Blackcurrant cake: hello from the 90s

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

Such a simple cake has several analogues in different parts of the world, although it is most famous among the post-Soviet population. When products disappeared from store shelves during the years of perestroika, mothers and grandmothers, in an attempt to diversify the menu and please the household with inaccessible sweets, baked such a miracle. Who came up with the idea of baking a jam cake - history is silent, but in the mid-90s it was a very popular dessert.

What is the name of the blackcurrant cake?

No matter how they renamed it: "Currant" and "Negro", "Black Broker" and "Five Minute for Tea" - the essence remained the same: dark layers of cake, smeared with cream and sprinkled with nuts on the sides, cooking in a matter of minutes and inimitable taste.

Some people replaced blackcurrants in the cake recipe with blueberries, mulberries or even bird cherry - after all, currants were not available to everyone, and they wanted to keep the identification mark of the cake (color). This is how new versions and interpretations were born, names were changed, but the dessert did not lose its originality and accessibility. Blackcurrant jam for the cake is taken any, you can even a little fermented or candied - that's allwill do and will not spoil the taste at all, thanks to the magical effect of soda.

Cake ingredients

For the test:

• Blackcurrant jam - 1 cup.
• Kefir, sour cream or fermented baked milk - 1 glass.
• Three eggs.
• Sugar - 100 grams.
• Flour - 2 cups.
• Soda - 1 teaspoon.

In some recipes, an inadequate amount of soda is indicated: a tablespoon is too much, you don’t need so much. The dough will acquire a characteristic "soda" taste, which will spoil the overall impression.

Cooking: step by step recipe with photo

Blackcurrant cake is prepared quickly, quite easily, but it turns out very tasty and unusual in appearance.

Pour jam into a deep bowl, add sugar and soda, mix. The mass will begin to bubble, hiss and increase in size - we are not afraid: this is how it should be, this is the interaction of jam acid and soda alkali. Why not a chemistry lesson?

After ten minutes, add the eggs beaten with a blender to the sweet mass, mix lightly and add the sifted flour. Knead the dough until smooth, trying not to delay the process, and pour it into a silicone baking dish, greased with oil. Send the form to a preheated oven (200 degrees) and bake until cooked for an average of 30-40 minutes, checking the readiness with a wooden toothpick: pierce the dough with it to the bottom and touch it with your hands - if dry, then the cake layers are ready. At the same time, it is better not to open the oven for the first twenty minutes so that the dough does not settle.

There is also no need to rush to get the cake out of the oven and form - let it stand with the door open for 15 minutes, then the same amount in the form.

Let the cake blank cool, then cut with a sharp knife lengthwise into two thin layers, which are smeared with cream, stacked on top of each other. Spread the rest of the cream on the top and sides of the blackcurrant cake, you can sprinkle with crushed walnuts, peanuts or cookie crumbs.

Cream cake

According to the recipe, blackcurrant cake can be soaked with several types of cream:

1. A half-liter can of fresh homemade sour cream or cream is whipped with one glass of sugar and vanilla on the tip of a knife to a steady state of sharp peaks.
2. Classic Custard: 3 tbsp. spoons of starch, half a glass of sugar and a little vanilla mix in a saucepan, lightly beat two eggs and a third of the milk separately, mix with the sugar mass and mix thoroughly until smooth. Boil the remaining milk and pour in a thin stream into the egg-sugar mass, be sure to actively work with a whisk or spoon. Put the cream on a small fire and cook until it thickens, be sure to constantly stir with a spatula, otherwise it will quickly burn and you will have to start over.
3. Cream of boiled condensed milk: boil a jar of condensed milk yourself or buy ready-made, mix with 200 grams of butter. This cream is the most high-calorie of those offered, so it is not recommended for obese people, although it is very tasty.
4. You can just miss the currant cakecondensed milk (not boiled) - cheap, but not angry at all and very tasty! Budget option for students.

Even without cream, just in the form of a cake sprinkled with powdered sugar, this simple miracle dessert is very good with freshly brewed tea or fragrant dried fruit compote.

How to decorate?

The blackcurrant cake looks very creative in the photo, especially when decorated accordingly. You can top it with chocolate icing and melted white chocolate, draw curls or make a fun inscription.

You can thickly sprinkle with almond petals or chocolate chips, mixed with finely chopped dried fruits - it will be insanely tasty and unusual. If the cream for the cake is used from cream, then boldly plant flowers from it, just slightly tint the cream with food coloring.

You can also use pieces of marmalade, fresh fruit, lined with a pattern for decoration, or, if there is no time or mood, just fill the sides and top with broken cookies. There is plenty of space for creativity, since spoiling the cake is quite difficult.

Photo of blackcurrant cake in section

The characteristic dark color of soft cakes (they look like a butter biscuit) looks rather unusual if you have never met this type of dough.

It is clear that the color does not give cocoa, so initially the cake is discouraging - why is it such a shade? Not immediately to taste either.it is always clear which ingredient gives an unusual taste and berry note. What is the surprise of inexperienced confectioners when they find out that the main component of the product is blackcurrant jam.