The cake in the USSR was more than a cake. It was the crown of the feast, the apogee of well-being. Therefore, they put a lot of everything in it: a lot of biscuits, nuts, jam, cream, from which pink, white and green roses were wrapped on top.
Historically, Russian cuisine has been characterized by a very limited use of sweets. On the mass, democratic table, even at the beginning of the 19th century, there were no cakes, creams or soufflés. At the same time, it is impossible to call Russian dessert meager. The word “dessert” meant jellies, mousses, jelly, puddings, pies, pancakes and fruits - say, baked apples or white bread croutons with canned fruit. But the cake was practically not perceived as a dessert. In cookbooks you could only find a cake made from cookies or cottage cheese. Cake as such did not immediately enter the diet of Soviet people. Look, in the 1939 “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” there are only two mentions of it: “cookie cake” and “curd cake.” Both of them leave a strange impression of dishes assembled from improvised means. But already in the 1953 edition everything falls into place. The familiar sponge cakes, almond, lemon, shortbread, vanilla, etc. appear.
So little by little, elegant desserts are conquering the tastes of Russians. And since the mid-50s, cake in the USSR has been an indispensable attribute of the festive table. The names alone were worth it: “Napoleon”, “Fairy Tale”, “Apricotine”, “Cornucopia”. Soviet cakes were pompous, as if they created an image of the “sweet” socialist life. Needless to say, Soviet cooking was quite successful in creating this feeling. At that time, cake was more than just a sweet dessert, it was a symbol of well-being and prosperity. These biscuits with butter roses are still preserved today. The main thing is to buy them in a trusted place, where they honestly make the cream from butter, and not from margarine.
Cake "Kyiv"
In 1956, workers of the Kyiv confectionery factory named after. Karl Marx Konstantin Petrenko and Nadezhda Chernogor create a Soviet sweet legend - the Kyiv cake. It consisted of airy nut cakes, in which up to 5 varieties of nuts were used. In addition, pre-fermented proteins were used to prepare the cakes. In the mid-1960s, the technology for the production of “Kyiv” cake was approved by the USSR Ministry of Food Industry. In accordance with that recipe, the product included cashew nuts. It was a rather expensive ingredient, clearly not typical for Soviet cooking. So gradually the cashews in the Kiev cake recipe were replaced with hazelnuts. Which will soon be replaced by cheap peanuts. In the 70s, at the request of health officials, egg cream (known as Charlotte cream) in this cake was replaced with butter cream (heavier and richer). And in the late 80s, cheap vegetable fats, palm oil, etc. began to be added to it (as well as to all other cream cakes). So now it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to try that same “Kiev” cake.
“White Night”, “Nord”, “Aurora”, “Leningradsky”, “Nevsky”
In the 70s, a new boom began in the USSR. Cakes are taken out, hunted for, brought back from business trips to Kyiv and Leningrad, where a more restrained style flourishes. Cafe “Nord” on Nevsky is a landmark place for the city, which has remained so for a hundred years. In Soviet times, a wonderful technologist, Victoria Tatarskaya, worked here, the creator of legendary cakes and pastries with characteristic Leningrad names: “White Night”, “Lunar”, “Nord”, “Slavic”, “Aurora”, “North”, “Leningradsky”, "Nevsky", "Lotos". So a simple cake became the calling card of the city.
"Bird's milk"
In 1978, a group of confectioners under the leadership of the head of the confectionery department of the Moscow restaurant "Prague" Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik created a recipe for the Bird's Milk cake. And although the cake recipe quickly spread to restaurants and factories, it was the most delicious in the confectionery of the Prague restaurant. Since the early 80s, a line of buyers lined up along Arbat every day. And it was worth it! Strictly maintained recipe (egg white, condensed milk, agar-agar) and cooking technology; a layer of airy sponge cake, an airy soufflé and a thin layer of chocolate - all this brought the cake its worthy fame. At first, the workshop produced 50-60 cakes a day, but soon production had to be increased to 500 pieces. And the recipe itself was distributed throughout the USSR through Mosrestorantrest.
"Prague"
The history of the origin of another famous cake, “Prague,” is also connected with the mentioned restaurant. “Prague” was very labor-intensive and not cheap, as it included four types of buttercream made with cognac and Chartreuse and Benedictine liqueurs, and the cakes were soaked in rum. In principle, the Soviet Prague cake is a variation on the theme of the Viennese Sacher cake, but in the recipe for the latter there is no cream.
Waffle cake
The most accessible and cheapest in the USSR were waffle cakes. There was no shortage of them, and they cost 50 kopecks.
"Fairy tale"
Another popular decoration for the holiday table of Soviet citizens was the “Fairy Tale” cake: a brick-shaped sponge cake was decorated with a cream hedgehog, stump and mushrooms on top. This pleasure cost 1 ruble 90 kopecks.
"Sorceress"
In April 1973, the Cheryomushki confectionery and bakery plant was put into operation. In 1976, on a specialized line of this enterprise, production of the first shelf-stable sponge cake in the USSR, “Enchantress,” began.
In the USSR, it was impossible to introduce a new cake to the domestic market without the approval of the Unified Tasting Council of the USSR Ministry of Food and Trade. This body approved new recipes for Soviet cakes and decided whether the product was worthy of being on the table of the Soviet consumer. At the same time, they strictly monitored the ingredients of the recipe - deviation from them was a criminal matter. Butter, real eggs, natural sugar, animal cream... Today we have to figure it out ourselves and try to distinguish the “correct” cake from the one that looks beautiful, but tastes bad. The choice of cakes is rich - budget and luxury, high-calorie and dietary, kefir and fruit. But when tested, many turn out to be tasteless or cloyingly sweet. This is probably why in recent years, recipes for Soviet cakes have been carefully collected and published on the Internet, in magazines and books. True, then some people complain that buying ingredients costs more than buying a cake. How else? After all, what we do ourselves and what we buy in the store today are two big differences.
