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This Spartak cake is pure awesomeness! Really! You can make the spartak cake layers up to a week early. I love that; especially when you are cooking up a storm for an event. Wouldn’t it be pure awesomeness (I already said that) if your dessert was already done and it gets better with age, just like a good cheese; except it should sit closer to 10 hours, not 10 months or it may grow a mowhawk.
This recipe for Spartak Cake is brought to you by my Mama; the woman whose taste in food I inherited. Mom uses 3 springform pans so she is working on a layer while the other two are baking; efficiency!
Theoretically, you could use a dinner plate to cut-out a circle of the dough and then place it on a non-stick floured cookie sheet to bake. Please don’t panic over the pictures; my mom doubles all of the ingredients and turns out 3 cakes in one evening (superwoman). So, the photos show double all of the ingredients for the Spartak Cake.
This recipe can make 2 shorter cakes, or 1 tall cake. You end up with about 10 layers if they are 9 inches in diameter. If making 2 cakes, each would have 4-5 layers (5 if you use graham crackers for crumbs), or one tall cake with 8-9 layers (with one layer for crumbs mixed with graham crackers).
Mom always likes to add at least a couple crushed graham crackers to the crumb mix. It makes the whole cake tastier and pahuchye (fragrant). Enjoy it!
What you will need for Spartak Cake:
preferably 2 springform pans and a cookie cutter
Ingredients for Spartak Cake:
1 egg
1 cup sugar
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temp
6 Tbsp (or 1/3 cup) milk, warmed to room temp
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups flour *measured correctly
2-3 graham crackers (optional)
Ingredients for Spartak Cream:
2 sticks (16 Tbsp) butter, softened at room temp
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz package cream cheese, softened at room temp
8 oz tub cool whip, fully thawed (or make your own by beating 1 cup of whipping cream with 1.5 Tbsp powdered sugar)
How to Make Spartak Cake Layers:
1. Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup sugar (whisk attachment, medium speed, 6 minutes). I know the photo shows two eggs, but its because we were doubling the recipe when we made it. So, yes it is just 1 egg.
2. Add softened butter, warm milk, and baking soda. Mix on medium speed 1 minute, until smooth.
2. Bring a medium/large pot of water to a boil. Place mixture in a glass bowl or medium sauce pan over boiling water for 10 minutes, stirring constantly (if making a double portion, do 20 minutes since it takes longer to heat up). It should just be hanging out over the steam and not floating in the water.
3. Remove from heat and immediately mix in 2 cups flour and mix well. (Don’t wait to add flour or you will single-handedly destroy the cake)
Preheat the Oven to 350˚ F.
Let stand 20 minutes until it is just warm; it thickens as it cools: Note: It’s easier to roll out the dough while it’s still warm
4. Dust flour over your non-stick surface (I wish I had my mom’s countertops!) Sprinkle flour over the dough as well so it wont’ stick to your rolling pin. Roll out a heaping tablespoon of dough on a nonstick surface into about a 10-inch round. It should not be sticking to the surface.
5. Generously dust the base of the springform pan with flour.
6. Place the rolled out dough over the base of the springform pan, run a pizza cutter around it. It’s ready to bake.
7. Mix the scraps of dough with some fresh dough and roll it out again. Don’t waste those scraps!
8. Bake at 350˚F until it turns golden (4-5 minutes). You can slide the cake layers off right away and continue on, but Don’t touch the top of the cake layer while its still hot, or you will indent it like I did – whoops!
Note: If one of your layers, is exceptionally oogly, don’t fret. Remember, you will take a rolling pin to one of them and make crumbs.
Notes: do not try to trim your cake layers after they are baked; they will crack.
How to Make the cream/frosting:
1. Using whisk attachment on electric mixer, beat together 2 packages butter and 1 can sweetened condensed milk on medium speed for 7 minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary
2. Mix in the softened cream cheese 1 chunk at a time until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary (2-3 minutes
3. On low speed, mix in the cool whip (or whipped cream) until well blended.
Assembling the Cake:
1. Set one cake layer aside for crumbs (or use graham crackers) – or you can mix like we did. Spread a thin layer of frosting over the first layer (enough to cover the surface) and go all the way to the edges.
2. Place the next layer on top. Frost and repeat this until you finish all the layers. Frost the sides and even out the frosting everywhere. Push down the layers in between so you don’t have gaps of air between your layers.
3. Crush the cake layer you set aside as well as the optional graham cracker.
4. Generously sprinkle the crumbs over the top. Cup handfuls of crumbs and pat them onto the sides of the cake.
5. Transfer to a pretty serving dish and refrigerate overnight (it should sit at least 10 hours for the layers to soften).
Thank you Mama for being patient with me while I took a million pictures. I love you Mom!!
Mom's Spartak Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 egg
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened at room temp
- 6 Tbsp or 1/3 cup milk, warmed to room temp
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 cups flour
- 2-3 graham crackers, optional
- 2 sticks, 16 Tbsp butter, softened at room temp
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 8 oz package cream cheese, softened at room temp
- 8 oz tub cool whip, fully thawed
Instructions
- Beat together 1 egg and 1 cup sugar (whisk attachment, medium speed, 6 minutes).
- Add softened butter, warm milk, and baking soda. Mix on medium speed 1 minute, until smooth.
- Bring a medium/large pot of water to a boil. Place mixture in a glass bowl or medium sauce pan over boiling water for 10 minutes, stirring constantly (if making a double portion, do 20 minutes since it takes longer to heat up). It should just be hanging out over the steam and not floating in the water.
- Remove from heat and immediately mix in 2 cups flour and mix well. (Don't wait to add flour or you will single-handedly destroy the cake). Let dough stand 20 minutes until it is just warm; it thickens as it cools: Note: It's easier to roll out the dough while it's still warm. While dough rests, preheat the Oven to 350°F.
- Dust flour over your non-stick surface. Sprinkle flour over the dough as well so it wont' stick to your rolling pin. Roll out a heaping tablespoon of dough on a nonstick surface into about a 10-inch round. It should not be sticking to the surface.
- Generously dust the base of the springform pan with flour. Place the rolled out dough over the base of the springform pan, run a pizza cutter around it. It's ready to bake.
- Mix the scraps of dough with some fresh dough and roll it out again. Don't waste those scraps!
- Bake at 350°F. until it turns golden (4-5 minutes). Remove cake layers from the baking pan righta way but Don't touch the top of the cake layer while its still hot, or you will indent it. Notes: do not try to trim your cake layers after they are baked; they will crack.
How to Make the cream/frosting:
- Using whisk attachment, beat together 2 packages butter and 1 can sweetened condensed milk on medium speed for 7 minutes, scraping down the bowl as necessary.
- Mix in the softened cream cheese 1 chunk at a time until smooth, scraping down the bowl as necessary (2-3 minutes)
- On low speed, mix in the cool whip (or whipped cream) until well blended.
Assembling the Cake:
- Set one cake layer aside for crumbs (or use graham crackers) - or you can mix like we did.
- Spread a thin layer of frosting over the first layer (enough to cover the surface) and go all the way to the edges.
- Place the next layer on top. Frost and repeat this until you finish all the layers. Frost the sides and even out the frosting everywhere. Push down the layers in between so you don't have gaps of air between your layers.
- Crush the cake layer you set aside as well as the optional graham cracker. Generously sprinkle over the top than cup handfuls of crumbs and pat them onto the sides of the cake. Transfer to a serving dish and refrigerate overnight (it should sit at least 10 hours for the layers to soften).
Where did your mom get the base of the springform? My mom has one from Russia that looks just like your moms and I was wondering if they sell them here?
Thanks Natasha
Spring-form is part of “cheesecake springform pan”. They should be available in most of the stores or at Amazon. Using 9″ or 10″ is the best way to go :D. My mom has 3 of those, which makes the job much faster.
thanks Natasha.
another question, can you make karshe one day and assemble it with a cream the following day?
Cake can be assembled the following day :). Let me know how it will turn out.
Hi Natasha,
Do you need to make holes with a fork in the dough before baking it so it would not have bubbles?
Thanks
There is no need to make holes in the dough Sarah.
dear natasha, im indonesian but crazy in love with russian’s cake especially the honey cake, or medovik. But lately i found several russian cakes that have something in common, like napoleon cake, medovik, and spartak cake. in my opinion they are alike in using several thin layers and cream between them. i am wondering what’s the different between them? or, is there any history behind their similarities? or, are they the same? 😀 too many questions in my mind
Hello Esti, cakes do have some things in common, but they all taste different. Napoleon cake is made out of pastry dough, medovik and spartak use similar layers but medovik uses lots of honey in the dough…hope this helps 🙂
wawww.. thanks natasha. Love your blog so much 🙂
You are welcome Esti 😀
I made this cake and figured it’s defiantly not a starters cake. I had to do it twice, the first time my dough was way too sticky and when added more flour, the dough kept on ripping (uh, so frustrating). So i throw it out, made my husband dinner, & tried again. I figured I needed to add more flour which I did. The dough did turn out more workable, but still kept on sticking and ripping lol. Anyways after putting up a fight I actually finished the cake. It did taste pretty good. I guess I need more practice, looks easier to make then actually is. I’m trying to figure out were I went wrong. When heating the mixture do you hold the pot in the water or over the water? And when you add the flour immediately after heating the mixture and you see that it still looks gooey can you had more flour right away? Or does that make the dough a more pain to deal with when rolling it out?
Sorry you had a frustrating experience with the cake. Lets see if we can trouble shoot this. Does your dough look like the pictures or is it more runny? If it is more runny and you find that you need more flour, the best way to prevent cracks is to add the flour right away, so maybe try 2 cups plus 2 tbsp flour. What kind of flour are you using? Canadian? All-purpose bleached/unbleached? I’m on a mission to do testing with all of these because they tend to have different results. So, yes the big thing is to add the flour right away and not add more later or it will crack. The dough should be heating over steam. I will clarify that in the recipe. I’m planning to re-make this cake soon because it is one of my absolute favorites and I really want to try it with different flours. Hope that helps.
Hi. I’ve found that there are two ways that most people measure flour. I call them the scoop method and the spoon/pour method. With the scoop method people stick the measuring cup into the flour and scoop it out, then scrape it off to level it, or even add a bit. With the spoon/pour method, people take a spoon or even the bag of flour and sort of sprinkle the flour into the measuring cup. The second method adds more air into the flour so you actually get less by weight than you do with the first method. It sounds like you use the first method. If your bakers are ending up with dough that is stickier than yours they should try the ‘scoop’ method. (Or like you said, they can add a couple tablespoons.)
Thank you! That is important to keep in mind. And I do use the scoop method and then scrape off the top with the back of a butter knife to get a more exact measurement.
How many days in advance can you make korji for the cake? And how to correctly store them?
We haven’t tested the limits but you can put them in a plastic bag on the counter (moisture free area) for even 1 week. They are like cookies and they soften with the frosting.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe!! love all the cakes with the thin layers!! mine is in the fridge and we CANT WAIT to dig in! God bless you!
Awesome!! 🙂 Thank you and God bless you too!
I made this cake and it was gone in 5 seconds. LOVE IT! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
yes my layers looked about the same as on the phone maybe even a little lighter. and yes i refrigerated for 12 hrs. i think it might be too much flour. like i said it was very thick when i added the flour right away after taking the bowl off of the steam.
It sounds like a problem with too much flour. That is usually the case with Canadian flour, but i haven’t had that issue with all-purpose. Are you using a dry ingredients measuring cup and scraping off the top? I have found that using a liquid measuring cup doesn’t equate to the dry ingredients cup when measuring flour. Hope that helps! If you were doing all that, just add a couple tbsp less flour next time.
another question i had is do you think i should let the cake sit outside the frigerator for few hours, because when i placed mine in the frigerator right away after making it, the cake never got very soft. it was a little on the hard side. or maybe i overbaked the cake? but i wanted the layers to be golden so it took me more then 5 min it was more like 8 min per layer.
Did your layers look darker than the photo? Also how long did you refrigerate? Was it at least 10 hours? It does get even softer if it sits longer.
That is a good idea; it would probably soften quicker if you let it sit on the counter for a 1-2 hours before refrigerating. I’m not sure I would do it longer for food Safety reasons. Thanks for the tip!
im using regular all purpose flower. i think that this cake should always be made double recipe because the dough does not rise when baked so the cake is too short if not doubled. is that why you guys did the double recipe on the picture?
We doubled it because we wanted 2 cakes; but the results should be the same for 1 cake with the recipe that is posted. It’s not a very tall cake; but that is the way we have always served it. When we doubled the recipe, we ended up with two cakes and they were both the same size. It sounds like you are used to tall cakes. If you double the recipe, you can make one really tall cake. I bet it would be gorgeous!
yeah i made it once with 2 cups with double portion and it was too sweet and thats what everyone said when i made it for the party. so when im doubling the recipe i should double all the ingredience right? because for some reason the dough was too thick when i added the 4 cups of flour.
Make sure you add flour right away while it’s still hot or it won’t be the same consistency. You can try using 1/2 cup less sugar for double the recipe if you felt it was too sweet. What kind of flour were you using?
hi i have a question? when im doubling the recipe can i just use one cup of sugar? because the cake is too sweet. or will this mess up the whole cake? thank you so much
Have you tried the cake with 1 cup before doubling it and you thought it was too sweet? I don’t think it would be the same if you cut the sugar in half. I’m not sure if it would work since I have never made it that way.
My family loved this cake. So good, i really like that it’s not too sweet. Just what I like. Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe of your mom’s.
Thank you Viktoriya! I’ll make sure to let my Mom know how much you liked it 🙂
Pretty much. The floor I work on is split into North and South ends (respiratory and oncology). I was hired on to work the respiratory unit. But I think it was God’s doing that they accidentally hired too many for that side and I ended up in Oncology. We get to “float” to other units when census is low or staffing is high, but I just don’t seem to enjoy the other areas as much. What did you have in mind? What rotations have you enjoyed?
Natashinka,
Thank you so much for this recipe! I was looking for a new cake to make for my Daddy’s birthday and I found you by Google(ing) for Russian/Ukrainian cakes. I made this cake yesterday and it was a huge hit with the family. My husband, who has been doing the low/healthier carb diet, couldn’t resist and had three slices too 🙂 and that meant a lot to me.
Sounds like we also have a lot in common – food, family, husbands being youth leaders, and I’ve been a nurse for over 4 years. May God continue to bless you. Again thank you for your amazing recipe. I will definitely be trying others.
I guess you could just blame me for messing up his diet 🙂 I’m so glad your family really enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know! God bless you as well! Wow, we do have alot in common! What area of nursing are you in?
I always thought that I wanted to be a L&D nurse or mother-baby. But I have been doing Oncology nursing now for over 4 years and absolutely love it. I really feel like this is what God has called me to do.
That’s so awesome! I always thought I wanted to be an L&D nurse until my rotation there. I just wasn’t drawn to it either. I’ve applied for a few different position and am trusting in God to send me to the right spot! Did you start in Oncology?
so i made this cake, it is absolutely delicious! and i made it twice already actually 🙂 the first time i made it by this recipe and decorated with nutella and hazelnuts and the second time i just added 3tbspns of cocoa powder to the dough and made a chocolate version with a chocolate glaze over the whole thing, pal’chiki oblizhish! 🙂 thank you thank you thank you! p.s. this is the best recipe to make this cake by cuz the second time i made it by a diff recipe, where you make the whole thing over heat and it asked for more butter, the whole thing was so hard to work with and was soooo sticky, me no like, but it did turn out basically the same so from now on, i will always use this one 🙂
Kristina, thank you! I’m so glad you liked my mother’s recipe 🙂 Do you have a good chocolate glaze recipe? I’ve been looking for one and the one you are describing sounds wonderful! .
the one i used was very simple but i think its missing something. you just melt 1/2 cup chocolate morsels, 1/4 stick butter and 1 tbsp heavy cream. it got the job done but it was a little too sweet for me and it was kinda stiff
Thank you darlin’!
I’m excited to bake this for my family for this weekend celebration…
Kind of nervous because it will be my first time making this cake! I hope I don’t mess up!
Let me know how it goes. You’ll do great!
Natasha can i put cocoa into hot mixture instead after flour cuz its harder since the dough gets stiffened?
Emma, you may add 1 to 1.5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa to the dough right before or with the flour for a chocolate spartak. Just make sure you stir everything in immediately after taking it off the heat or it will get too stiff to mix.