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Crispy, delicate cake layers made from super-thin puff pastry that crumbles into a million buttery pieces meet sweet caramel buttercream frosting. The Rubleny cake is one of the most delicious and simplest desserts of the Soviet era. Every bite is an irresistible treat and practically addictive. You can find a detailed Rubleny cake recipe with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
What is Rubleny cake?
The Rubleny cake, along with the nut cake “Belochka” and the Black Prince Cake, was a popular homemade sweet classic in Soviet cuisine. It was served especially at Christmas and other celebrations. This is a simpler version of the classic Napoleon cake.
“Rubleny” translates from Russian as “chopped”. The layers of the cake consist of so-called “chopped” puff pastry dough, similar to the Napoleon puff pastry slices. To prepare it, very cold butter is chopped in flour using a crescent knife or a chopping knife.
Simple recipe with 3 main ingredients
If you don’t count water and salt, you only need three ingredients for the Rubleny cake. These are flour, butter, and caramelized sweetened condensed milk.
The preparation is quite simple. The most time-consuming part is rolling out and baking the cake layers, just like for the Grand Napoleon cake. But with only 6 layers, you’ll be done in no time.
How to make crispy, delicate cake layers
You don’t need to prepare any complicated classic puff pastry for this recipe. This cake is made from a quick and easy version of it, just like the sugar tongues or the cake “Styopka rastryopka”. It is important to note a few small details to ensure that your cake layers turn out really crispy, flaky, and tender.
Above all, the ingredients for the dough must be cold. You should freeze the butter for this. Also chill the water in advance. Optionally, you can even weigh the flour beforehand and place it in the refrigerator.
Do not knead the dough. Simply use your hands to quickly gather the dough crumbs into an uneven ball, just as you would for the Napoleon cake with beer puff pastry or the the cake “Monastyrskaya izba”.
Allow the finished puff pastry dough to cool sufficiently. Place it in the refrigerator for at least one hour. Optionally, you can prepare it the day before and refrigerate it overnight.
Work with the puff pastry dough, just like with a shortcrust pastry dough, as quickly as possible, both before and after refrigerating, so that it does not warm up. Roll out each piece of dough immediately after taking it out of the refrigerator and bake it right away.
This puff pastry layer cake is
- crispy,
- delicate,
- buttery,
- light,
- fine,
- creamy,
- caramelly,
- incredibly delicious,
- aromatic,
- with super-thin bases,
- with caramel buttercream frosting,
- with many layers,
- easy to make with just a few ingredients,
- ideal for dessert during the week or for a celebration,
- a sweet classic of Soviet cuisine.
How to make Rubleny cake: tips and tricks
- The ingredients for the dough must be very cold so that the cake layers taste really flaky in the end. It’s best to freeze the butter beforehand. Read my detailed tips for preparing the cake layers above in this post to make sure they turn out perfectly.
- I grated the butter into the flour using a coarse kitchen grater. Alternatively, you can chop it with a knife using the classic method.
- Do not knead the dough, but gather the resulting dough crumbs into an uneven mass.
- Work with the puff pastry dough and the chilled dough pieces as quickly as possible so that they do not warm up.
- Allow the dough to cool thoroughly before rolling it out.
- If you want a taller cake, you can make more than 6 layers, but with a smaller diameter.
- Do not leave any of the cake layers unattended in the oven. They bake quite quickly and could burn.
- Handle the cake layers with care, as they are very thin and fragile.
- The butter and caramelized condensed milk for the frosting must be room warm and both at approximately the same temperature so that they can combine well when whipped without the mixture curdling.
- My Rubleny cake contains only a small amount of frosting, so that the cake layers remain crispy after resting. If you like it creamier, prepare a larger portion of frosting.
- Store the cake in the refrigerator. It will remain crispy for several days.
Video recipe for Rubleny cake
By the way, you can find a short video for the Rubleny cake on my Youtube channel. There you can see exactly how to make it at home. If you don’t want to miss any more of my videos, feel free to subscribe to my channel.
Did you make the Rubleny cake using this recipe? I look forward to seeing your results, your star rating, and your comments below on how it turned out and how it tasted.
Try these other Soviet cake recipes:
- Cake “Ekaterina” – as glamorous as the empress’s name
- Kutuzov cake – nut honey layer cake popular in Soviet times
- Cake “Gerzoginya” – with honey, prunes, and walnuts
Rubleny cake
Ingredients
for the dough
- 300 g flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 200 g butter frozen
- 125 ml water cold
- flour for the work surface
for the frosting
- 150 g butter room warm
- 250 g caramelized sweetened condensed milk room warm
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
- Roll cold butter repeatedly in the flour and quickly grate it with a coarse kitchen grater to create fine crumbs.
- Add cold water, mix with a dough scraper, and quickly gather the resulting dough crumbs with your hands to form a thick, uneven dough sausage (do not knead!).
- Divide the dough into 6 equal pieces, cover them, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- First, take the first dough piece out of the refrigerator, roll it in flour, and roll it out very thinly on a sheet of baking paper into a rough circle that fits inside a 10-inch cake ring. Place the ring on the rolled-out dough and cut out the circle. Transfer the baking paper to a baking sheet, prick the cake base and the cut-off dough scraps several times with a fork, and bake in a preheated oven at 392 °F (200 °C) for about 8 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Take the remaining dough pieces out of the refrigerator one at a time, roll them out in the same way as the first piece, cut out 10-inch round cake bases and bake them together with the remaining dough pieces one after the other.
- Allow the 6 cake bases and the leftover pastry to cool. Then crumble the leftover pastry finely.
Preparation of the frosting
- Beat softened butter for approx. 5 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add caramelized sweetened condensed milk in portions and beat each time until you have a smooth caramel frosting.
Preparation of the cake
- Carefully spread a thin layer of frosting on all of the cake bases, leaving a small amount of frosting for the sides of the cake, and stack them on top of each other. Spread the remaining frosting on the sides of the cake. Sprinkle the puff pastry crumbs over the entire cake.
- Chill the Rubleny cake for about 8 hours or overnight.
Notes
- The ingredients for the dough must be very cold so that the cake layers taste really flaky in the end. It's best to freeze the butter beforehand. Read my detailed tips for preparing the cake layers above in this post to make sure they turn out perfectly.
- I grated the butter into the flour using a coarse kitchen grater. Alternatively, you can chop it with a knife using the classic method.
- Do not knead the dough, but gather the resulting dough crumbs into an uneven mass.
- Work with the puff pastry dough and the chilled dough pieces as quickly as possible so that they do not warm up.
- Allow the dough to cool thoroughly before rolling it out.
- If you want a taller cake, you can make more than 6 layers, but with a smaller diameter.
- Do not leave any of the cake layers unattended in the oven. They bake quite quickly and could burn.
- Handle the cake layers with care, as they are very thin and fragile.
- The butter and caramelized condensed milk for the frosting must be room warm and both at approximately the same temperature so that they can combine well when whipped without the mixture curdling.
- My Rubleny cake contains only a small amount of frosting, so that the cake layers remain crispy after resting. If you like it creamier, prepare a larger portion of frosting.
- Store the cake in the refrigerator. It will remain crispy for several days.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the Rubleny cake at the top of the article.
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