Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Russian Wafer Cake

In our wanderings around town we've stumbled across a couple of Russian grocery stores. The first one we went in I saw these colorful, circle wafer things that were rather intriguing. I asked Anton what they were, and he had no idea. So when we stopped in a second store today and they had the same wafer things, I had to know. We asked the lady who worked there and she started explaining to me how to make some sort of layered dessert out of it. She pointed out the ingredients and in her broken English did her best to translate a fairly simplish recipe. I didn't have Anton to be my interpreter since he was chatting with another guy who just got into the country 10 days ago.

So armed with the ingredients handed to me by the nice lady, I went home to try my skills.

Three ingredients, piece of cake!

First I melted the butter, even though the lady just said soft butter, but I really think she wanted me to melt it.

And the reason I think that is when I opened the can of mystery stuff (Anton couldn't figure out what it was. All we knew was it was some sort of sweetened condensed milk carmely stuff.)

It was solid. Really solid. So I figured some nice hot melty butter would smooth things over. It didn't want to mix together, but I made it go.

Then because I was the cook and the photographer, there are no pictures of the next bit, but we spread some of the super thick carmely stuff on each wafer and stacked them one on top of the other.

That's the top layer there after I told Anton to start snapping pictures.

Alex was really excited to eat some cake! Anton got cutting honors.

Yummy layers.

Alex went with the peel off each layer and eat them one by one method.

Anton went with the pick up the whole pile and take a bite method.

And Ella went with the shove as much in her mouth as will possibly fit at one time method.

I just went with the eat so much it makes you feel sick method.

And the final verdict? It was okay. I think it needed some sort of creamy layer in it After we ate it I decided to look it up on the internet. I found one, count them, one website that remotely talked about this kind of treat. You can find it here. Seems like Russian things are not the most popular blogging/cooking topics. She describes various fillings I could have used in addition to the carmel we used. And it seems I should have mushed it somehow and let it sit overnight before eating it. I'll maybe give it one more shot to see if I can make something yummy out of it, and then I'll give it up as a tried it and didn't like it.

15 comments:

Monique said...

Brandon said he never saw that before.. hmm. Looks interesting...

Kylene said...

Personally the blue ones kinda turned me off. I checked out the link and hers looked kinda good. I like the cheap strawberry ones you buy at the grocery store, but I'm easy to please.

Andrea said...

I think Ella looks so grown up!! She isn't the little toddler I remember her being. Sigh....

but those look yummy!! And you can buy them in the store, alrady made and probably not as yummy as the homemade ones.

I bet Anton had fun in the Russian store. It's not everyday you get to speak Russian!

Amy said...

Judging from the pictures of your family, it looks like they enjoyed it. You are quite the adventurous cook to try something with just a verbal, sort of understood recipe.

Ewa said...

Hi Amanda! I am Ewa from Milk&Pumpkin. Seems like you visited my culinary blog in search of wafer recipe. I guess you didn't like it. First of all, Polish people don't like to be called Russian ;) But it's not important here. Wafer-caramel cake is very very very often eaten in Poland, with caramel filling but there are many other fillings. Thus, the milk-caramel one is delicious and one of the simplest that can be. I've never seen nor used colourful sheets but that doesn't matter. You just cook a can of condensed milk for 2 hours, open it and mix with butter (let's say, 100 gr) - but don't melt the butter! Just take it off from the fridge 1 hour before mixing, so that it is soft when you start mixing. After mixing milk caramel with butter, smear wafers (a bit thicker than I see it on your site, let's say 3mm), cover with a paper and put something heavy on it and set aside overnight. You can smear wafers only with caramel, without butter, you can also use differrent fillings. I gave 3 recipes more on my blog but today I will post a delicious filling, which requires powdered milk , a very delicious one! After night you cut wafers into diamonds. It tastes really great. If you have any questions, just ask :)
Best wishes and good luck!

ellabellabooblog said...

Hi, I was searching for the details of making this cake and I found your blog.
I am an Australian married to a Russian family (yes the whole family) and my mother in law makes this cake.
I rang her today to ask the details and she told me the basics but no detail hence the googling.
In her recipe you boil a can of sweetened condensed milk ( I was looking up the time - I think it was 4 hours) then mix it with butter (but when I asked how much butter she said you don't need it because it's not healthy - so again the googling) and lemon juice.
You spread the caramel mixture over the wafers and wrap it in tin foil. Leave it overnight and then cut into diamonds.
I guess that's pretty much what the polish lady was saying.
I'm off to boil. Thanks for the post.

Roxy said...

Hey Amanda!

I happen to be from the Ukraine.
This recipe is actually a VERY yummy and simple recipe when done right.

The can that the lady gave you was boiled condensed milk. You can also buy regular condensed milk and boil it.

You need to use 1 can of boiled condensed milk. Place it in a mixer and mix. Add 1/2 a stick of softened unsalted butter. You can also add 1 tea spoon of lemon juice.

Place enough of the cream on each layer to make the waffles stick. DO not place any cream on the top layer. Press the layers together. Allow to sit for a few hrs and eat!

These are soo yummy :) try this method see if u like them better...
Definitely don't melt the butter!


Planning to make this soon :)

Roxy said...

my correct URL :)

I will be posting a lot of Russian/Ukrainian recipes.

good luck!

Anonymous said...

My mother makes chocolate wafer cake with eggs,sugar heated up on stove, add butter and cocoa powder, stir, allow to cool and then spoon and spread onto wafers (rectangular shape). Refrigerate, then cut. Can then be eaten cold, or at room temperature. Melts in your mouth. If I could add a photo, I would.

Anonymous said...

Amanda, sent you an email with photographs of my mother's chocolate wafer cake.

Mila Furman said...

Amanda~ Hi! I made the waffle tort as well on www.girlandthekitchen.com! Mine is a little different, as all Russian recipes tend to be :) But I guess that's how our traditions stay in our family...
I always make mine on New Year's eve and I stumbled upon yours when I was looking at some other people's recipes for it. Take care and Happy New Year

Dawn said...

Amanda, where can I find the waffle wafers?

Amanda said...

Dawn, we found them at a Russian grocery store.

Dawn said...

Ok. Thank you very much.

Aly said...

I would highly recommend stacking these by 4's or 3's, Spread cooked condensed milk beaten with softened butter all over the wafer (to the edges) with a thin layer. Stack, press down with a heavy pan or something heavy and cut into diamond shapes. you can certainly skip the butter and Im sure the possibilities are plenty but do try it out again