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The mini cakes “Bouchee” are made of a fluffy sponge cake, the delicate butter cream and covered with sweet fondant chocolate icing. They taste soft, creamy and so delicious. Although the pastry has a French name, it used to be very popular in the Soviet Union. Here I show you how to make it yourself. You can find a detailed recipe for the mini cakes “Bouchee” with exact quantities and step-by-step instructions here at the very bottom.
Russian pastry with French name
Who invented the mini cakes “Bouchee” is not known. Even though they have a French name, they don’t exist in such a way in France. French bouchees are small pastries, often made with puff pastry. There is an assumption that the recipe for the mini cakes “Bouchee” came from Soviet pastry chefs and has nothing to do with France except for the name.
Popular dessert of the Soviet period
The assortment of Soviet confectioners used to include sponge slices with butter cream, tarts “Penyochki”, korzinochki, puff pastry horns with Italian meringue or choux pastry rings with curd, as well as the mini cakes “Bouchee”. Meanwhile, the pastries found in Russia hardly correspond to the original in taste. However, the Soviet recipe for the mini cakes “Bouchee” still exists. After that, we can make the dessert ourselves at home.
What are mini cakes “Bouchee” made of?
The pastry has the shape of sandwich cookies with the sponge cake “Bouchee” and the butter cream filling in between. On top it is covered with the fondant chocolate icing and decorated with white fondant. The butter cream is made with the home-made cornstarch syrup, which is whipped with butter to the cream.
The sponge cake “Bouchee”
The peculiarity of the sponge cake “Bouchee” is that for its making egg white is necessarily separated from the yolk. In addition, unlike the classic sponge cake dough, it is made with a larger amount of flour. As a result, the dough for the sponge cake “Bouchee” is firmer, keeps its shape and does not melt when setting the cookies from it. Accordingly, after baking, the sponge cake “Bouchee” is not as soft as the classic.
Quick filling alternatives to the classic butter cream
If you ever don’t have time to boil the cornstarch syrup and let it cool, and only then whip it into cream with butter, you can make a quick butter cream with sweetened condensed milk and butter and fill the mini cakes “Bouchee” with it. To do this, take butter and sweetened condensed milk in a ratio of about 1:1, let it sit at room temperature for a while so that the two ingredients become room-warm, and then whip them together into a cream.
By the way, Soviet confectioners sometimes used jam instead of butter cream as a filling for the mini cakes “Bouchee”. This also makes the dessert much faster. Take a firm jam, which does not taste too sweet, to fill the pastry.
How to decorate mini cakes “Bouchee”?
After covering the surface of the mini cakes “Bouchee” with the fondant chocolate icing, decorate them with the white fondant by drawing different patterns from it on the chocolate icing. For example, this can be simple stripes or wavy lines. You can also pipe small drops with the white fondant onto the mini cakes. You can see how I decorated my mini cakes in the pictures. I used a piping bag with a very narrow nozzle.
Idea: fruity or nutty “Bouchees”
By the way, you can give a fruity or nutty flavor to your mini cakes “Bouchee” by spreading fresh fruits on the cream and the icing or by mixing nuts into the cream and the icing. In summer, fresh berries are ideal for this. In this way you can create a summer dessert on the dining table. If you refine the mini cakes “Bouchee” with nuts, roast them beforehand, so that the pastry becomes even more aromatic.
The mini cakes “Bouchee” are
- creamy,
- soft,
- fluffy,
- tender,
- sweet,
- aromatic,
- very tasty,
- made with common ingredients,
- an eye-catcher on the dining table,
- ideal for dessert during the week or for a celebration,
- popular pastry of the Soviet era.
Recipe for mini cakes “Bouchee”
The recipe for the mini cakes “Bouchee” is a bit elaborate, but once you try them, you will find that the effort is definitely worth it. Here you can get a rough idea of how the making works and what you need for it. The exact quantities and step-by-step instructions for making the mini cakes “Bouchee” yourself can be found in the recipe box below.
At least one day before making the mini cakes, you should prepare the fondant. For this you need sugar, water and some lemon juice.
- Boil water with sugar, add lemon juice and simmer the syrup until 114 – 115 °C.
- Then let it cool down to 40 °C, whip it into a firm fondant mass and let it mature in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.
For the sponge cake you need eggs, separating the egg whites from the yolks, then sugar, flour and vanilla sugar.
- First, beat egg whites with sugar until stiff, then stir in egg yolks briefly, and then fold in flour.
- Now place the sponge cookies on the baking tray, bake them and let them cool down.
For the sugar syrup to soak the cookies, you need water, sugar and vanilla.
- Boil the water and sugar briefly, then add the vanilla and let the sugar syrup cool.
For the filling, you need room-warm butter, milk, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla.
- Boil a pudding-like syrup with milk, sugar and cornstarch, add vanilla and let it cool.
- Now you whip soft butter and add the cornstarch syrup in batches.
Now you’re ready to make the mini cakes (Check out the detailed recipe below.)
- To do this, soak half of the cookies in the sugar syrup.
- Heat the fondant in a water bath and add cocoa powder. Cover the second half of the cookies with the fondant chocolate icing.
- Now glue one cookie soaked in the sugar syrup and one cookie covered with the chocolate icing together with the butter cream and chill the mini cakes for a few hours. Done!
With these tips and tricks you will succeed in making mini cakes “Bouchee”
- Stir the egg yolks carefully and only briefly into the stiffly beaten egg whites so that the egg white mixture does not lose its firmness.
- Also fold in flour very carefully, preferably through a sieve of the egg-sugar mixture, so that the dough remains airy.
- The sponge dough must be processed (baked) immediately, it must not be left to stand.
- You will need a piping bag with a round hole nozzle to pipe the sponge cookies from the batter.
- The cornstarch syrup for the filling should be simmered for a few minutes so that the cream does not taste like cornstarch later. Use a thick-bottomed saucepan and stir the syrup continuously to prevent it from burning.
- Butter, the cornstarch syrup, and alcohol need to be room warm and all about the same temperature when whipped together into the cream so they can combine well.
- You can just omit alcohol for the filling.
- Vanilla for the filling and sugar syrup can be vanilla sugar, vanilla powder, vanilla extract or vanilla bean scraped out.
- To spread the filling on the sponge cookies, I used a piping bag and a star nozzle.
- The temperature of the sugar syrup for the fondant, to which it must be cooked, is very important. It’s best to use a kitchen thermometer to measure. If your sugar syrup reaches a higher or lower temperature than it needs to while cooking, it may not whip into white fondant later, but will remain runny and translucent.
- Don’t overdo it with the lemon juice you add to the sugar syrup for the fondant. A few drops are enough. Otherwise, the sugar syrup will not whip into fondant even in this case.
- After boiling the sugar syrup for the fondant, you should only pour it into a clean bowl and not scrape anything off the edge of the saucepan with a spoon, so that no possible sugar crystals get into the syrup.
- You can prepare the fondant in advance and store it wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to two months.
- Do not overheat the fondant when melting it. Melt it slowly in a bain-marie and do not heat it above 50 °C.
- If your fondant chocolate icing is too dry after adding cocoa powder, add warm water only drop by drop until the icing has the necessary consistency. If you overdo it with the water and the fondant glaze is too runny, you can make it thicker by adding a little powdered sugar or more cocoa powder.
- Store the mini cakes “Bouchee” in the refrigerator. You can enjoy them for about 3 days.
Have you made mini cakes “Bouchee” yourself according to this recipe? I’m looking forward to your results, your star rating and your comment below on how you liked the dessert.
Got an appetite for more delicious mini cakes? Try also:
- Napoleon tarts: recipe for quick mini variant of the Russian cake
- Mini chocolate sponge cakes – easy recipe for chocolate eye-catchers
- Sponge nut slices – the sweet taste hit from the Soviet era
Mini cakes "Bouchee"
Equipment
- piping bag
Ingredients
for the dough
- 3 eggs
- 50 g sugar
- 60 g flour
- 5 g vanilla sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
for the filling
- 170 g butter (room temperature)
- 70 ml milk
- 70 g sugar
- 15 g cornstarch
- vanilla
- 1 tbsp rum or cognac (room temperature)
for the fondant chocolate icing
- 150 g sugar
- 50 ml water
- 3 - 4 drops of lemon juice
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
for the sugar syrup for soaking
- 40 ml water
- 30 g sugar
- vanilla
Instructions
Making the fondant
- Place sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. The sugar must dissolve before the syrup boils. If it doesn't, take the saucepan with the syrup off the heat, stir it until the sugar dissolves, and put it back on the heat.
- Once the sugar syrup boils, add lemon juice, stir it briefly and boil the syrup until 114 - 115 °C without stirring it. Then immediately pour the sugar syrup into a clean glass or ceramic bowl and let it cool down to 40 °C.
- Beat the sugar syrup with dough hooks to form a white fondant until the sugar mixture becomes firm and stripes form from it at the bottom of the bowl so that the bottom is visible.
- Form the fondant into a ball with your hands (you can help yourself with a tablespoon), wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 24 hours.
Making the dough
- Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Beat egg whites together with salt until foamy.
- Gradually add sugar with vanilla sugar and beat until stiff.
- Briefly stir in egg yolks one at a time.
- Fold in flour to make an airy thick batter.
- Fill the sponge dough into the piping bag with the round nozzle and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper about Ø 5 - 6 cm large, slightly thicker cookies (I had 20), leaving plenty of space between them.
- Bake the cookies in a preheated oven at 190 °C top and bottom heat for about 15 minutes and let them cool down.
Making the sugar syrup for soaking
- Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly so that the sugar dissolves before it boils.
- Take the sugar syrup off the heat, add vanilla and let the syrup cool.
Making the filling
- Dissolve cornstarch in a small amount of milk.
- Add the remaining milk and sugar to a small, thick-bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Once boiling, add the cornstarch dissolved in milk in a thin stream, stirring constantly, and simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 2 - 3 minutes.
- Take the cornstarch syrup off the heat, add vanilla and stir. Let the cornstarch syrup cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Beat softened butter until fluffy and white, about 3 - 4 minutes.
- Add the cornstarch syrup in batches, whipping each time to a homogeneous mass so that you end up with an airy cream.
- Add rum or cognac and whip again briefly.
Making the mini cakes
- Soak half of the cookies from the inside with the sugar syrup.
- Let the fondant melt slowly in a hot water bath (do not heat it above 50 °C) until it becomes thick, then remove it from the water bath.
- Leaving a small amount of the white fondant for decorating, add cocoa powder to the remaining fondant and mix until thick, adding warm water drop by drop as needed if the mixture is too dry.
- Dip the outside of the second half of the sponge cookies, which have not been dipped with the sugar syrup, into the fondant chocolate icing and let dry briefly.
- Decorate the sponge cookies covered with the fondant chocolate icing as desired with the white fondant set aside and let them dry briefly again.
- Spread the butter cream on the sponge cookies soaked with the sugar syrup and place one cookie with the fondant chocolate icing on each cookie with the cream.
- Refrigerate the mini cakes "Bouchee" for a few hours.
Notes
- Carefully and briefly add the egg yolks to the stiffly beaten egg whites, so that the egg white mass does not lose its firmness.
- The sponge dough must be processed (baked) immediately, it must not be left to stand.
- Be sure to simmer the cornstarch syrup for the filling for a few minutes so that the cream does not taste like cornstarch later.
- Butter, the cornstarch syrup and alcohol need to be room warm and all about the same temperature when whipped together to make the cream so they can combine well.
- You can omit alcohol for the filling.
- The temperature of the sugar syrup for the fondant, to which it must be cooked, is very important. It is best to use a kitchen thermometer to measure it.
- Do not overdo it with the lemon juice that you add to the sugar syrup for fondant. Otherwise, the sugar syrup might not be able to be whipped into fondant.
- Just pour off the sugar syrup for the fondant into a clean bowl after cooking, and don't scrape anything off the side of the saucepan with a spoon so that any sugar crystals don't get into the syrup.
- You can prepare the fondant in advance and store it wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for up to two months.
- When melting the fondant, never overheat it – melt it slowly in a bain-marie and do not heat it above 50 °C.
- If the fondant chocolate icing is too dry after adding cocoa powder, add warm water drop by drop until the icing has the necessary consistency.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the mini cakes "Bouchee" at the top of the post.