Cake "Ptichka" (Armenian Bird's milk cake)
A heavenly fluffy honey dough, the creamy vanilla pudding butter filling and a delicate chocolate glaze make the Armenian Bird's milk cake a special taste experience. With its many thin layers, it is also a visual highlight on the dining table. With this recipe, you can make the cake "Ptichka" yourself, which is so popular in Armenia.
Servings 12
Ingredients
for the dough
- 50 g honey
- 80 g butter
- 2 eggs
- 150 g sugar
- approx. 430 g flour
- 7 g baking soda (sodium carbonate)
- vanilla
- 1 pinch of salt
- flour for the work surface
for the cream
- 500 ml milk
- 200 g butter room warm
- 180 g sugar
- 1 egg
- 45 g cornstarch
- vanilla
for the chocolate glaze
- 35 g butter
- 30 ml milk
- 50 g sugar
- 20 g cocoa powder
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Thoroughly mix eggs, sugar, vanilla and salt.
- Add honey and butter cut into pieces and heat (do not boil) the mixture in a water bath, stirring until the butter is melted.
- Add baking soda and continue to heat (not boil) the mixture, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes, until it turns a light caramel color.
- Remove the honey mixture from the heat and immediately stir in flour in batches to form a soft, slightly sticky dough.
- Divide the dough into three equal pieces and chill, covered, for 40 minutes.
- Roll each piece of dough in flour and roll each out very thinly on a sheet of baking paper into a rectangle about 30 cm x 38 cm each (about the size of a baking sheet).
- Bake the three thin cake layers one after the other in the preheated oven at 180 °C top and bottom heat for approx. 4 - 5 minutes each.
- While each cake layer is still hot, carefully cut it into two equal parts so that you end up with 6 rectangular cake layers. Let the cake layers cool down.
Preparation of the cream
- Mix egg, sugar and cornstarch until homogeneous in a thick-bottomed saucepan.
- Add milk and mix again until homogeneous.
- Place the mixture on the stove, bring it to a boil while stirring, and then cook the pudding mass for 2 - 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Then let it cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Beat softened butter for about 5 minutes to a fluffy creamy light mass.
- Add vanilla as well as the pudding mass in batches and beat each time until homogeneous cream.
Preparation of the cake
- Spread five of the six cake layers evenly with the cream, leaving a small amount of the cream for the sides of the cake, and stack them on top of each other.
- Place the sixth cake layer without cream last on the cake and spread the sides of the cake with the remaining cream.
- Chill the cake for at least 4 hours.
Preparation of the chocolate glaze
- Put milk, sugar and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and stir.
- Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is close to boiling, but do not bring it to a boil.
- Take the chocolate mixture off the heat, immediately add butter and mix it until the butter is melted.
- Take the cake out of the refrigerator and quickly spread the hot chocolate glaze evenly and thinly on the surface of the cake.
- Chill the cake for at least 1 hour.
Notes
- The amount of flour listed for the dough may vary. Add flour in portions until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. Under no circumstances should the dough be too firm or dry. After cooling, it will become firmer and less sticky.
- Vanilla for the dough and the cream goes, among other things, vanilla bean scraped, vanilla sugar or vanilla extract.
- Do not bake the cake layers longer than necessary. They are done baking when they have turned a light golden brown color, but they should not get too dark.
- Do not leave each cake layer unattended in the oven for too long, or it can burn quickly.
- Butter and the pudding mass for the cream must be room warm and both about the same temperature so they can combine well when whipped.
- Note the detailed tips and tricks for making the Armenian cake "Ptichka" at the top of the post.