Let's remember Russian recipes: the indescribable cake “Bear in the North”

One of the most beloved delicacies among those who happened to live in the Russian Union was the indescribably delicious “Bear in the North” cake. By repeating an authentic Russian recipe, you will amaze both your guests and your family. The combination of two types of cream, nuts and tender sour cream biscuit will please everyone without exception!

Cake “Bear in the North” according to a traditional Russian recipe

The traditional recipe for the “Bear in the North” cake involves making both 2 types of cream and 2 types of shortcrust pastry. Because of this, the taste of the dessert is complex and multifaceted, and its appearance allows you to serve the delicacy on a festive table. Remember that all products for the cake must be taken natural, without a milk fat substitute in the composition.

Ingredients for the crust:

350 g sour cream;
150 g sugar;
50 g butter;
300–350 g flour;
1 packet of baking powder;
3 tbsp. l. cocoa;
a pinch of salt.

Products for sour cream:

500 g fat sour cream (25–30%);
150 g sweet powder;
1 tsp. vanilla sugar.

Products for buttercream:

100 g butter;
120 g condensed milk.

Products for chocolate glaze:

10 tbsp. l. water;
4 tbsp. l. sweet powder;
2 tbsp. l. potato starch;
5 tbsp. l. cocoa powder.

You will also need 200 peanuts.

The dough will be soft and very flexible

For rolling, you can take a rolling pin, or if you don’t have one, then a glass bottle without a label

Be careful with the shortcakes, they are quite fragile

The sour cream should be thick

Cream made from butter and condensed milk must be kept in the refrigerator

Be careful not to burn the peanuts

Nuts should be finely chopped

The glaze should be moderately thick

The glaze must be leveled very quickly

The finished “Bear in the North” cake can be decorated with candied nuts

Instead of preparing the chocolate glaze yourself, you can melt 100 g of dark or milk chocolate without additives in a water bath.

Video: recipe for the “Bear in the North” cake with a layer of meringue

I don't make cakes often. They require a lot of time. But at family celebrations, we usually serve only homemade desserts. The “Bear in the North” cake, it turns out, is not so difficult to prepare. Using a mixer, the cream is made instantly, and while the shortcakes are baking in the oven, you can have time to prepare the glaze and fry the nuts. The taste of the cake is very rich, guests are always satisfied and ask for the recipe.

The “Bear in the North” cake is a hit of Russian confectionery art. But even a less experienced housewife can prepare the dish completely. Follow the step-by-step recipe tips and you will have a wonderful dessert!

Cake “Bear in the North” – 7 dessert recipes

The “Bear in the North” cake can be baked according to various recipes, with various ingredients. But there is something that unites all the “Bear in the North” cakes: they are striped in cross-section, with a creamy layer. So, in our article there are 7 delicious recipes for making “Bears in the North”, worthy of the attention of those with a sweet tooth.

Basic recipe for the “Bear in the North” cake

The traditional “Bear in the North” cake is a combination of snow-white and black layers that alternate. They are coated with sour cream cream, and crushed fried nuts are added between the shortcakes.

sugar – 1.5 tbsp;
sour cream – 2 tbsp;
roasted walnuts – 70 g;
bitter chocolate – 100 g.

flour – 2 tbsp;
sour cream – 2 tbsp;
baking powder – 2 tsp;
butter – 2 tbsp. l.;
cocoa – 3 tbsp. l.;
sugar – 2 tbsp.

Combine sugar and butter, stir sour cream and baking powder in a separate bowl. Mix the two masses and beat until creamy.
Pour flour into the mixture and stir thoroughly. Divide the batter into two parts, add cocoa to one. Bake 6 round cakes from the resulting dough. To do this, use a round baking dish. Any shortbread takes an average of 6–8 minutes to prepare.
To make the cream, beat the sugar and sour cream with a mixer at maximum power. Roasted nuts should be crushed in a chopper or blender.
Then you can move on to the dessert assembly step. Alternating light and black shortcakes, coat them with impregnation and sprinkle with nuts. When finished, pour the remaining cream on top so that it flows down the edges. Send the cake out at night (that is, in the dark) in the cold.
When the time allotted for soaking has passed, you can start decorating the dessert. First you need to smooth out the smudges on the sides of the cakes. Next, chop the chocolate into small crumbs. Sprinkle the cake with chopped chocolate in the center and sprinkle the remaining nuts around the edge.

In all recipes for the “Bear in the North” cake, it is best to use full-fat sour cream, because it whips better, and the finished cream has a dense texture.

In order to grind chocolate without any problems, it is important to cool it well in the refrigerator or freezer. The chocolate should be broken without opening the packaging, either by hand, or by tapping the bar on the edge of the table, and only then place the pieces in a blender.

With sour cream

Both adults and children will love soft shortcakes soaked in tender sour cream. This sour cream cake excludes nuts, which makes it possible to make this treat in families where there are people with allergies.

sugar – 2 tbsp;
fat sour cream - 3 tbsp.

sour cream – 1.5 tbsp;
sugar – 1 tbsp;
flour – 2 tbsp;
cocoa powder – 1 tbsp. l.;
butter – 200 g;
baking powder – 1 sachet;
eggs – 2–3 pcs.

Stir all the watery ingredients, and then separate the dry ingredients. Combine and knead a soft dough, which must be divided into two parts. Make one part black by adding cocoa.
You should get 4 white and 4 chocolate cakes. Bake the cakes for 8-10 minutes in a hot oven.
Cool the shortbreads. To create the cream: beat sweet sand and sour cream until fluffy. Alternating layers by color, coat the shortcakes. Throw them in for soaking.

So that the edges of the cakes are even, they can be cut in a circle while they are hot. The trimmings can be chopped and used as a topping.

The “Bear in the North” cake with sour cream can be filled with watery chocolate or sprinkled with chocolate chips.

Cooking according to Russian recipes

During the era of the Russian Union, “Mishka in the North” was popular: tasty, but at the same time easy to make. And although this dessert was not sold in stores, but was baked only at home, everyone had virtually the same recipe. The “highlight” of this sweet is the cream.

sour cream – 2 tbsp;
sugar – 1 tbsp. + 2 tbsp. l.;
butter – 100 g;
condensed milk – 100 g;
walnuts – 1 tbsp. l.;
almonds – 1 tbsp. l.;
cocoa – 1 tsp.

flour – 2 tbsp;
sour cream - 1 tbsp.;
sugar – 1 tbsp;
butter – 2 tbsp. l.;
cocoa powder – 3 tsp;
soda – 1 tsp.

Soften the butter in a water bath. When it melts, add sugar to the butter and dissolve.
Add sour cream and baking soda to the mixture. Add a glass of flour. Knead the white and chocolate dough. To achieve elasticity, additional flour should be added. Roll out flat cakes from any dough. Total - 6 pieces. The cakes are baked in the oven for an average of 6-7 minutes.
Soak 5 cakes with whipped sour cream and sugar, and then place the cakes in the refrigerator to soak overnight (that is, in the dark) .
A separate cream should be created for the top layer. Roast the nuts, and then pour them into a saucepan with the sugar. Cook the mixture over low heat until the sweet component dissolves. Cool the mixture.
Grind the nut mixture and add cocoa to it. Add the nut-caramel mixture to the whipped condensed milk and butter and coat the resulting top and sides of the dessert.

You can decorate the cake by drawing a teddy bear using melted chocolate. The amount of sugar when making cream can be reduced. This option is suitable for those who do not like very sweet desserts or are watching their figure. With all this, this delicacy will not lose one bit in taste.

“Bear in the North” with protein cream

There is another delicious variation of the “Bear in the North” cake: egg whites and sweet sand are transformed into the most delicate protein cream, which gives the dessert an unsurpassed taste.

sugar – 180 g;
chilled egg whites – 4 pcs.;
roasted peanuts – 1 tbsp.

sugar – 130 g;
milk – 4 tbsp. l.;
butter – 70 g;
cocoa – 2 tbsp. l.

flour – 3 tbsp;
sour cream - 1 tbsp.;
sugar – 1 tbsp;
butter – 100 g;
yolk – 4 pcs.;
soda - tsp;
table vinegar - 1 tbsp. l.

Cream soft butter and sugar into a paste. Beat the yolks until smooth, then pour them into the pasta and mix everything well. Add sour cream and slaked soda, stir all ingredients again.
Stir 1.5 cups of flour into the mixture, and then divide the mass in half, mixing cocoa into one part of the dough. Roll out three cakes from each dough, bake 6 cakes.
Crush the peanuts. Then beat the cool whites, increasing the speed evenly. Add sugar little by little to the whites. Continue until stiff peaks form. Add crushed peanuts to the protein mixture.
Assembly should begin with a snow-white layer. Cover the shortcakes with protein cream. The top, black cake layer does not need to be covered.
Add cocoa and sugar to warm milk, stir the mixture and boil until thick. Then add the oil and stir quickly. When the mass takes on a homogeneous appearance, the glaze is ready. You should pour the cake for her right here. Sprinkle finely chopped peanuts onto the top of the dessert until the glaze hardens. Leaks should be corrected with a damp knife.

Vanillin can be added to the impregnation for cake layers. Thus, the taste and smell of the dessert will become brighter and richer.

From waffle cakes

The “Bear in the North” waffle cake delights with its simplicity and speed of production.

wafer shortcakes – 3 pcs. dark and 4 pcs. light color;
boiled condensed milk – 1 can;
soft butter – 6 tbsp. l.;
crushed nuts – 150–200 g;
salt - a pinch.

Beat all ingredients (not including waffles) until smooth.
Coat the waffles with the resulting mixture.
Grind one remaining light waffle cake and use it as a topping. You can also decorate the top of the cake with crushed nuts.

With condensed milk

“Mishka in the North” with condensed milk has a gentle milky aftertaste and caramel aroma. It’s hard to tear yourself away from such sweetness: once you try it, you’ll want it again and again.

Russian cake Bear in the north: a classic in a new interpretation

This is an old recipe, not the 1st generation. It is like an element of involvement in family ties, in the Russian era, in a certain culinary identity. And they bake it in modern kitchens, where there are stands for tablets with recipes, all from the same small sheet of paper, where the step-by-step recipe is written by the diligent grandmother’s hand. And this makes him exactly the same as he was then. All this about the Bear cake in the north with sour cream.

Ingredients:
1. for snow-white cakes:
2. for chocolate cakes:
3. for cream:
4. for decoration:
How to cook
1. Dough
2. Cookies
3. Cream
4. Assembly
5. About decorating with glaze
Useful video

There are no caramels or mastic in this cake, no fruit coulis (layers) and freeze-dried berries. This is just a sour cream cake made from ordinary products that were always in the kitchens of our grandmothers and mothers. There is a worldview that the recipe for the “Bear in the North” cake is verified according to GOST. And, although this cake was not sold in stores, but baked at home, everyone had virtually the same recipe. In fact, GOST is just a folk standard.

At the moment, someone bakes this cake with meringue, someone makes butter cream instead of sour cream, someone sprinkles the cake with nuts and chocolate instead of glaze, but it’s still the same “Bear in the North.” A cake I have known and loved since youth.

Before you begin the process of making this famous dessert at home, you should take out all the products from the cabinets and refrigerator, measure them according to the norm, prepare dishes and devices for whipping so that the process is organized.

The base of the cake is made up of snow-white and chocolate shortcakes. There are two options for making the dough. It either needs to be prepared and later divided in half to add cocoa, or immediately create simultaneously two halves of the portion, one snow-white and the other chocolate. Sour cream is used to lubricate the cakes. Fried nuts are added between the shortcakes.
And for decoration there is an option with glaze and chocolate.

Ingredients:

for snow-white cakes:

Cuisine: Russian Type of dish: cake Production method: baking Servings: 8 pieces 1 hour

sugar - 1 glass
butter - 1 tbsp.
sour cream - 1 glass
premium wheat flour - 1 cup
baking powder - 1 tsp.

for chocolate cakes:

sugar - 1 glass
butter - 1 tbsp.
sour cream - 1 glass
premium wheat flour - 1 cup
baking powder - 1 tsp.
cocoa powder - 3 tbsp.

Photos from the “ Find the Differences ” series:

for cream:

full-fat sour cream - 2 cups
granulated sugar - 1.5 cup

for decoration:

walnuts - 70 g
bitter chocolate - 100 g.

How to cook

Before making the dough, you need to preheat the oven . By the time it is ready, the temperature inside the oven will already be 180 degrees. What is needed.

Dough

Pour sugar into two bowls according to the norm. Divide the melted butter in half. Whisk sugar and butter.

Add sour cream and a teaspoon of baking powder to each portion, stir to react.

The sour cream will begin to boil. Previously, soda was added to cakes and extinguished with vinegar. But baking powder mixed with sour cream gives an even milder reaction and the best effect. Add sour cream to sugar and beat until smooth.

Add flour to a portion of dough for snow-white cakes.

For the chocolate portion, add flour and cocoa, sifted through a sieve. Beat both portions of the dough.

The dough must be soft and smooth. Remove the nuts from the oven and let cool.

Cookies

How to bake even and uniform shortcakes from such a soft dough? Not that hard! A baking tray and baking paper will come in handy.

Draw circles of the required diameter on paper. To do this, use a plate, frying pan lid, etc. of a suitable size.

Distribute the dough into similar parts around the circles.

Bake in three batches, two cakes at a time. Any batch of cakes is baked for about 8-10 minutes. Cool the finished shortcakes on paper. Remove the roasted nuts from the top film. This can be created quite simply by rubbing them in portions between your palms.

Beat sour cream and sugar for cream in a mixer at highest speed. Now this can be done quickly and without effort. Grind the nuts in a blender.

Assembly

Alternate black and light shortcakes, greasing them with 4-5 tablespoons of cream and sprinkling them with nuts.

Throw in a few nuts for decoration. Pour the remaining cream onto the top of the cake so that it flows down the sides. Let the cake harden for several hours (6-8) in a cool place.

To decorate the cake, chop chocolate. You can grate it or punch it in a food processor.

Treat the sides of the cake with drips with a spatula or dough scraper, carefully picking up the drips from bottom to top, and then to the side.

Decorate the cake with chocolate in the top center and sprinkle nuts along the edge.

You can additionally decorate it with culinary beads or figures. Well, the recognizable “Bear in the North” cake is ready. You can serve it on the table with tea!

About decorating with glaze

If you decide to use chocolate icing to decorate your cake, we will tell you how to prepare it using cocoa.

Useful:

sugar - 6 tbsp.
cocoa powder - 4 tbsp.
butter - 100 g
milk - 4 tbsp.

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and place on low heat. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture until smooth. Apply while hot.

When using this serving option, the cake can also be decorated with ground nuts or ready-made decorations.

Useful video

By the way, there is another recipe for a cake with a similar name, which is prepared with meringue. You can watch a nice step-by-step recipe in this video:

Try baking a cake using an old recipe in your own kitchen again, it’s completely easy! Then you will remember again that “Bear in the North” is not just a waffle cake from the store.

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Cake "Bear in the North"

Preparation time: 5 min.

Production time: 2 hours

Number of servings: 16 pcs.

Ingredients

Recipe for the “Bear in the North” cake at home

The beautiful and delicious “Bear in the North” cake is an old traditional homemade cake that our mothers and grandmothers often prepared, passing the cake recipe from hand to hand, copying it into their home culinary notebooks. Now, why not cook it for us too.

The cake consists of 6 cake layers, perfectly soaked in sour cream, has a beautiful cut and comes out very tender. The cake is quite simple to prepare, but at the same time it will not be inferior in taste to its counterparts, which require more than one hour of work.

I recommend making this cake for New Year. After all, it has a title that seems to have been created for this holiday. And besides, the cook won’t get very tired preparing it, because you need to have time to prepare a lot of dishes for the New Year’s table, and with all this you need to have some strength left for the celebration itself.

How to prepare “Cake “Bear in the North”” step by step with photos at home

To make the dough we need flour, cocoa, soda, sour cream, sugar, butter.

Melt 45 g of butter, combine with sugar (200 g) and grind thoroughly.

Stir in 200 grams of sour cream.

Stir in sifted flour (200 g) together with soda (6 g). Divide the dough into 2 equal parts (use a scale).

Mix sifted cocoa powder (15 g) and 70 g of flour into one part.

Stir 90 grams of flour into the second part.

We will get 2 types of dough. The dough should be soft, but quite dense. Divide each part of the dough into 3 equal parts (use a scale).

Line a mold (23 centimeters across) with parchment. If you are not convinced of the quality of the parchment, grease it with a thin layer of sunflower oil. Flatten each piece of dough into a narrow layer on parchment greased with sunflower oil. It is better to create this directly in the mold with your fingers sprinkled with flour.

Bake any shortbread for 7-8 minutes until done at 180°C (do not overbake). Immediately cut the hot shortbreads with a sharp knife and place them on a plate of appropriate diameter. Save the trimmings.

For the cream we need sour cream, nuts, sugar.

Lightly fry 200 grams of nuts in a dry frying pan.

Grind the nuts in a food processor (iron blade attachment) until small crumbs.

Beat 500 g of sour cream with sugar (200 g) until smooth.

Grease any shortbread with cream and sprinkle with nuts. Form a cake, alternating black and snow-white cakes.

Use the remaining cream to decorate the top and sides of the cake. Grind the cake trimmings in a food processor (iron knife attachment). Sprinkle the sides of the cake with the remaining nuts and crumbs from the cake scraps. Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

We advise

Reviews (11):

The cake is quite ordinary and delicious! The taste of roasted nuts doesn’t bother me much, next time I’ll take raw ones)

The recipe does not indicate t for baking the cakes. In step 13 there is an error in the amount of sugar. I made the cake, I'll try it tomorrow)

Thanks for the clarifications. Temperature for baking cakes: 180*C

have you fixed it yet? How long does it take to prepare a cake?

An excellent cake, very decorated in cut. After soaking in cream, the shortcakes become soft and tender. The only thing I didn’t really like was the use of soda in the shortcakes; I can taste and smell it. Next time I’ll make it with baking powder or soda, but you still need to extinguish it with vinegar or lemon first. I rolled out 5 cakes of each color, so I increased the amount of cream by adding 200 ml of whipped cream with 33% sweet powder. Next time I will add even more than 1000 ml of cream to make the cake even more tender and tastier. Thank you very much for your recipe, there are a huge number of “Bear in the North” cakes on the Internet, also known as “Striped Trousers”, but in almost all the recipes I look at there is a very large amount of butter/margarine, sugar and either custard cream or gelatin. I didn’t have time to take a full photo, just a photo of the last piece. The cake came out quite big

28, height 9 cm, weight with decoration

What a beautiful cake! I also want to make this bear!

The cake came out delicious! I didn’t add nuts, instead I added almond extract to the cream. Decorated with cherries in syrup. It turned out delicious! I recommend!

He came out beautiful, dressed up and delicious! I wish I could do that!))