Cake "Grafskie razvaliny"
Crispy meringue, delicate chocolate butter cream and aromatic walnuts are combined in the popular Soviet cake "Grafskie razvaliny". It tastes airy, light and sweet and is a real eye-catcher on any coffee table. The dessert requires no flour and is easy to make with this recipe.
Servings 10
Equipment
- piping bag with star nozzle
Ingredients
for the meringues
- 4 egg whites
- 200 g powdered sugar
- 1 pinch of citric acid food-grade
for the cream
- 250 g butter room warm
- 200 ml milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 100 g sugar
- 15 g cocoa powder
- 1 pinch of ground vanilla bean
- approx. 80 g walnut kernels
for the chocolate glaze
- 20 g dark chocolate
- 10 g butter
Instructions
Preparation of the meringues
- Place egg whites in a mixing bowl and beat briefly until frothy.
- Gradually add powdered sugar and beat until stiff.
- Add citric acid and beat for a few more minutes.
- Fill the meringue mixture into a piping bag with a star-shaped nozzle and pipe dots onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
- Dry the meringues in a preheated oven at 248 °F (120 °C) for approx. 1 hour.
- Then switch off the oven, open the oven door ajar and leave the meringues to cool slowly in the warm oven for 1 - 2 hours.
Preparation of the cream
- Roast walnuts in a pan or in the oven, leave to cool and chop coarsely.
- Put egg yolks and sugar in a thick-bottomed saucepan and whisk together.
- Pour in milk and mix again.
- Place the saucepan on the stove and bring the mixture to a boil over a medium heat, stirring constantly.
- Simmer it for approx. 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened.
- Remove the milk egg yolk mixture from the heat and leave to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
- Beat softened butter for approx. 5 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add the milk egg yolk mixture in batches, beating each time to form a homogeneous cream.
- Add vanilla and cocoa powder and beat briefly to form a homogeneous chocolate cream.
Preparation of the cake
- Leave a few meringues and some of the chopped walnuts to decorate the cake.
- Spread a thin circular layer of chocolate cream on the cake plate.
- Coat each meringue on one side with the chocolate cream (or dip it into the cream) and layer the meringues randomly on the cake plate to form a mound so that they stick together through the cream, sprinkling each meringue layer with the chopped walnuts.
- Chill the cake for about 2 hours (or overnight).
Preparation of the chocolate glaze
- Slowly melt dark chocolate and butter together.
Decorating the cake
- Drizzle the cake with the chocolate glaze as desired and decorate with the meringues and walnut kernels set aside.
Notes
- Instead of using a piping bag, you can also simply use two tablespoons to pipe mounds of the meringue mixture onto the baking sheet.
- Butter and the milk egg yolk mixture for the cream must be room warm and both at about the same temperature. This is the best way to combine them without lumps when whisking.
- Instead of walnut kernels, you can refine the cake with other nuts, dried fruits or chopped chocolate.
- Take note of the detailed tips and tricks for preparing the cake "Grafskie razvaliny" at the top of the article.