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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).
Thank you for the recipe,I made for my cousin B-Day three cakes but this one fly away so fast…yummy and not too difficult to make it.
I’m so happy you liked the recipe!! Thanks for letting me know 😉
I just had a question about the baking soda do you add vinegar to it? Because my husbands aunt gave me a recipe and it does! Another thing I want to tell you is that I love your website it’s so helpful and the picture are the best. You are amazing, talented cheif. Thank you again.
Thank you so much Donna. 🙂 I know exactly what you are talking about and I do that with some recipes, but this cake doesn’t need that step 🙂 Good question!
Natasha I made this cake few days ago. My family really liked It thank you for sharing the recipie. Mine didn’t look as brown, should I put another spoon of cocoa in it next time I make it. Also I want to make sure I did cream correctly mine tasted buttery I thought I mixed heavy whipping cream a little too long. Is the cream supposed to taste like butter?
It can taste buttery if you overbeat the whipping cream. Was it buttery after it was soft and ready to eat?
Yes it did.it was still really good though. I’ll just be more careful with heavy whipping cream next time. I think I ruined it when I combined cream. Should I just gently fold it in the cream with a spoon?
It’s so easy to overbeat heavy whipping cream and Yes, you want to fold the creams together with a spatula. 🙂 I’m glad you still enjoyed it.
I used salted butter in the cream.. Is it going to taste bad in the cake?
You should taste it to see if it needs a little more sugar but it should still taste good even if it is salted butter although unsalted butter works better
I used salted butter on the cream, is it going to be bad in the cake??
I made this cake for easter and took it to my husbands family dinner and everyone (which there’s a lot of btw) loved it. It was gone so fast 🙂 I loved how soft it turned out!!! Your recipes never disappoint me 🙂 thank you!!!
What a wonderful review. Thank you. I’m just tickled that you all enjoyed it so much!
Hi. Is it possible to substitute the butter in the cream with something else, to have a less buttery taste?
This is the best frosting I’ve tried for this cake, but you can make it with other frostings; I just can’t recommend a specific one without trying it.
Natasha, I was wondering, do you ever use cake flour for your recipes? Do you think it’ll be a good idea for this cake?
I don’t think cake flour would work; it’s too fine and you want your finished cake layers to be like thin cookies. You can use Canadian flour but I wouldn’t go with cake flour.
This cake is the bomb! We had a little get together last week and I made this cake and everyone loved it!! Its quite the process though, but in the end it is all worth it! Thanks for your awesome recipe!
You are welcome Nastia, I’m glad everyone loved it :).
I made this cake and it was delish!! I did substitute half of the the butter in the filing for some mascarpone cheese and it was amazing.. I was wondering if you had a recipe for a Medovik cake, russian (honey cake) ?
I don’t have that recipe but my friend Olga at Olgasflavorfactory.com has a good recipe. Hope this helps.
ok great thank you. but for some reason im not able to Open Olgas site, its saying the page is dangerous, does she have an alternate site??
this is the link I use – http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/ and it works fine.
Hi Natasha wanted to say I recently got introduced to your website and it is amazing!!! I was looking for a russian website that had American measurements and yours was the jack pot 🙂 I was wondering I am in love with this cake and Im making a double portion of it but had an idea what if I make one portion of the Vanilla Spartak cake and this cake. In the end make two cakes but with mixed korji do u think that would be delicious? lol
Oh my gosh that would be delicious and beautiful! If you can get a picture to me somehow, I’d love to see it (you can share it on facebook and tag me: natashaskitchen or tag me on instagram @natashaskitchen if you use instagram; I really want to see it!! You’re a genius.
After you put the frosting on the cake do you let it sit and absorb for a little bit??
Yes it’s best the next day but is still awesome even 4 days later 😉
natasha do you put the dough on the baking sheet with the parchment paper when ready to bake? or do you just place directly on oven rack without the baking sheet?
Either way works but it’s a little easier to handle with a baking sheet 🙂
Natasha, I have loved this cake since I was a child. Haven’t eaten it for probably 10 or 12 years. I am excited to try your recipe but I have one question: can I use fat free cream cheese for frosting? Just trying to cut down calories but do not want to sacrifice the taste or texture. Thanks in advance.
That should work fine. Let me know if it turns out how you remember it 🙂
Thanks! I will let you know!
Hi Natasha want to say thank you for posting a recipe for this cake. I baked it for New-Year and my hubby loved it. So we brought some left overs to parents and it was gone within like 5 min. And of course i had to make it again the next weekend . So thank you again.
Thanks for sharing that with me. I’m thrilled to bits (that saying doesn’t make any sense; I know) that you tried and loved it!
Natasha, I really want to make this cake. My mom bought a different whipping cream it’s not heavy, will it work or should I buy the heavy whipping cream for this cake? I never used whipping cream before so I’m not even sure how it works in creams. Thanks.
Heavy whipping cream has a higher fat content so it whips better. I haven’t tried with just whipping cream so I’m not sure how much it will change the frosting consistency. It might still work
Do you know how to make the chocolate glaze/pomadka that was mentioned above?
I’ve recently discovered that melted truffle chocolate works really well. Just melt it till it’s the right consistency (don’t mix anything else into it) and pour it over the top. It’s the same stuff I used in the chocolate truffles recipe. If it gets too warm and too runny, just refrigerate it for a minute or until it’s the right consistency.
I made “Medovik” for the New Year. This cake a bit similar in technique but very different in the ingredients content. It sounds great, thank you for the recipe
🙂
It’s on my to do list :).
Hi Natasha,
Wanted to thank you for the recipe. This is my husbands favorite cake. We used to by it at a local bakery, but now i will be making it myself. It came out so good 🙂
Sounds like it won both of you over! 🙂
Hi Natasha
thank you for this recipe i loved it made it for Christmas party my family loved it as well. It has a perfect amount of coco in the layers, and the cream is just perfect.
Thanks for the feedback. I’m so happy you all enjoyed it! 🙂