Cake “Abrikotin” – forgotten Soviet shortbread cake

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Heavenly crumbly bases and incredibly delicate cream make the cake “Abrikotin” a special taste experience. Not without reason it was so popular in the Soviet Union. In the meantime, the delicious shortbread cake has fallen into oblivion. Here I show you how to make it yourself at home. A detailed recipe for the cake “Abrikotin” with exact quantities and step-by-step instructions can be found here at the bottom.

Cake "Abrikotin" – forgotten Soviet shortbread cake

Popular shortbread cake of the Soviet era

The cake “Abrikotin” originated in the former Soviet Union. It was part of the assortment of many Soviet pastry shops at that time. It was a shortbread cake consisting of five cake layers and the famous cream “Charlotte” with apricot liqueur. Classically, the cake had a rectangular shape and was sprinkled with cake crumbs on the sides. Its trademark was the pink sugar icing that covered its surface and on which a net of chocolate icing was drawn. In addition, the cake was decorated with nuts. Nowadays, unfortunately, you can’t find the formerly so popular shortbread cake in the countries of the former Soviet Union. However, according to the recipe below, you can easily make it yourself at home.

Popular shortbread cake of the Soviet era

Where does the name of the Soviet shortbread cake come from?

The cream and the icing for the Soviet shortbread cake contained the fruit liqueur “Abrikotin”, which is no longer available in this form in the countries of the former Soviet Union. This was an apricot liqueur, which was used to make many pies, cakes and desserts at that time.

How to decorate cake “Abrikotin”?

Classically, the top of the cake “Abrikotin” was covered with a pink icing, which was made from fondant. On top of the icing was drawn a net of chocolate icing. Since the preparation of the fondant is a bit laborious, I frosted my cake with an ordinary sugar icing. To color the icing pink you can either use a food coloring, beet juice or, as I did, raspberry juice. Also, in the Soviet era, the shortbread cake was decorated with nuts. I used whole almonds without shells for this purpose. The sides of the cake were usually sprinkled with cake crumbs. For this I used the leftover dough from the rolled out cake layers. Alternatively, you can sprinkle the sides with ground nuts.

Of course, you can decorate the cake “Abrikotin” completely different according to your taste. If you like it rather less sweet, I recommend that you simply omit the sugar icing.

Soviet cake "Abrikotin"

This cake “Abrikotin” is

  • crumbly,
  • creamy,
  • crispy,
  • tender,
  • sweet,
  • aromatic,
  • incredibly delicious,
  • easy to make with ordinary ingredients,
  • even more delicious the next day,
  • popular cake of the Soviet era.

Recipe for the Soviet cake “Abrikotin”

The recipe for the cake “Abrikotin” is not difficult at all. Here you can form a rough idea of how the preparation is done, and what you need for it. The exact quantities and step-by-step instructions on how to make the Soviet shortbread cake yourself can be found here below in the box recipe.

For the dough you need

  • room-warm butter,
  • egg,
  • powdered sugar,
  • flour,
  • baking powder,
  • vanilla.

For the cream you need

  • milk,
  • sugar,
  • egg yolks,
  • room-warm butter
  • and apricot liqueur.

For the sugar icing add

  • powdered sugar,
  • raspberry juice
  • and apricot liqueur.

And for the chocolate icing you need

  • cocoa powder,
  • powdered sugar
  • and apricot liqueur.

How to make cake “Abrikotin”: here’s how to do it (Check out the detailed recipe at the bottom.)

  1. First, beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy, then add egg and beat briefly until homogeneous. Now add flour mixed with baking powder and knead it briefly and quickly to a soft dough. Divide the dough into five pieces and chill them for half an hour. Then roll out the dough pieces one by one into a rectangle and bake them individually at 200 °C for about 7 minutes. Roll out the rest of the dough, bake it and crumble it finely.
  2. For the cream, mix the milk, sugar and egg yolks in a saucepan. Simmer the milk syrup briefly until it thickens slightly and let it cool to room temperature. Then whip butter until fluffy, add the milk syrup in portions and apricot liqueur at the end, and whip to a homogeneous cream.
  3. For the icings, mix all the ingredients together.
  4. Now coat one of the five cake layers with the raspberry icing, spread the remaining cake layers generously with the cream and stack all the cake layers on top of each other, with the one with the icing coming last. Draw lines of chocolate icing on the top of the cake and sprinkle the sides of the cake with the crumbs. Done!

Layer cake from shortbread with buttercream

How to make cake “Abrikotin”: tips and tricks

  • The amount of flour specified in the recipe for the dough may vary. Therefore, add the flour mixed with baking powder to the butter mixture in portions until the dough has the right consistency. It should be very soft, not sticky and in no case too firm.
  • When adding flour to the butter mixture, first use a dough scraper for mixing and only at the end knead the dough with your hands. In no case knead the dough too long, but only briefly until a homogeneous consistency. Otherwise, the butter would melt from the heat of your hands, so you would need more and more flour while kneading. As a result, the cake layers would not taste crumbly after baking, but dry.
  • If you don’t have any dough leftover from rolling out the cake layers, you can sprinkle the edge of the cake at the end with ground almonds or other nuts instead of crumbs.
  • You can make the shortbread cake “Abrikotin” round instead of rectangular. Then use the bottom or sides of a springform pan to cut out the round cake layers.
  • It is important that butter, the milk syrup and apricot liqueur are all room-warm and all three are about the same temperature before whipping into the cream so that they can combine well.
  • Instead of using an apricot liqueur, you can make the cream and icing with amaretto or any other fruit liqueur you like. If you want to make the cake without alcohol, you can simply omit it in the cream and replace it with water or lemon juice in the icing.
  • You can omit the sugar icing if you like the cake less sweet, and just sprinkle the whole cake with the crumbs or ground nuts.
  • You can use the egg whites left over from the eggs to make zefir, among other things.

Did you make the cake “Abrikotin” according to this recipe? I’m looking forward to your result, your star rating and your comment here below, how you succeeded and tasted the Soviet shortbread cake.

Got an appetite for more Soviet cakes? Try:

Cake "Abrikotin" – forgotten Soviet shortbread cake

Cake "Abrikotin"

Heavenly crumbly bases and incredibly soft cream make the cake "Abrikotin" a special taste experience. Not without reason it was so popular in the Soviet Union. In the meantime, the delicious shortbread cake has fallen into oblivion. According to this recipe you can make it yourself at home.
Prep Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Cooling time 3 hours 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine Russian, Soviet
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

for the dough

  • 180 g butter (room-warm)
  • 100 g powdered sugar
  • 1 egg
  • approx. 340 g flour
  • 6 g baking powder
  • vanilla
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • flour for the work surface

for the cream

  • 220 g butter (room-warm)
  • 120 ml milk
  • 130 g sugar
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp apricot liqueur (room-warm)

for the sugar icing

  • 100 g powdered sugar
  • approx. 15 ml raspberry juice
  • 1 tbsp apricot liqueur

for the chocolate icing

  • 1 tbsp cocoa powder
  • 1 tbsp powdered sugar
  • approx. 2 tbsp apricot liqueur

for the decorating

  • whole almonds

Instructions
 

Preparation of the dough

  • Beat soft butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt for about 5 minutes until fluffy light mass.
  • Add egg and beat until homogeneous.
  • Mix flour with baking powder, add it in batches to the butter mixture and knead just briefly to form a soft dough.
  • Divide the dough quickly into 5 pieces and chill them, covered, for 30 minutes.
  • First take a piece of dough from the refrigerator, roll it lightly in flour, roll it out into a rectangle on a sheet of baking paper and pierce it in several places with a fork. Pull the baking paper with the cake base onto a baking sheet and bake it in a preheated oven at 200 °C top and bottom heat for about 7 minutes. Repeat the same with the remaining four pieces of dough and let the five cake layers cool down.
  • If you have leftover dough when rolling out the cake layers, roll them out thinly, bake them in the same way as the cake layers and crumble them finely.

Preparation of the cream

  • Mix milk, egg yolks and sugar to a homogeneous mass in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly, and then simmer for about 5 minutes until it thickens slightly (about the consistency of sweetened condensed milk). Take the milk syrup off the heat and let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
  • Beat softened butter for about 4 - 5 minutes until it becomes a fluffy light mass.
  • Add the milk syrup in batches, beating each time until a homogeneous creamy mass.
  • Add apricot liqueur and whip briefly to a homogeneous cream.

Preparation of the sugar icing

  • Put powdered sugar in a bowl, add apricot liqueur first and then raspberry juice in batches, stirring until you have a viscous pink icing.
  • Pour the icing over one of the five cake layers and let it dry briefly.

Preparation of the chocolate icing

  • Place powdered sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl and mix.
  • Add apricot liqueur in batches, stirring until you have a viscous chocolate icing.

Preparation of the cake

  • Spread the remaining four cake layers generously with the cream (leave some for the sides of the cake) and stack them on top of each other. Place the cake layer with the icing on top last.
  • Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining cream and sprinkle the sides with the crumbs (or alternatively with ground nuts).
  • Draw thin lines on the surface of the cake with the chocolate icing and decorate with almonds. Refrigerate the cake "Abrikotin" for at least 3 hours or preferably overnight.

Notes

  • The amount of flour indicated may vary. Add the flour mixed with baking powder to the butter mixture in batches until the dough has the right consistency. It should be very soft, not sticky and in any case not too firm.
  • When adding flour to the butter mixture, first use a dough scraper for mixing and only at the end knead the dough with your hands. In no case knead the dough too long, but only briefly until a homogeneous consistency. Otherwise, the butter would melt from the heat of your hands, so you would need more and more flour while kneading. As a result, the cake layers would not taste crumbly after baking, but dry.
  • It is important that butter, the milk syrup and apricot liqueur are all room-warm and all three are about the same temperature before whipping into the cream so that they can combine well.
  • Instead of using an apricot liqueur, you can make the cream and icing with amaretto or any other fruit liqueur you like. You can also simply omit alcohol in the cream and replace it with water or lemon juice in the icing.
  • Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the cake "Abrikotin" above in the post.
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