Cake Bird's Milk (according to GOST)

Cake pigeon's milk in the 70s and 80s it was probably the most popular cake in the USSR. Many families had Bird's Milk cake on their holiday table. Every morning, a huge line of people wanted to buy this cake lined up near the doors of the Kulinariya store at the Prague restaurant (on Arbat in Moscow). It should be recalled that the author of the recipe for this cake was the confectioner of the Prague restaurant, Vladimir Guralnik. It was he who changed the composition and technology of preparing soufflé, from which some types of sweets were made at that time, and suggested using it to make cake.

Sweet lovers liked the new confectionery product. Home cooks were immediately interested in the recipe, but this information was not available to them at the time. There were even rumors that the recipe was kept strictly secret and that the author himself did not want to reveal this secret to anyone. But in fact, the recipe for the cake was published in cookbooks intended for professional pastry chefs.

The recipe below is very close to the GOST recipe. It differs from the original in the absence of molasses in the composition, which practically does not affect the taste of the product, and also in the fact that, if necessary, the gelling agent agar can be replaced with gelatin.

I would also like to note that this recipe was written taking into account the advice and recommendations of a wonderful pastry chef, author of interesting cookbooks and blogger - Irina Chadeeva.

Other options and

Cake Bird's Milk (according to GOST). Recipe.

Ingredients (for about 12 servings):

Shortcrust pastry for shortcakes:

160 g flour (1 cup)

100 g butter or good margarine

100g. fine granulated sugar

2 eggs

Cream soufflé:

450 g granulated sugar

140 ml. water

3 egg whites

2 teaspoons (without top) of agar or 25 g of gelatin(*)

100 g condensed milk (1/4 standard can)

200 g butter

half a teaspoon of vanilla sugar

citric acid on the tip of a knife

Chocolate glaze:

100 g dark chocolate

50 g butter

Preparation:

(*) For this cake, agar is used as a gelling component, which is not always available to buy (although in large cities this should not be a problem - agar is usually sold in oriental herb and spice stores). If you were unable to buy agar, replace it with gelatin, and the preparation technology will change slightly (this is written below).

Also, to assemble this cake you will need a baking dish with removable sides (diameter approximately 25 cm.)

Preparation of shortbread: beat softened butter or margarine with granulated sugar and vanilla sugar until fluffy, then, without stopping beating, add eggs, beat well again until grains of sand dissolve, add sifted flour and knead the dough, form it into a ball and cover the bowl with a lid. stand for 15-20 minutes.

Place the cake pan on a sheet of baking paper and trace its base with a simple pencil.

Spread half of the dough evenly on paper in the shape of an outlined circle (pre-grease the paper with oil), place on a baking sheet and bake at a temperature of 220-230C for 10-12 minutes, cool without removing the paper, trim the edges of the cake a little (so that it easily fits into the pan). cake assembly). Do all this with the second half of the dough (you will end up with 2 cakes).

Cream souffle: pour agar with water (140 ml.) and leave to swell for 3-4 hours, then bring to a boil over low heat with constant stirring and boil for 1 minute until completely dissolved (make sure the mixture does not burn), then add sugar. and while stirring, bring to a boil, cook the mass until the volume increases and foam appears on the surface (the syrup is ready when a thin thread trails behind it when you remove a spoon from it).

Remove the syrup from the heat, add vanilla sugar and leave to cool.

Beat softened butter with condensed milk until smooth (butter and milk should be at room temperature).

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the whites until a light foam appears on their surface, add citric acid and beat until volume and density increase, then gradually beat while adding syrup cooled to 70-80C, while the mass will increase in volume and thicken even more.

If you use gelatin instead of agar, then pour about 70 ml of it. cold water and leave for a couple of hours to swell, and then heat over low heat or in a water bath until completely dissolved. Boil syrup from sugar and water (140 ml.). Beat the whites in the same way as when using agar, only first add sugar syrup (temperature 70-80C), and then gelatin solution and vanilla sugar.

Place butter and condensed milk cream in a bowl with the sugar-protein mixture and mix gently until completely homogeneous.

Place one cake layer in the form for assembling the cake, put half of the cream on it, then the second cake layer, put the other half of the cream on it, smooth the surface and put it in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Glaze: break the chocolate into pieces and heat with butter in a water bath until smooth.

Are there those who have never tried this wonderful cake? If it does exist, it needs to be corrected urgently. Bird's milk is a very sweet, delicate soufflé cake with thin layers.

By the way, this cake was the first to receive a patent in the USSR. But the author is not alone - these are cooks who worked in the confectionery shop of the Moscow restaurant "Prague". Back in the 80s, they were led by confectioner Vladimir Guralnik. Today, only his name is associated with the appearance of this cake. Be that as it may, the cake is gaining more and more popularity every year, many recipes are floating around the Internet - which means that people cook, love and enjoy the taste of this cake.

So we won’t be left behind, and we’ll prepare the “Bird’s Milk” cake on agar-agar according to GOST. It is prepared quite simply and quickly.

Prepare the necessary ingredients.

The first step is to combine agar-agar with water, stir and set aside.

Place the softened butter in a mixer bowl, add sugar and vanillin. Beat with a mixer until creamy. The mass should become fluffy and light. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until smooth.

Add the sifted flour and continue beating for another 2-3 minutes. The mass should become homogeneous, very tender and pleasant in consistency.

On the parchment, draw a circle with a diameter that will correspond to the diameter of the mold in which you will prepare the cake. Place half a portion of the dough in the center and level it along the drawn circle.

Place the parchment on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. Trim the edges of the still hot cake. Once the cake has cooled, it will be very tender and fragile and easy to break. Bake the second cake in the same way.

Let's move on to the next stage - preparing the soufflé. Place softened butter in a mixer bowl, pour in condensed milk and add vanilla.

Beat with a mixer until smooth.

Place the saucepan with the previously soaked agar-agar on the fire and bring to a boil. The agar-agar should melt completely. Add the entire portion of sugar and bring to a boil over low heat.

At first it will boil strongly, seethe and foam, but then settle a little. Continue cooking the syrup to 110 degrees. This will take approximately 10-12 minutes.

While the syrup is being prepared, you need to simultaneously beat the chicken whites into a fluffy, stable foam.

Without stopping whisking, start pouring in the syrup in a thin stream. Pour it very slowly. The mass will begin to increase, turn white and become stronger.

When the syrup disappears, add the previously whipped butter with condensed milk. Continue whisking for 1-2 minutes and the soufflé is ready.

Place the first cake layer in a springform pan. Then pour in half the soufflé and place the second cake layer. Then pour in the remaining soufflé. Place the form in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours. The soufflé should set well.

Prepare chocolate glaze. Place butter and dark chocolate cubes in a double boiler bowl.

Stirring, bring to a smooth, smooth consistency. The glaze will be glossy and flavorful.

It should cool down a little, but just a little. Pour the glaze over the souffle and smooth it out.

Cake “Bird's milk” on agar-agar is ready! It is incredibly tasty, beautiful and budget-friendly.

Bon appetit. Cook with love.

When I finally decided to bake Bird’s Milk, I, of course, looked through the Internet. My God! Perhaps no cake can boast so many “real” and “correct” recipes. Starting from a seventeen-egg cake and ending with Guralnik’s “original” recipe from memory, apparently rewritten by a journalist. In general, it's a terrible thing. Without in any way wanting to offend the authors of the recipes, I nevertheless want to note that the correct recipes were also found.
Story. The cake was invented by Vladimir Guralnik, a pastry chef from the Prague restaurant. Again, there is a lot of speculation. A typical example: Guralnik made a revolution by using agar, but in the confectionery industry no one used agar, only gelatin. I’ll say right away - it’s nonsense. The pastry chef borrowed the recipe from the factory, processing it into a more delicate, cake soufflé. Gelatin, however, was not used in our industry, since it loses its properties when heated. They produced quite a lot of agar, and not only soufflés were made with it, but also creams, such as “Charlotte” or protein.

By the way, the soufflé was sponsored, and it is included in several cakes according to GOST. But pay attention - it was “Bird's Milk” that became the favorite cake of many sweet lovers and, I would say, a kind of symbol of the then cake industry. The souffle recipe can be found in reference books, the cake recipe is more rare, but I was lucky - I still found it in one of the dozen books I ordered.

About technology. Whipped egg whites brewed with agar-molasses-sugar syrup are used as the basis for the soufflé. It is boiled to a temperature of 117-118C, cooled and the whites are poured in, as when preparing Italian meringue. True, in Italian meringue the syrup is heated to 120C, but in our case, agar at this temperature loses its gelling ability. Since it is almost impossible to get starch syrup (what a Soviet word, alas!), you can replace it with sugar. What will change? Only that the molasses prevented the syrup from sugaring, and without molasses at 118C it quickly crystallizes and, unfortunately, the soufflé can turn out with grains. Therefore, we will only boil to 110C.
By the way, many recipes from the Internet are guilty of just this - molasses was simply crossed out from the list of ingredients, which means it takes longer to boil the syrup, and there is less sugar per protein.
Agar, unlike gelatin, hardens already at 40C. Therefore, butter and condensed milk must be mixed into the whites quickly, without waiting for them to cool, otherwise the structure of the soufflé will be disrupted.

Here I want to say again that sugar syrups are boiled over medium or high heat, sugar-agar - on medium, and with constant stirring. The agar must be soaked in warm water in advance, and then boiled until it is completely dissolved. Sugar interferes with the dissolution of the agar, and therefore sugar is added to the already prepared solution.

In general, the soufflé is very simple to prepare, and (if you have agar) you will succeed. In this recipe, agar cannot be replaced with gelatin. If you want to replace it, add the gelatin solution to the prepared sugar syrup, allowing it to cool slightly. Although I haven’t tried to do this myself.

Cakes:
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
140g flour
vanilla extract

Souffle:
2 egg whites (60g)
460g sugar
1\2 tsp. citric acid
2 tsp. without a slide of agar
200g butter
100g condensed milk
vanillin or vanilla extract

Glaze:
75g chocolate
50g butter

Mold with a diameter of 25cm or more
the extract can be replaced with vanilla sugar, ground into powder

Cakes. The dough is like for a cupcake. Beat the butter with fine sugar, add eggs, vanilla and beat until the sugar dissolves white.

Add flour and knead the dough.

Spread into two circles around the diameter of the mold.

Bake at 230C for 10 minutes. If the cakes are too big, trim them right away. Cool without removing from the paper.

Place the cooled cake in the mold and start preparing the soufflé.
Soak the agar in 140 ml of water for several hours.

Butter and condensed milk for cream should be at room temperature. Beat them into a cream, add vanilla extract and set aside (not in the refrigerator).

Bring the water and agar to a boil over low heat, stirring thoroughly with a flat spatula so that the agar is completely dissolved and does not burn. Boil for a minute. Add sugar.

Place on medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. As soon as the syrup increases in volume and white foam appears, remove from heat.

Test the thread - tear the spatula off the surface of the syrup, a thin thread will follow it. This means the syrup is ready.

Cool the syrup to 80C. Meanwhile, beat the chilled egg whites in a large bowl until a stiff pattern forms on the surface. Add citric acid and beat until thick.

Pour hot syrup into the whites in a thin stream, the mass will greatly increase in volume.

Beat until thick.

Mix the butter with condensed milk, turning the mixer to low speed. Once mixed, the soufflé is ready.
Pour half the soufflé into the cake pan...

Place another layer on top and pour over the soufflé again. Place in the refrigerator to harden for 3-4 hours.

Melt the chocolate with butter and pour the glaze over the cake. Let it harden.

If necessary, apply a drawing.

Run a knife around the edge of the cake and open the pan. Ready!

By the way, what to do if there is no agar? This cake can be made without agar at all, the soufflé will be denser, more viscous, and not even a soufflé at all, but the taste will be the same! Just add half a teaspoon of citric acid to the boiled syrup and boil it to 117C (soft ball, see the lipstick recipe for details). Pour the syrup over the whites, cool to 30-36C and stir in the condensed butter cream so that it does not melt. By the way, I like this much better!

Hello, dear readers of the site! In this article we will introduce you to the classic recipe for Bird's Milk cake. Bird's milk cake is a very tender, everyone's favorite delicacy since childhood.

The recipe below was first invented back in the Soviet Union in the famous Moscow restaurant "Prague". The cake turned out to be so delicious that there were long queues for it. For a long time the recipe was kept secret, but in the future it was repeated and made public by pastry chef A. Seleznev.

So, how to prepare bird's milk cake according to GOST?

You will need the following products.

For the test: flour - 1 cup, sugar - 1 cup, eggs - 4 pieces.

For cream: 2 cups of sugar, 10 eggs, a glass of milk, 300 g of butter (remove from the refrigerator in advance to soften), 40 g of gelatin, 1 packet of vanillin.

For the glaze:½ cup sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, ½ cup milk.

First, let's prepare a biscuit.

Beat the yolks with sugar with a mixer, whipping time 10 minutes. Then add flour and continue beating for another 1 minute. Do not beat for too long, otherwise the sponge cake will not be fluffy enough.

You should have a light yellow, homogeneous dough.

Grease a cake pan with butter and place the dough into it. Bake at 180 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes.

You can check readiness with a wooden splinter.

Cool the cake and cut it in half (horizontally, into 2 parts).

Now let's prepare the cream.

Pour cold water over the gelatin and leave to swell.

Carefully separate the whites and yolks. Beat the yolks well with sugar (1 cup) until foam forms. Add milk and place in a water bath. Heat until the cream increases in volume.

After this, beat the softened butter with a mixer, gradually adding the custard a little at a time.

Dissolve gelatin in a water bath. Beat the egg whites and sugar (1 cup) until they form a strong foam. Combine meringue with gelatin.

Now gradually combine both creams: custard and protein, whisking well.

The cream is ready. Place the bottom cake in a suitable form and lightly brush it with cognac. Place the cream on top, followed by the second cake layer. Place the cake in the refrigerator.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the chocolate frosting. To do this, heat sugar, cocoa and milk in a water bath until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. Pour this glaze over the cake.

Bird's milk cake is ready! Bon appetit!