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You have to make this chocolate Spartak layer cake for the holidays! This cake is a close relative of the wildly popular original Spartak cake I posted last year. I made the chocolate Spartak cake on Sunday and took it over to my parent’s house for dinner. It was my first time baking the chocolate Spartak which is now a family favorite and extended family favorite. No crumb was left behind (I was half hoping to take a slice of heaven home with me).
The room was buzzing with happy cake eaters – and my family is open and honest; they level with me if something needs to be scrapped.
This cake takes some effort, but it’s oh-so worth it! Big Thank you to Laura, one of my readers who shared her suggestions on rolling out the dough and using parchment paper. I love learning from you all!
What you will need for Chocolate Spartak Cake:
2 large sheets of parchment paper
round plate or the base of a 9″ springform pan
Ingredients for Chocolate Spartak Cake:
1 egg
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup warm milk
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups minus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour *measured correctly
1 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
Ingredients for Chocolate Spartak Cream:
2 sticks (16 Tbsp) butter, softened at room temp
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk (raw/un-cooked)
8 oz package cream cheese, soft at room temp
3/4 cup of very cold heavy whipping cream
1 1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar
Watch How To Make Chocolate Spartak Cake:
How to Make Chocolate Spartak Cake Layers:
Preheat the Oven to 350 ° F at step 5 while your dough is standing 20 min.
1. Sift together 2 cups minus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour with 1 1/2 tbsp cocoa.
2. Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup sugar with a whisk attachment of your stand mixer (medium speed, 6 min).
3. Add 4 Tbsp softened butter, warm milk, and baking soda. Mix on medium/high speed 3 min, until smooth (or mostly smooth).
4. Bring a medium/large pot of water to a boil. Place mixture in a glass bowl or medium sauce pan over the steam (not immersed in the water) for 10 min, stirring frequently.
5. Remove from heat and immediately stir in sifted flour & cocoa and mix well. (Add flour right away or you will ruin the dough and it may crack when you roll it out).Let stand 20 minutes; until dough is just warm; it thickens as it cools:
Note: It’s easier to roll out the dough while it’s still warm.
Preheat the Oven to 350 °F.
6. Place a heaping Tbsp over a large sheet of parchment paper. Sprinkle flour over the dough (so it doesn’t stick to your rolling pin) and roll it out to a very thin 9″ circle. Place your round dish over the dough and use a pizza slicer to cut out the circle. Pull the scraps away from the circle or they will bake into it. I was able to get two circles on one large sheet of parchment paper and baked them together. Bake the parchment paper with dough directly on the middle oven rack at 350˚F for 4-5 minutes until the edges barely start to brown (no need for a baking sheet). Don’t touch the top of the cake layer while it’s hot, or you’ll leave finger indents.
7. Place the baked scraps to a separate bowl; you’ll need them for the top. Transfer cake layers to a clean, dry surface. They can be stacked once they are cooled to room temp. You can also make the layers several days in advance and store them in plastic wrap until ready to frost. I’m frugal so I re-used each sheet of parchment paper a couple times and then kept it for a temporary cake decorating surface.
How to Make the cream/frosting:
1. Using the whisk attachment on your stand mixer, beat together 2 packages softened butter and 1 can sweetened condensed milk on medium speed 7 min, scraping down the bowl as needed. Goodness this by itself might make a luscious cupcake frosting!!
2. Mix in the softened cream cheese a little bit at a time until smooth (2-3 min). It’s important that the cream cheese is really soft or you might get small chunks of cream cheese in the frosting. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
3. In a separate bowl, beat very cold heavy whipping cream and 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar on high speed (about 2 min) or until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into the rest of the frosting until well blended.
Assembling Chocolate Spartak Cake:
1. Place your first layer over one of the sheets of parchment paper and spread enough frosting to cover the entire surface. Place the next layer on top and press it down with your hand so you don’t end up with air gaps. Repeat step one with all the layers. Finish by frosting the sides.
3. Use a rolling pin to crush the baked cake scraps you set aside (again, another good way to re-use that parchment paper!).
4. Generously sprinkle the crumbs over the top and sides. The sides are tough to put crumbs on. At one point I got frustrated and started throwing crumbs at the cake. Then I learned you can kind of toss the crumbs at the base up onto the cake by flicking the sides of the parchment paper; just do the best you can. Refrigerate overnight (it takes about 10 hours for the layers to soften).
It cleans up nice! 🙂
P.S. Do you know this cake as Spartak or Napoleon? It seems there are some differing opinions out there.
Chocolate Spartak Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Ingredients for Cake Layers:
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup warm milk
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups minus 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa
Ingredients for Spartak Cream
- 2 sticks, 16 Tbsp butter, softened at room temp
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk, (397 grams) raw/un-cooked
- 8 oz package cream cheese, soft at room temp
- 3/4 cup of very cold heavy whipping cream
- 1 1/2 Tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
How to Make Spartak Cake Layers: Preheat the Oven to 350˚ F at step 5 while dough is cooling.
- Sift together 2 cups minus 1 tbsp flour with 1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa. Set aside.
- Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup sugar with whisk attachment on medium speed for 6 min.
- Add 4 Tbsp softened butter, warm milk, and baking soda. Mix on medium/high speed 3 min, until smooth.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place mixture in a glass bowl or medium sauce pan over the steam for 10 min, stirring frequently.
- Remove from heat and immediately add sifted flour and cocoa mixture.Stir until even consistency. (Add flour right away or you will ruin the dough). Let stand at room temp 20 min; until just warm. It thickens as it cools. It's easier to roll out dough if it's still warm. Preheat the Oven to 350˚ F.
- Place a heaping tbsp of dough over a large sheet of parchment paper. Sprinkle flour over the dough (so it doesn't stick to your rolling pin) and roll it out to a very thin 9" circle. Place your round dish over the dough and use a pizza slicer to cut out the circle. Push the scraps away from the circle or they will bake into it. I was able to get two circles on one large sheet of parchment paper and baked them together. Bake the parchment paper with dough directly on the middle oven rack at 350 for 4-5 min until edges just start to brown. Don't touch the tops of the layers while hot; it will indent. Reserve the baked scraps.
- Transfer layers to a clean, dry surface. They can be stacked once cooled to room temp. You can also make the layers several days in advance and store them in plastic wrap until ready to frost. You can re-use the parchment papers to roll out and bake all the layers.
How to Make the cream/frosting:
- With the whisk attachment, beat together 2 packages softened butter and 1 can sweetened condensed milk on medium speed for 7 min, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Mix in the softened cream cheese a little bit at a time until smooth (2-3 min). It's important that the cream cheese is really soft or you might get small chunks of cream cheese in the frosting. Scrape down the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, beat very cold heavy whipping cream and 1 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar on high speed (about 2 min) or until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into the rest of the frosting until well blended.
Assembling the Cake:
- Place your first layer over one of the re-used sheets of parchment paper and spread enough frosting to cover the entire surface. Place the next layer on top and press it down with your hand so you don't have air gaps. Repeat step one with all the layers. Finish by frosting the sides.
- Over the second re-used sheet of parchment paper, use a rolling pin to crush the baked cake scraps.
- Generously sprinkle the crumbs over the top and sides. Refrigerate overnight (it takes about 10 hours for the layers to soften).
i thought you asked what kind of flour i had used but i guess that was from a previous post.. i was making the cake and my dough turned out sticky and only made 5 cookies instead of 7..not sure what i did wrong since i followed the recipe all the way.
I did not use Canadian flour in this recipe. Please see comments 29 and 31 on this post. Canadian flour measures out a little differently than american flour. Did you end up using more?
Making this cake now. All I have to do is the cream and then assemble….we shall see…so far, very happy!
My goodness, I made this cake for a pot luck dinner and everyone absolutely loved it! I had trouble rolling the dough at first, but I got used to it and it’s quite simple. I prefer rolling it on the spring mold base, there’s a lot less waste. (I still had enough cake scraps to sprinkle on my cake and to eat on the side as well!)
Making the cake does take a lot of time, but it’s rather simple to make.
True; it does take some time, but so worth it! I’m so glad you liked it.
Natasha I made this cake today for a party tomorrow, I am so looking forward to tasting the outcome!!
I would love to hear how the cake turned out 🙂
Can you make the cake layers in advance and freeze them? I’ll be making this cake next Saturday, and if I could make the layers tonight and freeze them it’d be a life (and time!) saver…
I think they’d be fine wrapped in plastic and refrigerated after they are fully cooled.
Hi Natalia,
Your Chocolate Spartak Cake Recipe looks amazingly delicious! Our Sportack family is looking forward to trying it out soon:)
Thanks!
Michael & Linda
Nice! This could be the Sportack family cake 🙂
Is it alright if i put the dough in the fridge over night and bake it in the morning?
I wouldn’t recommend it. The layers won’t roll out very well if the dough is cold.
this is a awesome recipe!!
Last time I made this cake I told myself I’m never making it again. I sat in kitchen all day (You know those days :))and dough was horrible and baking it was tough cuz I kept burning them. I even had to run to the mall after to get away but I used a different recipe. I tried your recipe this morning. Was able to make 9 layers. I’m so proud of myself 🙂 thank you!!
Yes!!! I’m so excited for you. I’ve had those days too.
Hi again! Natasha- you get me every time with your beautiful pictures and step by step instructions. So I was just browsing through your blog last night and stumbled upon this amazing cake recepe. Next thing I know I’m rolling out the dough and making cream/frosting. Turned out pretty yummy. I did have a pretty sticky dough so ended up flouring everything a lot in order to roll it out thinly. But this was my first time dealing with this kind of dough so practice makes perfect 😉 thanks.
I’m so glad it worked out 🙂 Did you use regular-all purpose or Canadian? Also, did you use a dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape the top?
Can’t wait to try this recipe – it looks and sounds amazing! Though it is quite different from my childhood favorite Napoleon, which is more of a puff pastry type dough with a pastry cream filling/frosting (the type that contains either flour or starch, thickened by cooking on the stovetop). Other countries know the Russian Napoleon cake as “Mille feuille”, although the traditional French Mille feuille recipe is served while still crunchy; Russians like to leave it overnight like the Spartak, to let the layers absorb the cream.
Let me know how it will turn out Yulia.
Hi Natasha,
So I made the layers last night and doubled the recipe to make 2 cakes for two different thanksgiving events. And I complained that I was extra frustrated with the original spartak cake, that the dough was too sticky and I couldn’t roll it out. But I must say, this chocolate recipe was a hundred times easier to work with! I was so impressed and happy! And of course I got some experience making it too. Anyway, I will assemble it tonight for dinner tomorrow and am so excited to try it in chocolate! Thank you a million for the recipe!
Also, I do not have non stick counters and definitely had a huge problem with my first attempt at this cake. But this time I used a fondant/dough mat that is sold at any craft stores like Michaels or Hobby Lobby for $10, and it worked really well!
That’s good to know Oksana, I’m very happy that you did not gave up 🙂
Awesome :). I will need to update original spartak recipe, to make it simpler.
i repinned this beauty
http://pinterest.com/pin/38913984251929315/
Natasha, i made the layers today. I’m planning to frost it tomorrow and take it to mom’s on Thanksgiving. I was able to do 9 layers aprox 9.5 inches in diameter and had a lot of scraps. I burned one of the layers, so only 8 are going in the cake. My biggest problem and frustration was that the dough was soo sticky. It felt as if i needed to add more flour. I had to sprinkle a lot of flour while rolling. I think i rerolled every piece about 2 to 3 times until i got it to be a good consistency so that it wouldn’t tear so easily. Of course, my boys didnt make it easier for me because they wanted to drive their cars in the flour:). Anyway, it’s done:).
Did you mix the flour in to the mix right away while it was still hot? Also did you use dry ingredients measuring cup and scrape off the top?
Yes and yes.
i had this same problem but i also added a bunch of flour and kept flouring everything i touched and it worked out very very well 🙂
yes i measured the dry ingredients exactly, scraping off the top, and the flour brand i dont remember because I just keep it in a big plastic container but I think its all purpose unbleached flour. its just i dont know what to bake them on
im stuck…………i started making this but dont have any parchment paper! any suggestions?
thanks
If you have a good non-stick counter, then roll the dough out on it, cut out the circle, then carefully transfer it to the back of the flat baking sheet. Or you can follow the method I use in my vanilla Spartak Cake.
Thank you, I found the parchment paper luckily. And sorry about that irrelevant second comment I made I answered some ones else question that I thought you asked me
Hi! Thank you so much for the recipe! And the pictures you posted are awesome! I made this cake with no problems. Half of it is already gone, every bite is a taste of deliciousness!
You are welcome Oksana, this cake never lasts more than a day at our house 🙂
If i double the recipe, does it need to be cooked on stem twice longer?
It usually takes twice as long just to heat it up to a nice hot temp. I think it took about 20 min when I made double the vanilla spartak cake.
Thanks:) Im making it right now for my dads birthday tomorrow!
Thank you for this cake. This is my favorite!! I was looking for spartak long time..I have a question. For frosting..I did as it said. But the last step when I added whipped cream. It turned out very watery in 1 se hec..what did I do wrong?
Did you whipped the cream before adding it?
I have a question. how many layers usually come out from the little dough you have? it seems like very little for that many layers.
thank you!
I was able to make 7 layers. They rise a little in the oven. I had them rolled out super thin. Even if you only get 6 (as someone reported getting), it will still work out great 😉
thank you, I’m very excited to try this recipe for a women’s event at our church 🙂