CakeLove

Passport & Plate - Napoleon

Russian Federation | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
The dough:
160 grams of margarine
6,5 table spoon of sugar
1 tea spoon of honey
1 tea spoon of soda
Salt
2 eggs
2,5 glasses of flour
The cream:
380 of condense milk (one can)
200 grams of butter

 

How to prepare this recipe
It takes 2 or 3 hour of making it if you enjoy the process! First of all you take margarine and put it on a small fire to melt, after its melted (it`s still on a small fire) add sugar and honey, mix it together. Switch off the fire and after it`s not hot anymore add soda, 2 eggs, a little bit of salt, and flour. Mix everything. The dough is ready! Now divide it into 6 pieces (or less, or more, it depends on the size of your pan). The next step is: you have to make circles (5 mm thick or even thinner, the same size) and fry each circle till it`s cooked! Pay attention, the color of these “pancakes” should be beautiful! Not black! And don`t use oil for frying, it`s better to put some flour on the pan. I guess there should be some dough left (not enough for the whole circle), fry it also, you`ll need it for the decoration: to make crumbs for putting on the top and flanks of the cake. If there is no extra dough left it`s not a problem! You can cut edges of “pancakes” for crumbs.
Making cream! Take out of the fridge butter, it should melt a little but not very much (you can cut it easily), cut into about 10 pieces, or more (for convenience of making cream), and add condense milk. Now you have to mash the butter and mix it well with the condense milk. Don’t use a mixer! The taste is going to be different! And pay attention, butter should not be too melted!
The “pancakes are cool, the cream is ready! Now you have to put cream on each layer of the future cake. Last step is to decorate. As I wrote before you should put crumbs on the top and flanks of the cake (like on my picture). If you want to put some more decoration, like write anything of whatever, my advice – don`t do it! The cake is already very tasty, and it will be too much!
The most boring step is to wait around 10-12 hours for the cream to soak in. So put the cake in the fridge only in 10 hours. 1 hour in the fridge is enough, after you can eat super tasty cake!

 

The story behind this recipe
When I was a child, and it was in 1990th (I was born in 1990), just after the collapse of USSR, most of the people in my country were extremely poor. So me and my brother used to get Napoleon cake for our birthdays, as you can guess just twice a year. It was made by my mother or my grandmother (mother`s mother). That time, of, course, we were waiting for the cake! But when we grew up, there were many opportunities to buy different cakes, and when I bought "Napoleon" in the bakery, I realized that it`s not the same with the one I used to eat. The taste is completely different with the homemade "Napoleon"! I realize that the taste can be different according to the cook, that I love our way to make it! After I tasted many homemade cakes, but there is nothing to compare with “Napoleon”!
In August, 2012 I came to China to study for my master`s degree, that’s why I live in China, Harbin now. And the bakery in China is completely different with the western ones. No sour cream, no REAL cream the taste of which we used to! Even for buying condense milk we should go to the “Imported products shop”, or bring it from Russia. So It was the time to ask my mum the recipe of “Napoleon”.
When I made it the first time I invited all my friends to taste! I was excited by myself and wanted them to understand what is “tasty” for Russians! The friend who made the cream is French, of course, he tried the cream and after that he was dying to taste the cake! After this first time of making the cake by myself I heard a lot of: “when will be the next time?”, “how did you do that?!?!?”, “tell me the recipe!”. That was the reason why I made it 3 times since I`m in China, and the last time was for my Indian friend`s birthday! As you can guess he was amazed by the present! And for my birthday his wife made another Russian cake for me (the recipe is alike), because now they know how tasty is that!
Now for me to make "Napoleon" for someone is the way to say how much I love him or her!