How to properly cook a cake Firewood under the snow
How to properly prepare the “Firewood under the Snow” cake?
The recipe for the “Firewood under the Snow” cherry cake has been familiar to almost everyone since youth, remaining all this time a favorite among desserts made from dough and cream. Fragrant cherries framed by tender shortcrust pastry soaked in butter cream give unearthly bliss to all gourmet sweet tooths. How to prepare this delicious cake is carefully described in this article.
Traditional recipe
The “Firewood under the Snow” cake is another title of the well-known “Monastic Hut”, which is based on the oldest Moldavian dish “Gugutse Caps”, which is prepared using a similar method, but thin pancakes are often used instead of shortcrust pastry.
“Cherry in the Snow”, “Honeycomb”, “Beehive”, “Drovnitsa” - in different parts of the world this cool dessert is called differently, but the essence of all options is the same: strips are prepared from shortcrust pastry or sour cream dough in which the berries are wrapped cherries and baked in the oven. Next, the purchased “firewood” is layered with cream and stacked in the form of a triangular woodpile, very similar to the roof of a hut.
Making the dough
The most common version of the dough for the “Firewood under the snow” cake consists of making a regular dough with sour cream and butter: in a wide bowl, mix 250 grams of butter or margarine for baking of good quality with 4 cups of flour, grinding everything into a kind of crumbs, then add 3-4 tbsp. spoons of sweet sand, a pinch of salt and 0.5 teaspoons of soda, add a glass of sour cream and knead the dough. Try not to knead it for a long time: in almost one minute, form a plastic lump of dough, place it in a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator (not the freezer!). The dough must be in the refrigerator for at least an hour so that it matures and is ready for use.
What can you use for the inside?
Usually, for the inside, they use canned cherries for the “Firewood under the Snow” cake, which enterprising housewives prepare in their juice in the summer. You can eat cherries from juices or fresh frozen cherries. True, it is necessary to add sugar to freshly frozen berries, because the natural acidity of cherries is very bright and dulls the taste of other components of the cake.
At the same time, before making the dessert, we must defrost the frozen product by placing it in a colander or sieve to drain off excess liquid, which during baking can spoil the appearance of the cake.
Making cream
To layer the “Firewood under the Snow” cake, sour cream is usually used: 700-800 grams of cream or fresh sour cream + one and a half glasses of sugar + a pinch of vanilla, whipped with a whisk until fluffy, when the whipped peaks of the cream do not lose their shape. With all this, it is important to ensure that the whipping process does not drag on, otherwise the sour cream will turn into butter and the cream will be spoiled.
Some housewives prepare custard for this cake, but this is completely contrary to the traditional recipe. Also, to form the finished “Firewood under the Snow” cake, you can use cream made from boiled condensed milk (500 g) whipped with butter (300 g). But this is a variation on a theme, and not a unique version. Fans of this unusual cake tried all possible combinations of cream with a base and concluded that whipped cream cream best emphasizes the taste and corresponds to the name.
Product molding
The “Firewood under the Snow” cake is made from dough strips stuffed with cherries. The chilled dough is divided into fifteen equal parts, each of which is rolled out into a narrow strip no more than 5 cm wide and about 30 cm long.
Place a row of cherries in the middle of the dough strip (if they are fresh, sprinkle them with sugar or sweet powder), fold the edges towards the center and pinch them well so that the juice does not leak out. We place the purchased “firewood” on a baking sheet at a small distance from each other and bake in the oven until slightly golden brown, being careful not to dry it out, otherwise the “firewood” will become very hard and will not be well soaked in the cream.
When the purchased pieces have completely cooled down, we begin to place them in descending order in the form of a triangular stack of firewood: place the first 5 strips on the dish, laying them tightly together, generously grease them with cream, place four strips on top, placing them at the junction of the previous ones. Again a layer of cream plus a level of 3 tubes, a layer of cream, then two tubes, a layer of cream and the outer tube at the top. It is important that there is really a lot of cream, so that the sand tubes with cherries inside are perfectly soaked and become completely soft and delicate in taste.
We generously coat the “Firewood under the Snow” cake with the remaining cream so that the dough tubes are not actually visible through it; if desired, you can sprinkle the cake with crushed walnuts or chocolate chips, some use coconut for this.
The purchased wonderful dessert is sent to a cold space for at least twelve hours to soak and only later is served to the ceremonial table.
Firewood Cake Under the Snow
Thanks to its own white sour cream, the “Firewood Under the Snow” cake is very suitable for winter holidays, especially for the New Year’s table. But this is not the only name of this delicious festive dessert. This recipe is also known as “ Monastic hut ”, “ Tubes with cherries ”, “ Hut under the snow ”, “ Cherry hill ”. It is believed that it came from Ukrainian cuisine.
Recipe for Firewood Under the Snow cake with cherries
- Dough:
- sour cream – 200 g
- baking powder – 1 teaspoon
- flour – 350-450 g
- butter or margarine – 250 g
- sugar – 220 g
- a pinch of salt
- pitted cherries (for the inside) - 1 kg
- Sour cream:
- sour cream (20-30%) – 700 g;
- sugar (or sweet powder) – 250 g;
- vanilla sugar – 10 g.
How to cook a cake Firewood Under the Snow
- Place the freshest cherries without pits or frozen ones (thawed beforehand) in a colander and let the juice drain.
- For the dough, beat butter at room temperature until fluffy with a pinch of salt.
- Add sugar and beat again.
- Combine sour cream with baking powder and add to the total mass.
- Add sifted flour and knead into a soft dough.
- Place the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes or in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes.
- Once the dough has cooled and become stiffer, lightly knead it on the table and divide into 15 equal pieces.
Roll out any piece of dough into a rectangle approximately 20 x 5 cm.
Place the cherries on any rectangle of dough, touching each other, pinch the edges tightly so that long “logs” come out.
Cover the baking sheet with oiled parchment paper, place the logs, seam side up, and bake for 15-20 minutes at 200°C.
Cool the finished logs.
Beat the cooled sour cream with sugar at the highest speed of the mixer until it thickens and increases in volume.
Place 5 logs on a plate and coat well with cream. Any subsequent layer of the cake will be one less log, so in total you will get 15 logs and 5 layers of the Firewood Under the Snow cake.
Coat all layers well with cream, place the remaining cream on top of the cake.
Place in the refrigerator to soak for 10-12 hours.
You can decorate the Firewood Under the Snow cake using various methods - sprinkle with coconut shavings, rub black or snow-white chocolate on top.
Monastic hut cake or Firewood under the snow - step-by-step recipe with photos
The Monastic Hut cake will undoubtedly justify all your efforts and efforts with its simplicity, beauty and taste.
It is made from sand tubes stuffed inside with sweet and sour cherries and laid out in a white mound.
The tubes are connected to each other with sour cream; the cake is covered with the same cream and sprinkled with chocolate chips.
This delicious cake has several titles: “Monastery Hut”, “Spruce Hut”, “Firewood under the Snow” and more. In my opinion, the last title is more successful, it corresponds to the current time of year and the appearance of this cake is reminiscent of snow-covered firewood in the forest.
Monastic hut cake or Firewood under the snow – ingredients:
- 250 margarine or butter
- 400 g flour
- 3 yolks
- 200 ml sour cream
- 1 teaspoon baking soda or cookie baking powder
- 1 liter of cherries in their juice, or frozen
- 800 ml thick sour cream 30% fat
- 200 g sugar
- 50 g dark chocolate
Cake Monastic hut or Firewood under the snow - making:
Place the cherries on a sieve to drain the juice.
Preheat the oven to 180 C.
Sift the flour into a deep bowl, add margarine and rub with your hands until crumbly. Add yolks, sour cream, soda and knead into a soft dough. Cover the finished kneaded dough and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour, or even more.
Sprinkle the work surface with flour, lay out the dough and roll it out, giving it a rectangular shape 3-5 mm wide. Cut the rolled out bread into 15 ribbons (or more) 3-4 cm wide and the length of your baking tray on which you will bake.
Place the drained cherries on each ribbon in the center and seal the dough along the entire length. Carefully place the formed tube sticks onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake the cherry rolls for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.
To make the cream, you need to beat the cooled sour cream with sugar with a mixer until it thickens slightly, 10-15 minutes. If desired, you can add vanilla, lemon zest and juice to the sour cream.
Prepare a dish or tray on which we will place the Monastic Hut or Firewood under the Snow cake , according to the size of the cherry sticks.
Place 5 sticks on the bottom layer and grease them with sour cream. The next layer is 4 sticks and cream, then 3,2,1 are coated with cream each time. And at the end, grease the top of the entire cake with cream.
Sprinkle the finished dessert with a thick layer of grated chocolate. If desired, dark chocolate can be replaced with snow-white chocolate or chocolate fudge, or simply sprinkled with cocoa.
It’s better to leave the cake in a cold place for a day so that it soaks and gains flavor.
Cake “Firewood under the snow”: recipe for making
The “Firewood under the Snow” cake is a unique dessert that anyone can make. In this article we will look at two methods for creating this sweetness. Which one you choose is your personal choice.
Delicious dessert “Firewood under the snow” (cake): step-by-step recipe
A home-cooked delicacy with the unusual name “Firewood under the Snow” turns out to be very affectionate. This dessert has a slight sourness, but only in this case if you used fresh or frozen cherries as the inside.
So, for the cake we will need:
- high quality butter - 250 g;
- high-fat sour cream - about 800 g (600 g is needed for cream);
- gelatin - 8 g;
- fresh milk - 3 huge spoons;
- snow-white sugar - a full glass;
- baking powder - a dessert spoon (if you use table soda, you need to put it out);
- frozen cherries (or fresh) pitted - 400 g;
- citric acid - a pinch;
- light flour - 4 full glasses.
Making the dough
Before forming the “Firewood under the Snow” cake, you should knead the sand base. To do this, you need to grate the slightly melted cooking fat, and then grind it into crumbs along with light flour. After this, you need to add high-fat sour cream (200 g), fresh milk and baking powder to the ingredients. All ingredients should be mixed until a homogeneous base is obtained. After this, you need to roll it into a sausage, divide it into 15 pieces and put it in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.
Preparing the inside
The “Firewood under the Snow” cake turns out to be especially tasty if you use fresh or frozen cherries to make it. It must be washed and pitted in advance. If you use frozen berries, then they should be completely defrosted beforehand.
Forming and baking tubes
The “Firewood in the Snow” cake turns out to be quite unusual. After all, it is formed not from ordinary cakes, but from tubes filled with cherries. To create them at home, you should remove the base from the refrigerator and roll out any piece into strips 20 centimeters long and 4 centimeters wide. Next, you need to place the cherry filling into the product and, pinching the edges, form a tube.
After all the semi-finished products are prepared, they need to be placed on a baking sheet with baking paper and baked at 205 degrees for about 12-16 minutes. During this period of time, the tubes will be completely cooked and perfectly browned. After removing the products from the baking sheet, you should wait for them to cool.
Making sour cream
The dessert “Firewood under the snow” (cake), the recipe for which we are considering, involves the use of sour cream. It will make your homemade delicacy especially tender and tasty.
So, to make the cream, you should cool the high-fat sour cream in advance, and then beat it with a mixer along with snow-white sugar. You also need to add a pinch of citric acid and gelatin to the acquired mass.
After obtaining a lush and airy cream, it can be immediately used for its intended purpose.
Forming a delicious dessert
The “Firewood under the Snow” cake is formed very simply. First you need to take a cake pan and place 5 baked and cooled cherry rolls in a row. They should be doused with sour cream, and then 4 products should be placed on top again. By laying out the roulettes and covering them with the sweet mass, you should get a huge pyramid.
Top it with plenty of cooled cream and, if desired, sprinkle with grated dark chocolate.
We present it to the table correctly
If you don’t understand what the presented dessert looks like, in this article you can see a photo of it. The “Firewood under the Snow” cake should be served only after a long period of aging in the cold. During this period of time, sour cream will saturate all the shortbread rolls with cherries, making them very tender and tasty. After this, the unique dessert can be safely cut into beautiful triangles and served to the table along with a cup of tea.
Cake “Firewood on the snow”: easy-to-make recipe
Not enough people understand, but such a dessert can be created using a simplified recipe. Although this does not affect its taste in any way.
So, to quickly and easily make a homemade cake, you should purchase:
- store-bought puff pastry (yeast-free) – regular packaging;
- pieces of fruit or berries – approximately 400 g;
- thick sour cream - about 450 ml;
- sweet snow-white sand – about 220 g.
Formation and production of rolls
The main advantage of such a dessert is that to make it there is no need to knead the dough without the help of others. After all, you can buy a puff base in any store.
After the dough has completely thawed, it needs to be rolled out into a narrow layer, and then cut into long strips no more than 4 cm wide. Next, pieces of fruit or berries should be placed in each product, and then the edges should be pinched, forming a careful roll.
After preparing all the products, they need to be laid out on a sheet of cooking paper and sent to a preheated oven. Bake rolls with berries or fruits for 25 minutes at a temperature of 200 degrees. During this period of time, the products should be perfectly browned, crispy and very tasty.
To use the rolls to form a cake, you need to carefully remove them from the sheet, place them on a flat surface and cool completely.
Preparing sour cream
The cream for this cake is made exactly the same as in the previous recipe. To do this, the milk product is whipped with a mixer along with sugar. As a result, you should get a fluffy and sweet mass that can be immediately consumed for its intended purpose.
The process of forming a homemade dessert
Forming the “Firewood on the Snow” cake is simple and straightforward. To begin with, 5 rolls should be placed on a cake pan and covered with 1/5 of the cream. Next you need to place the 2nd layer of “cakes”, consisting of 4 products. After pouring sour cream over them, you need to lay out 3 more rolls, etc. As a result, you should get a very tasty pyramid, which can be additionally doused with chocolate glaze or sprinkled with coconut crumbs.
Serving
It is recommended to serve the formed cake to guests only after it has been kept in the refrigerator. After all, this is the only way to get a very tasty and tender delicacy that will serve as a good dessert for a festive table. Enjoy your tea!