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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Cake layers

I am up early to sneak onto the computer to get this post done for you all so my husband can get back to work this morning before we head into the office! The jobs all come at once... you know how it is!

Okay so back to the WAFER CAKE:

Today we are going to do the layers. You have already made your Cooked Sweet Milk and it has cooled over night. So now get out your mixer or you can do this by hand if you wish but I LOVE my KitchenAid mixer.

Start by putting your cooked sweet milk into the bowl and add a half a stick of butter. Mix until well blended!

While that is blending get our your Waffle Wafers and get one ready with Waffle side up. I placed mine on some nice parchment paper on a cake carrier. There are two sides to your waffle sheets and one is smooth; the smooth side should be down and the waffle side should face up to you.

Once your sweet milk is nicely blended with your butter or margarine is fine as well (if you use margarine be sure to use baking margarine not tub margarine), we are ready to begin layering. our some of your milk mixture onto the wafer sheet and gently begin spreading your milk from the middle outward towards the edges! Make sure to get your filling right to the edges. I even let mine drip off a bit... that made it look really pretty anyway!

Using a really nice spreader knife is very helpful. Luckily my Mother In Law had one I could use but if you do not have one just use a nice butter knife. It will take a bit more time but it will work!

While I was preparing the next layers my Mother In Law read to me all of the Ukrainian traditions for Easter from her book... It was a really nice touch to the evening!

I made two layers with the sweet milk and the traditional way is to make all the layers this way but I wanted to incorporate a different layer that I thought we would all enjoy. So I made a chocolate and peanut butter layer. You cannot do this ahead of time... you must do it as you are about to use it if you decide to do this also as it gets too thick if it cools!

Taking 12oz of chocolate chips (any kind or style will do) I used a mixture for this cake of milk chocolate and white chocolate chips and a half a stick of margarine you want to slowly melt this on a double boiler. Make sure you stir constantly and do not have your heat too high or you will over cook your chocolate. Once mostly melted add a cup of peanut butter. Melt until smooth!

Now begin to layer again in the same fashion as before with your peanut butter layer. I did two layers like this on the cake.

Now finish he layering with the rest of your sweet milk! I used 1 1/2 packages of Wafers for my cake but you can make it higher or lower as you see fit! There are not rules to this!

Finish with a Wafer on the top with no filling! Now you need to place a nice heavy cutting board and a bowl of water or a heavy baking dish on the top and let it sit in the fridge over night... a minimum of two hours if that is all you have but over night is best! You need the layers to combine with the wafers and harden to hold the wafers together. The board and bowl help to keep your cake flat until they bind and harden otherwise your cake will warp and edges will curl!

You can count your cake as finished at this point if you like and simply let it cool and then serve cut into pieces but I wanted to make mine into a birthday cake so I wanted a top icing and decorations... I made a chocolate ganache for my icing! I only did the top of the cake as I wanted the pretty edges and layers to show!

For your ganache you need equal parts of heavy cream (Whipping cream) and chocolate... I used semi sweet chocolate for this.

All you do is heat your cream to a boil and remove from heat immediately. Have your chocolate in a different bowl waiting and slowly pour your hot cream over the chocolate. Mixing as you go and mix until the chocolate is completely melted! It will be thick and lovely! Now do the same thing as all the other layers and pour onto your cake top, smoothing it from the middle outward towards the edges. 

Let cool over night! It will be shiny and taste light and delicious!

Do any decorations the way you like and your cake is ready to serve! My Mother In Law did the top decorating with butter cream icing that she handmade... I was not feeling well so never got to see this part being done but here is the final image of the finished cake...

Everyone loved it... it was light and delicious and surprisingly not too sweet or heavy! A really lovely cake that I would recommend for any occasion! Easter would be a fabulous time for this cake!

I celebrated my birthday at the same time even though mine is not for a couple of weeks yet... April 5th when I will be turning 45yrs old. But I wanted to share the cake that was purchased for me this year! I requested it as I had never had an ice cream cake before... A Reese ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and it was FABULOUS and even better it went great with the Wafer cake too!

It was a really lovely day and I hope you will get a chance to try out the cake recipe too sometime. Just remember that although this cake is really easy to make... you need a few days to do it properly so this is not a last minute cake! But it is worth all the waiting!

Here is a piece for you... THANKS for joining me here to see how to make a traditional (with a twist) Ukrainian wafer layer cake!




2 comments:

  1. Definitly want to try this! Where can I purchase the wafers?

    ReplyDelete