How to bake an Anthill cake: a step by step recipe with a photo

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

“Anthill” is a combination of ease of preparation, minimalism of ingredients and magnificence of tastes. We can say that he has only one drawback - calorie content, so it is often undesirable to feast on them. A 100-gram serving contains as many as 452 kilocalories - this is a luxury for those who maintain slender forms. But for those who do not care about slight fluctuations in weight - why not treat yourself to a delicious dessert? Cooking the Anthill cake step by step according to the recipe, described in detail in this article, will help novice confectioners cope with the task perfectly.

A few words about the cake

A similar cake exists in Canada and is called funnel cake, in Austria - "Strauben", in India - "jalebi", although they all do not look as spectacular as our "Anthill". This pastry is good in cooking in that even a middle-aged child or a man who is completely unfamiliar with the kitchen can cook it, since there is nothing complicated (as, for example, with biscuit or custard dough). This step-by-step guide on how to bake an Anthill cake is just for them.

Dessert is prepared fromsmall pieces of shortcrust pastry smeared with boiled condensed milk cream, but sometimes some sweet lovers make it in haste from ordinary store-bought cookies. The taste changes significantly, not for the better, but this does not stop those who crave this delicacy. Therefore, if there is a desire to bake the Anthill cake according to the classic recipe, then you should cook the cookie pieces yourself.

Proportions of products

The ingredients in this recipe are designed for 6-8 servings, but if this is too much, then you can calculate your proportions by dividing the data, say, in two. To prepare the cake "Anthill" according to the recipe at home, you need to take:

• 220 grams of high-fat butter or margarine;
• 2 eggs;
• 100 ml milk or sour cream, you can also use cream;
• 3 tbsp. wheat flour;
• a pinch of baking soda mixed with a few crystals of citric acid;
• 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar.

For the cream, you will need a can of condensed milk and a pack (250 grams) of butter.

Another recipe (no milk) looks like this:

• 180 grams of margarine;
• 280 grams of flour;
• 1/2 tbsp. sugar;
• a pinch of soda + citric acid.

The dough according to the second recipe is more sandy, crumbly, while the portion is designed for a small cake, which is very convenient for 1-3 people.

Preparing dough

To prepare the base for the cake"Anthill", eggs, sugar and milk are mixed step by step. Beat the mixture a little with a blender and combine with butter melted in a water bath, constantly kneading at low speed. When the mass becomes uniform, add flour mixed with soda in small portions, achieving a dense lump of dough. It is advisable not to knead it for too long, because any dough on a fatty basis (butter in this case) does not tolerate such treatment, turning into a too hard cake when baking. It is recommended to keep the dough in the refrigerator for an hour or two wrapped in cling film so that it reaches its condition.

How to bake a cake base?

Those who saw the finished cake in the section, noticed that it consists of a loose structure formed by small lumps of baked dough. But this is not a cookie broken into pieces (sharp corners would be visible), but something resembling small bumps of earth near an ordinary anthill. It is because of this similarity that the cake was so named. How to bake an Anthill Cake to look just like the recipe says?

This is a very simple procedure: you need to pass the frozen dough through a meat grinder with a large nozzle. Spread the resulting "spaghetti" from shortbread dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment, at a small distance so that they do not stick together during baking. When all the dough is ground, place the baking sheet in the oven, set the temperature to 180 degrees and bake until a pleasant golden hue, which usually takes no more than twenty minutes.

What can be added tocream?

The classic Anthill cake recipe uses regular cream with condensed milk, which is combined with butter and whipped into a light mass. As for which condensed milk you need to take, boiled or not, opinions differ, so this does not play a special role, since each option is good in its own way. The cream is prepared with a mixer, because whipping the butter with a whisk is not an easy task, especially for a novice confectioner. If desired, you can add a little vanilla to flavor the cream.

Some recipes use cocoa powder or melted chocolate bar to give the finished product a special taste, which is especially true for chocolate lovers.

Replacing condensed milk cream with sour cream, as some economical housewives do, is not worth it, as this will be a complete violation of the classic recipe. Its taste will become completely different, which means that it is unethical to call the resulting product an Anthill cake. Only by observing traditions, it is possible to preserve the classic recipes that have come down to our days from the past. If you constantly modify something and at the same time claim that this is a traditional recipe, then you can completely forget the truth.

Cake shaping

Divide the finished pieces of the base for the cake into small pieces (usually they stick together a little) and place in a wide bowl, send the whipped cream there and mix the contents of the dish thoroughly. In the traditional recipe, nothing else is added in this process, but many variationsrecommendations on how to bake an Anthill cake suggest that you can add chopped walnuts, roasted peanuts, poppy seeds and even steamed raisins. All these additives do not contradict the taste of the treat, so they can be safely used.

When all the cake blank is well mixed, put it in a slide on a flat dish, forming a cone resembling an ant's house. Then take it to a cool place and let it brew for at least six hours (preferably overnight) so that the cake is well soaked.

How to decorate the finished product?

Usually all photo-recipes of the "Anthill" cake present it in its usual form, not decorated with anything on top: after all, if you smear it with cream, the spectacular look will be lost. Some are covered in chocolate icing. This is acceptable, although it distorts the original taste, and the view too. In case of urgent need, you can lightly sprinkle with walnuts, crushed not very finely, which will give an additional appearance of the loose state inherent in the ant house.

Some useful tips

You don't need to bake the pieces of dough until brown, then they will not soak well, the cake will remain dry even with a lot of cream.

Anthill cake isn't about too soft pastries like sponge cakes or custards, but there's a trick to making it softer. To do this, you need to increase the amount of cream by half and, in the process of molding, do not rush to lay out a hill of pieces, but let the mass lie down in a bowl.

This cake has another feature: if it is left for more than 24 hours, it will begin to dry out again, even wrapped in a film, so you should not keep it for a long time, hoping that this will make it more delicious.

It happens that among the kitchen items there is no meat grinder. In this case, you can freeze the dough in the chamber, and then grate using the largest holes. Spread the resulting pieces on parchment in a thin layer and bake, as indicated above in the recipe.