Moist fluffy sponge cake with hazelnuts and delicate butter cream with nut flavor – simple and so delicious is the Russian hazelnut cake "Zhuravushka", which was very popular in the Soviet Union and has now become a rarity. According to this recipe, you can make it yourself. Covered with chocolate glaze, decorated with a sweet picture of a crane, hazelnuts and candied citrus peel, it is guaranteed to delight you and your loved ones both in taste and appearance.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Russian
Prep Time 1 hourhour15 minutesminutes
Cook Time 20 minutesminutes
Cooling time 30 minutesminutes
Servings 12
Equipment
Ø 24 cm baking pan
Ingredients
for the dough
5eggs
150gsugar
25gbutter(melted and cooled to room temperature)
140gflour
20gcornstarch
30ghazelnuts(roasted and finely chopped or ground)
butter to grease the baking pan
for the cream
250gbutter(room temperature)
150gsweetened condensed milk
yolks of 3 eggs
50ghazelnuts(roasted and finely chopped or ground)
50mlwater
vanilla
for the chocolate glaze
100gmilk chocolate
60gbutter
for decorating
powdered sugar
whole and ground hazelnuts
candied orange peel and candied lemon peel
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
Beat the eggs and sugar until they form a fluffy white mixture.
Mix flour, cornstarch and finely chopped or ground hazelnuts and add to the egg-sugar mixture to make an airy, thick batter.
Gently stir melted and cooled butter into the batter.
Line the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper and grease the sides with butter. Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 25 minutes. Let the sponge cake cool down afterwards and then cut it lengthwise into two equally thick cake layers.
Preparation of the cream
Mix egg yolks with water in a small saucepan to a homogeneous mass.
Add sweetened condensed milk and mix again until homogeneous.
Place the mixture on the stove and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, to about 80 °C until the mixture thickens slightly, do not boil it. Then let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Beat soft butter for approx. 3 - 4 minutes to a creamy white mass, add the cooled egg yolk mass in portions as well as vanilla and beat to a homogeneous cream.
Stir finely chopped or ground hazelnuts into the cream.
Preparation of the chocolate glaze
Melt milk chocolate and butter together.
Preparation of the cake
Spread one of the two sponge cake layers generously with all the cream and place the second cake layer on top.
Cover the cake with the chocolate glaze and dust the edge of the cake with ground hazelnuts. Chill the cake for about 30 minutes until the chocolate glaze has dried.
Place a crane stencil on the cake, dust with powdered sugar and then very carefully remove the stencil. Decorate the cake with whole hazelnuts, candied orange peel and candied lemon peel.
Notes
Instead of hazelnuts go also other nuts for the dough and for the cream.
To make the sponge even fluffier, a small amount of flour was replaced by cornstarch. Alternatively, you can omit the cornstarch and replace it with the same amount of flour.
Under no circumstances add hot melted butter to the dough, but first cool it to room temperature.
Use a wooden skewer to test if the sponge is done baking.
You can make the sponge a day ahead and let it cool overnight.
Do not boil the egg yolk-condensed milk mixture for the cream, but heat it only to about 80 °C. It is important to stir the mixture constantly.
The crane image on the cake can be drawn with cocoa powder instead of powdered sugar.
The cake can also be decorated as desired.
Note the detailed tips and tricks for DIY Russian hazelnut cake "Zhuravushka" above in the post.