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The cake “The male ideal” tastes heavenly nutty, slightly caramelized and incredibly fluffy. It is not without reason that it is so popular in Armenia. It consists of a honey sponge cake with nuts and the buttercream with caramelized sweetened condensed milk and nuts. You can find a detailed recipe for the Armenian cake “The male ideal” with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
Popular Armenian layer cake
Alongside the cake “Ptichka” and the Mikado cake, the cake “The male ideal” is one of the most popular Armenian layer cakes. It is a nut cake with honey.
You can buy the cake “The male ideal” in many Armenian cafeterias, bakeries and supermarkets. It is also popular at home in the country. It is traditionally cut into diamonds before serving.
Hospitable Armenians like to share their homemade cake “The male ideal” with the whole family, friends and neighbors. They usually make it about twice as big as I have done in my recipe. To do this, three large rectangular cake bases are baked one after the other from the sponge cake.
Why called cake “The male ideal”?
It is said that this cake got its name because of the strong composition of ingredients that make it up. These are cognac, strong black tea, honey, caramelized sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and lots of nuts.
For nut lovers
This Armenian layer cake is ideal for all nut lovers, similar to my vegan nut cake. Because it consists of a generous portion of walnuts. Both the cake layers and the cream contain nuts. The cake is also completely covered with walnuts.
There are various recipes for the cake “The male ideal”, which differ slightly, similar to the recipes for the cake “Muraveynik”, the Smetannik cake “Mishka na severe”, the cake “Cherepacha” and the cake “Charodeyka”. In some recipes, nuts are only added to the batter. The cream then consists only of caramelized sweetened condensed milk and butter.
Cake “Mujskoy ideal” in Russia
This sweet Armenian classic is also very popular in Russia. Here, the cake is known as “Mujskoy ideal”. Translated into English, it means “The male ideal”.
Serve and store
The Armenian layer cake tastes much more delicious the next day than immediately after preparation, just like the medovik cake, the honey cake “Ryzhik”, the Napoleon cake, the honey cake “Winnie-the-Pooh” or the sponge meringue cake “Vetka”. So it’s best to prepare it in advance if you want to serve it for a special occasion.
The Armenian layer cake will stay fresh and delicious for several days. Cut it into pieces and store them in an airtight container in the fridge.
This cake “The male ideal” is
- very nutty,
- creamy,
- fluffy,
- slightly caramelized,
- soft,
- incredibly delicious,
- aromatic,
- with honey,
- easy to make,
- even more delicious in the next few days,
- sweet classic of Armenian cuisine.
How to make cake “The male ideal”: tips and tricks
- Hazelnuts and peanuts are suitable alternatives to walnuts. You can also use a mixture of different nuts.
- If your honey has a solid consistency, heat it briefly to make it more liquid before stirring it into the egg sugar mixture.
- Instead of black tea, you can soak the cake bases with a strong coffee.
- Butter and caramelized sweetened condensed milk must both be at room temperature when whisking so that they can combine to form a smooth cream. If the two ingredients have a large temperature difference, the cream may curdle.
- If the cake seems too nutty for you, you can omit the nuts from the cream.
- Instead of melting the chocolate, you can roughly chop or grate it and sprinkle it over the cake.
Have you made the Armenian cake “The male ideal” at home using this recipe? I look forward to your result, your star rating and your comment below on how it turned out and how it tasted.
Try out these delicious cake recipes too:
- Crepe cake with pudding cream – with hint of cinnamon
- Chocolate cream cake – easy chocolate cake recipe
- Frying pan chocolate cake with pudding butter cream – no oven
Cake "The male ideal"
Ingredients
for the batter
- 4 eggs
- 130 g sugar
- 90 g walnut kernels
- 60 g honey
- 180 g flour
- 6 g baking powder
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- 1 pinch of salt
for the cream
- 390 g caramelized sweetened condensed milk room warm
- 220 g butter room warm
- 80 g walnut kernels
- 1 tbsp cognac
to soak
- 60 ml strong black tea
- 1 tbsp cognac
for sprinkling
- 130 g walnut kernels
to decorate
- 30 g dark chocolate
Instructions
Preparation of the batter
- Line the baking sheet with baking paper.
- Roast walnuts in a pan or in the oven, leave to cool and chop coarsely.
- Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt for approx. 10 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add honey and mix carefully.
- Mix flour with baking powder and fold into the egg sugar honey mixture to create an airy, thick batter.
- Carefully and briefly stir the chopped walnuts into the batter.
- Spread the batter evenly on the baking sheet, bake the cake base in a preheated oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for approx. 15 minutes and leave to cool.
Preparation of the cream
- Roast walnuts in a pan or in the oven, leave to cool and chop coarsely.
- Beat softened butter for approx. 5 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add caramelized sweetened condensed milk in batches and beat briefly each time to form a homogeneous cream.
- Add cognac and beat again briefly.
- Stir the chopped walnuts into the cream.
Preparation of the cake
- Roast walnuts in a pan or in the oven, leave to cool and chop coarsely.
- Cut the nut sponge cake into three equally sized, smaller cake bases.
- Mix black tea with cognac and soak the three cake bases in it.
- Spread the cake bases generously with the cream, leaving a small amount for the sides of the cake, and stack them on top of each other.
- Spread the sides of the cake with the remaining cream.
- Sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the chopped walnuts.
- Melt dark chocolate slowly over a water bath and decorate the cake with it.
- Chill the layer cake for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Leave the cake "The male ideal" to stand at room temperature for approx. 20 minutes before serving.
Notes
- Hazelnuts and peanuts are suitable alternatives to walnuts. You can also use a mixture of different nuts.
- If your honey has a solid consistency, heat it briefly to make it more liquid before stirring it into the egg sugar mixture.
- Instead of black tea, you can soak the cake bases with a strong coffee.
- Butter and caramelized sweetened condensed milk must both be at room temperature when whisking so that they can combine to form a smooth cream. If the two ingredients have a large temperature difference, the cream may curdle.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the Armenian cake "The male ideal" at the top of the article.
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