hot.

Leave the cake for 2-3 hours in the refrigerator and you can decorate with melted chocolate or ganache. For better contrast, you can use white or, conversely, bitter varieties.

The classic beautiful design of the Prague cake comes down to a few lines of dark and milk chocolate. Many people add nuts to the decor or use buttercream to create an original decoration.

The easiest option that even a preschool child can handle is decorating with melted chocolate. Take a few slices and melt them in a water bath. Transfer the resulting mass to a pastry bag and use it to add various patterns and inscriptions.

For children's birthday

If the Prague cake is for a child's birthday, remove the alcohol from the recipe. You can decorate it with sugar mastic, which children love so much.

The problem is that the topthe jam and fondant coating will not allow the mastic to lay well, so if you are cooking for children, you will have to move away from the classic patterns.

First of all, give up jam. In order to decorate the Prague birthday cake in the best possible way, prepare the butter cream: beat 200 g of butter in a mixer until fluffy, add 150 g of powdered sugar and mix again. Now cover the finished cake with the resulting mixture, smooth it well and refrigerate for 6-8 hours.

Use the mastic mass to create an original design.

For the pros

For housewives who are wondering how to decorate a Prague cake at home, and who are fluent in a pastry bag with nozzles, there is one very elegant solution.

Make ganache, cream cheese or buttercream with condensed milk and use a pastry syringe to create a real garden on the surface of the cake.

Modern style

Modern confectioners tend to move away from the usual patterns. Perhaps that is why Nude-style cakes decorated with fruits and berries are in fashion today.

To create this option, deposit the cream between the cakes using a carved nozzle. Skip the full coverage of the frosting, leaving only slight drips. Decorate the top of the dessert with chopped fruits and berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kumquats, blackberries and others. You can see this optionregistration of the cake "Prague" in the photo. He always looks unusually fresh and always winning.

For real sweethearts

"Prague", decorated with chocolate, sweets, straws and cookies, is a real dream of any little (and big!) sweet tooth. Now in the world of cakes, disorder is recognized as an artistic order and is highly regarded in confectionery circles.

And we are only happy about this trend: decorating the Prague cake (and any other) with chocolates is a huge scope for imagination. From the elegant dessert, little sweet lovers are sure to steal all the decor before you have time to blow out the candles!

Elegant

Modern trends in the world of cake building and decorating dictate their own rules to confectioners. Today, too much frills and detail are not welcome in the decor, so most baking fashion magazines advise using toppers - iron, wooden or cardboard decorations that are removed before cutting the dessert.

Toppers are made individually to order, and are sold ready-made. This is one of the options on how to decorate the Prague cake at home without much effort and money.

Fast

One way to decorate a Prague cake without spending time and money is whipped cream. In this case, you can use a ready-made mixture from a can or take a jar of 30% cream and beat it with powdered sugar. Suchunpretentious design looks organic with berries and chocolate chips.

We must not forget that such a dessert should be stored in the refrigerator, otherwise the decorations will flow and spoil not only the appearance, but also the taste.

Cream cake usually looks pretty good, although it will take some practice to get neat little roses.

French

Today the famous Soviet dessert is known far beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union. So, for example, in some pastry shops in France you can find Gâteau de Prague. While Russian housewives are puzzled over how to decorate the Prague cake beautifully, the French have found a very elegant solution for this.

They use Swiss meringue for this, which is slightly scorched with a burner for color. This decoration looks fresh and original. In addition, the delicate meringue perfectly sets off the rich chocolate flavor of the cake.

New accents

In search of options on how to decorate the Prague cake (photos of ready-made desserts are given in the article), you can often find pictures with nut crumbs. Many housewives are afraid to mix two or more bright flavors, but these fears are completely unfounded.

Nuts and chocolate complement each other perfectly and look in tandem. Therefore, any of their types are perfectly combined. So, prepared according to the classic recipe "Prague", you can decorate with peanut crumbs, whole hazelnuts, pistachios or almond petals. Walnut halves are often usedor cashews.

Before using, be sure to check the nuts for rancidity: this way you will protect yourself and your loved ones, and also do not spoil the whole cake.