Soviet Cookie Cake

An Easy Peasy and Affordable Showstopper with Step-By-Step Videos

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

---

Photo Credit Olga Koutseridi

Soviet Cookie Cake

This is my sister’s and my husband’s favorite cake. At this point, it is a family tradition to bake this cookie cake for Tom’s birthday every year. At its core, this is a cake made up of broken cookies, formed into a hill, and held together by ooey gooey dulce de leche mixture. Most commonly, this cake is referred to as Muraveinik or anthill cake. There are endless versions of this stunning cake across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Balkans, Baltic, and Central Europe.

This is one of those cakes that needs to rest and set in the fridge overnight. The cake genuinely gets better with each and single day. So plan ahead and resist the temptation to cut into the cake early! It sets up quite nicely in the fridge. The cake holds its shape once it has fully set after a long rest in the fridge.

The cookie dough is a type of shortcrust pastry. The cookies come out super tender. The tenderness in the dough is enhanced by the edition of the sour cream.

This newsletter is not going to dive deep into the politics, history, or cultural content of soviet cakes, but do know that I am working on that piece separately and that I have been thinking a lot about the meaning of soviet food and its place in the 2024 world we live in. I did want to note that this cake came out of scarcity. One of the defining features of daily Eastern Europe Sovietism existence was food shortages. Therefore, families had to get creative when it came to things like dessert or sweets. It is for this reason that the cake is made with readily available ingredients and an industrial canned product that every household at least in theory would be able to access.

Photo credit Olga Koutseridi

Some kind of bizarre things about this cake. Commonly, this cake was made using a meat grinder. Those super old school ones that your grandma would attach to her kitchen table and manually crank. You would put a piece of dough into the meat grinder and bake the little pieces of dough that would come out of the grinder.

As a modern solution, we are going to be using the magical and probably the most underrated kitchen tool, the cheese grater. The key to success is keeping the dough cold—as is often the case with all shortcrust doughs. If your dough is getting too warm, put the dough ball back in the freezer. You could also work with all four pieces of frozen dough, since the outside of the dough will always be more solid. Just don’t forget to put them back in the freezer.

This is one of those recipes that would be super easy to make in a commercial kitchen with lots of sheet trays and oven space. For home bakers, especially those with one baking sheet, you will need to bake one sheet tray of shredded cookie dough at a time. The good news is that these cookies bake super fast anywhere between 12 and 15 minutes depending on your oven.

Please tag me if you make this cake! Or share your photos in the chat. As always please let me know if you have any questions. I added videos for easy and quick reference since I know this technique and style of cake is different from the usual. But do let me know if anything is unclear. I am so excited to share this recipe with you all. Enjoy!

Photo credit Olga Koutseridi

Tools:

• cheese grater

• parchment paper

• at least x1 half-sheet pan

• large plate or cake stand

Ingredient List: 

Dough:

• 500 grams AP flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/8 baking soda

• 100 grams sugar

• 250 grams cold unsalted butter

• 2 large eggs (about 100 grams)

• 100 sour cream

Buttercream:

• 380 grams or 1 can dulce de leche

• 100 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

Method: 

1. For the Dough: In a large mixing bowl sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and kosher salt. Now add the sugar and give everything a good whisk to make sure the ingredients are well mixed.

2. Now start cutting the cold or room temperature butter into the flour making sure each piece is coated in flour. Once all the butter is in the flour, using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour, making sure no large pieces of butter remain until you have a sandy mixture, about 2 minutes. Make a well in the center, add eggs and sour cream. Using a fork break up the eggs and mix with the sour cream, now mix the egg mixture into the flour using a fork. Once a shaggy dough comes together, “knead” or bring the dough together for no longer than a minute and 30 seconds or just until the dough comes together and looks pretty smooth (see video). Cut the dough into four equal size pieces, wrap them in plastic wrap (or put them in an airtight container) and put them in the fridge for at least 1 hour to cool.

   1. PRO TIP: The key here is to avoid over kneading the dough! We don’t want a tough cookie dough. The dough should be soft at the end of the kneading process.

3. Prepare a baking sheet tray with a large piece of parchment paper or you can use a baking sheet with a silicone mat. I like to actually bake on the flat side of the sheet tray since there is more surface area and I find the dough to bake more evenly.

4. After an hour, preheat the oven to 350F. Place the four dough balls and the cheese grater in the freezer for 15 minutes. Now working with one dough ball at a time, using the large side of the cheese grater, grate the dough ball across the sheet pan. Making sure you grate the dough evenly across the baking sheet (see video). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cookies are a light golden color. Repeat with the rest of the dough. It takes me a total of 5 baking sheet trays.

   1. If you don’t have 5 separate baking trays you will need to bake them one at a time using separate pieces of parchment paper to speed up the process. Keep the prepared shredded dough in the fridge. You can bake two trays at a time. I usually bake these in the middle and top oven racks.

5. Place the baked cookies in a large mixing bowl. Once all the dough is baked let the cookies fully cool, about 1 hour.

6. For the Buttercream: In a medium mixing bowl, add a whole can of dulce de leche and butter. Place over a double boiler. We want to fully combine and warm up the melted butter and dulce de leche into a smooth mixture with a runny consistency. Turn off heat but leave the bowl on the pot while we prepare our cookies. We need the mixture to stay warm and runny so that it can coat the cookies in the next step.

7. Assemble: Once the cookies are cold, break up the cookies into small relatively uniform pieces (a mixture of smaller and larger is ok too) using your hands but don’t break up the cookies too much, we don’t want a powdery result (see video for a visual reference).

8. Now pour the warm buttercream mixture over the broken cookies and give it a thorough mix using a spatula. When all the cookies are coated in the butter cream, use a large spoon to transfer the cookie mixture onto a large plate or cake stand. Put a large piece of plastic wrap on top of the pile of cookies and using your hands shape it into a hill. Pressing the cookies together to get rid of any gaps (see video below).

9. Leave the cake at room temperature for 2 hours and then move to the fridge for it to fully set. I like to leave it overnight but a minimum of 8 hours.

10. To serve, cut thin slices and enjoy.

How to Make Dulce De Leche:

1. Place a can of sweetened condensed milk in a pot. Now fully cover the can with water. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, THE WHOLE CAN HAS TO BE SUBMERGED UNDER WATER. The can has to remain covered with water throughout the entire cooking process by at least an 1-inch of water. Cover the pot with a lid and bring to a simmer. Simmer over low heat for 3 hours, checking periodically to top off with additional water if necessary.