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Wenceslas cake – sweet Soviet happiness with a "pearl"
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Wenceslas cake

Fluffy moist chocolate sponge cake, delicate butter cream, fruity sour cherries and the flavor highlight – the crunchy nutty caramel brittle are combined in the Wenceslas cake. Not without reason, it was one of the most popular cakes in the Soviet era, which was hard to get hold of and quite expensive. With this recipe you can make this then famous and now forgotten dessert at home.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Russian, Soviet
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 30 minutes
Cooling time 2 hours
Servings 10

Equipment

  • Ø 20 cm baking springform pan

Ingredients

for the sponge cake

  • 4 eggs
  • 120 g sugar
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 15 g cornstarch
  • 85 g flour
  • 8 g vanilla sugar
  • 1 pinch of salt

for the cream

  • 300 g butter room warm
  • 130 ml milk
  • 130 g sugar
  • 20 g cornstarch
  • 1 tbsp rum (liqueur or cognac) room warm

for the filling

  • 250 g sour cherries frozen
  • 1 tbsp sugar

for the brittle

  • 80 g nuts (hazelnuts in my case) roasted and coarsely chopped
  • 160 g sugar
  • 30 ml water
  • 1 pinch of citric acid food grade

for the sugar syrup

  • 90 ml water
  • 70 g sugar
  • 1 tbsp rum (cognac or liqueur)

Instructions

Preparation of the cherry filling

  • Put frozen sour cherries in a saucepan with sugar and heat slowly over low heat, stirring, until juice has formed and the cherries are thawed.
  • Now bring the cherry mixture to a boil and simmer for about 1 minute.
  • Remove the saucepan with the cherry mixture from the heat, let the cherries steep in the syrup for another 30 minutes or so, and then drain them thoroughly.

Preparation of the sponge cake

  • Line the bottom of the baking pan with baking paper.
  • Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt to a light and fluffy mixture.
  • Mix flour with cornstarch and cocoa powder and add it to the egg-sugar mixture to make an airy, thick sponge batter.
  • Pour the batter into the baking pan, bake the sponge cake in a preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for about 35 minutes and let it cool down.

Preparation of the brittle

  • Put sugar and water in a coated pan and bring it to a boil over medium heat without stirring it.
  • Once the sugar mixture boils, add citric acid, stir it gently and continue to cook it over medium heat until it turns a light brown caramel color.
  • Once the sugar syrup has turned a light brown caramel color, add chopped nuts and stir it thoroughly.
  • Take the nut-caramel mixture off the heat, immediately pour it (carefully – very hot!) onto a sheet of baking paper and spread it evenly and thinly on the baking paper with a wooden spoon. Let the brittle cool and set.

Preparation of the sugar syrup

  • Put sugar and water in a small saucepan, boil it briefly while stirring and let it cool.
  • Stir rum into the sugar syrup.

Preparation of the cream

  • Mix sugar and cornstarch in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
  • Add milk and mix thoroughly until a homogeneous mass without lumps.
  • Place the saucepan on the stove and bring the milk mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring. Then cook it, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 2 minutes, and let the milk kissel cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
  • Beat softened butter until fluffy and creamy, about 5 minutes.
  • Add the milk kissel in batches, beating each time until it is a homogeneous cream.
  • Add rum and whip again briefly to a homogeneous cream.

Preparation of the cake

  • If necessary, break off a piece of brittle for decoration, set it aside and chop the remaining brittle coarsely or finely according to taste.
  • Separate the sponge cake lengthwise into three equally thick cake layers.
  • Drizzle the three cake layers with the sugar syrup.
  • Spread two cake layers generously with about half of the cream, spread the sour cherries on the two cake layers and stack them on top of each other.
  • Place the third cake layer on top, now spread the top and sides of the cake with the remaining cream, leaving some cream for decoration if necessary.
  • Sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the brittle crumbs, decorate as desired and chill for at least 2 hours.

Notes

  • To bake the sponge cake, you need a Ø 20 cm baking springform pan.
  • Test the sponge cake to see if it is done. To do this, briefly insert a wooden skewer into the center of the sponge cake and see if it comes out clean. Alternatively, you can use a finger to gently press on the surface of the sponge cake about halfway down. If it springs back after being pressed, and no marks remain, it's done.
  • Butter, the milk kissel and rum for the cream need to be room warm and all three about the same temperature so they can combine well when whipped.
  • You can simply omit alcohol from the cream and sugar syrup.
  • Instead of sour cherries, you can use other pickled, fresh or frozen fruits. Pickled fruits do not need to be pre-cooked, fresh and frozen ones do.
  • Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the Soviet Wenceslas cake at the top of the post.