Bird's milk description. Bird's milk cake with soufflé and chocolate glaze according to GOST

In the late 70s, the Bird's Milk cake suddenly became the most popular cake in the USSR overnight. From the very morning, dozens of people gathered at the Prague restaurant who wanted to buy it. In those years, the recipe was kept in the strictest confidence, but today anyone can prepare that legendary “Bird's Milk” cake, which today can hardly be found in stores.

History of creation

The Bird's Milk cake saw the light of day thanks to the legendary pastry chef of the Prague restaurant, Vladimir Guralnik. He literally revolutionized the world of cooking because he started using agar-agar, and no one had used it in this area before. Today, agar-agar is very widespread in cooking; for example, newfangled molecular cuisine is impossible without the use of agar-agar.

Cakes for cake "Bird's milk"

The classic cake crust was invented by Guralnik himself. Today it is used less and less, but has not been completely forgotten. The classic crust is very similar to cake dough and is prepared according to almost the same recipe. For the Bird's Milk cake, you need to prepare two layers of dough. For one layer you will need (for a mold with a diameter of more than 26 cm):

• 100 grams of sugar;
• 100 grams of melted butter;
• 2 eggs;
• 150 grams of sifted flour;
• vanilla to taste.

In order to prepare the crust, you need:

1. Cream melted butter and sugar. In order for the butter to melt thoroughly and become soft, it must be taken out of the refrigerator 2 hours before cooking. If you don't have two hours, you can cut the butter into very small pieces and leave it on the board for 10 minutes. During this time it will have time to melt slightly. Beat butter and sugar with a mixer at medium speed.
2. Add vanilla and eggs to the mixture, beat until done.
3. Add the sifted flour, beat for 2-3 minutes, and then knead with a spoon until tender.

The dough is ready! Now you need to spoon it in and put it in an oven preheated to 230 degrees. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Recipe for Bird's Milk cake according to GOST

After you have prepared the cakes, you can start preparing the Bird's Milk cake itself. According to GOST, the cake takes about 2 hours to prepare. To make the soufflé, you will need the following ingredients:

• 2 egg whites;
• 4 grams of agar-agar soaked in 150 ml of water;
• 450 grams of sugar;
• 1 teaspoon citric acid;
• 200 grams of butter;
• 150 grams of condensed milk (boiled can also be used);
• vanilla to taste.

It is extremely difficult to prepare a soufflé correctly the first time, because the Bird's Milk cake has many pitfalls. The classic recipe according to GOST involves soaking agar-agar and then heating it to a certain temperature. To prepare the soufflé you need:

1. Beat butter and condensed milk, add vanillin.
2. The agar-agar water must be left for several hours. Then, in a thick-bottomed saucepan, bring the agar-agar and water to a boil, constantly stirring thoroughly with a spatula. You need to boil for a minute, then add all the sugar and start stirring. Over medium heat, bring sugar with water and agar to a boil; as soon as the mass doubles, remove from heat. If there is a thread behind the spatula, the syrup is ready.
3. Leave the syrup for 10-15 minutes.
4. Beat the whites in a deep bowl, add citric acid and beat for another 5 minutes.
5. Pour the syrup into the bowl in a thin stream, whisking constantly. After adding all the syrup, the mass should increase several times in volume. You need to beat the soufflé until very thick.
6. Add whipped butter and condensed milk to the soufflé (step 1), beat for several minutes.

Then place one cake layer in a springform cake pan. Pour half the soufflé, place another layer on top, pour the other half of the soufflé. Place Bird's Milk in the refrigerator to harden for several hours. The cake according to GOST is ready!

Recipe with gelatin

Cake "Bird's milk" according to GOST with gelatin is more popular today, since it is quite difficult to find agar-agar. But with gelatin, the cake is completely different from the one that was once prepared in the Prague restaurant. It will rather resemble candy.

To make a cake with gelatin, you can use the recipe for agar, but replace it with 20 grams of gelatin. It should also be soaked for several hours in 150 ml of water.

It is worth considering that a cake with gelatin hardens for several hours longer than with agar-agar.

Recipe with vodka

According to GOST, Bird's Milk cake with vodka is not very popular today, but it turns out very tasty.

Ingredients for soufflé:

• low-fat cottage cheese - 250 g;
• eggs - 3 pcs.;
• vanilla - to taste;
• Grated zest of 1 lemon;
• cherry vodka - 30 ml;
• sugar - 80 g;
• fresh cherries - 20 pcs.;

In order to prepare the soufflé, you need:

1. Beat low-fat cottage cheese, egg yolks, vanilla.
2. Add grated lemon zest and cherry vodka. Mix everything thoroughly.
3. Beat the egg whites in another bowl, add sugar. Add the egg whites and sugar to the curd mixture a little at a time and beat thoroughly.
4. Remove the pits from the vishu. You can cut the cherries in half.
5. Fill the springform pan with the resulting soufflé and add the cherries. Place in an oven preheated to 220 degrees for 25 minutes.

There is also an unusual recipe for Bird's Milk cake. The cake according to GOST is ready! When serving the soufflé, you can top it with cherry or

Colored cake with three layers

The "Bird's Milk" cake (GOST USSR) was originally a classic white cake. Today, both confectioners and housewives are trying to change recipes and introduce something new. For example, it has become fashionable to prepare “Bird's milk” from three layers instead of two or one. To do this, use three different colors of soufflé. The soufflé prepared according to the classic recipe is laid out in three cups, and gel food coloring is added to each. The cake turns out to be very interesting in appearance, but the taste remains almost unchanged, except that there is a little more dough.

How to decorate

Chocolate glaze was most often used to decorate the Bird's Milk cake according to GOST. I didn’t know either mastic, marzipan, or marshmallow. But today, grocery and confectionery stores offer a huge number of decorations for confectionery products. Therefore, even a homemade cake can look like a restaurant one.

• Decoration with chocolate icing and marshmallows. Heat 190ml cream and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat, add dark or milk chocolate chips, and then stir until the chocolate is liquefied. Add 30-40 grams of butter, stir for a few more minutes. Leave the glaze to cool for 5 minutes, pour the glaze over the cake. Place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and sprinkle small marshmallows on top. Place in the refrigerator until completely frozen.

• Decorating the cake with fondant. Mastic today is quite widely used in confectionery. After all, you can mold anything from it! 1 kg of white mastic can cost about 300-400 rubles. To cover a cake with a diameter of 26-28 cm with a thin layer (it needs to be rolled out quite thinly so that it does not spoil the taste of the cake) you will need about 400-700 grams. The mastic can be painted or you can buy it already colored. Cakes with this coating are usually decorated with edible glitter and sprinkles. In order to glue them, you need to use a special pastry glue.

When decorating a cake, it is important to use your imagination. You can get inspired by pictures from culinary magazines, books, etc.

Although since childhood I did not understand where birds get their milk from, I have always loved sweets and a cake with that name. It is so tender and sweet, it just melts in your mouth and you don’t feel at all that you haven’t even eaten the first bite. The whole secret is that soufflé cake “Bird's Milk”, as in the recipe with photo below, contains a lot of butter, and this makes it very tender. And it's not that difficult to prepare, especially the dough and glaze. But with the soufflé you need to do everything right. The Bird's Milk recipe is a recipe for a classic cake which I associate with photo , always hanging in my grandmother’s kitchen, but it also has several different variations. But they mainly differ only in the addition of different ingredients for taste in the soufflé itself, so look at my version and you will be able to make Bird's Milk cake and other recipes with step-by-step photos.

Cake "Bird's Milk" with agar-agar

Kitchen appliances: mixer, spoon, cake molds of different diameters, baking sheet, oven, saucepan, bowls.

Ingredients

Cooking process

First stage

• yolks;
• 70 g butter;
  
• baking powder;
  
• 70 g sugar;
  
• flour.

Second phase

• 100 g butter;
• condensed milk;
• 270 g sugar;
• agar-agar;
• 100 ml water.

Third stage

• cream;
  
• chocolate.

Video recipe for making Bird's Milk cake with agar-agar at home

There are quite a lot of different details in the recipe, so,so as not to make any mistakes, watch this video and find out how make a cake "Bird's milk" " So you will see how to prepare a soufflé, make Bird's Milk cream for the cake and icing for it.

How to decorate the Bird's Milk cake

It is very convenient to draw on the frozen soufflé and glaze, so you can decorate the cake in any way you imagine. Take a pastry bag with colorful cream or just white chocolate, and draw patterns, flowers or write congratulations. Draw different animals or cartoon characters if you are preparing a cake for children. Or simply decorate it with pieces of white or dark chocolate, candy or cookies. Anything you can imagine can be done with this cake.

• The cake layer should be smaller than the cake pan so that the soufflé can be poured evenly.
• Pour the souffle without delay, as it hardens very quickly.
• Do not use the ingredients while they are hot; let them cool until warm so as not to spoil the cake.

What to serve with

We usually serve cakes with hot drinks. I love to eat this cake with black coffee, and my husband always prefers tea. Children can prepare cocoa or hot chocolate for it, the main thing is not to overdo it with sweetness. You can simply pour a glass of compote or juice, or take a carbonated drink from the store.

Other options

If you don’t have agar-agar in your kitchen, then you can replace it and easily make it, and it will turn out no worse. And at the same time, the soufflé itself can be made chocolate, coffee or honey, if you make a different cream for it. Or even make it and get a taste from childhood. If you miss your favorite sweets, then it’s not so difficult to make them yourself, if you want.

Did you get the cake? Is the soufflé tender and sweet? How did you decorate it and what did you serve it with? Tell it all in the comments.

For the crust you will need:

• 6 egg yolks;
• 100 gr. Sahara;
• baking powder or baking soda - 1 teaspoon;
• 100 grams of butter;
• 200 grams of flour.

In the soufflé you need:

• 6 egg whites;
• 120 ml water; 380 gr. Sahara;
• 150 gr. butter;
• 10 gr. agar-agar or 20 gr. gelatin;
• 1/3 teaspoon citric acid;
• 50 gr. condensed milk.

The glaze contains:

• 75 grams of butter;
• 100 grams of bitter dark chocolate;
• 20 grams of powdered sugar.

Historical reference

Bird's Milk cake is one of the popular desserts in the post-Soviet space; it has been the crown of the table on New Year's Eve since the early 60s of the twentieth century. Standing in line for several hours for this masterpiece was the norm, and coming to visit with it was considered a sign of the highest esteem.

It all started with a decree “To do something similar, but according to the original recipe,” from the Minister of Food Industry of the USSR, when he tried “Ptasje Mlečko” - Czechoslovak sweets. The result was an interpretation in the form of a soufflé cake, the author of which was Vladimir Guralnik, a pastry chef at the legendary Prague restaurant.

The creator had to experiment for 6 months, but the result was justified, since his original recipe for “Bird's milk cake” received a certificate for production permission in any factory. In parallel with this, the state awarded Vladimir a prize of one thousand rubles, and in those days this amount was a large reward.

It is noteworthy that there are no identical analogues in the world, but there are several similar desserts using semolina, lemon and gelatin. There is even a raw food cake without baking.

Step-by-step preparation of a cake at home

1. Soak agar-agar in cold water for 2-4 hours.

1. Place the separated whites from the yolks in the refrigerator; they will be used for the soufflé.
2. Pour 100 grams of sugar into the prepared deep container along with the separated yolks and beat for about three minutes.
3. Then add all the flour, baking powder and softened butter according to the recipe.
4. Mix the ingredients until smooth, but beat for no more than one minute so that the dough does not lose its fluffiness.

There are two ways to prepare the pan: lightly grease it or line it with parchment paper. This procedure is necessary so that the cake does not burn, and after baking it is well separated from the mold.

Transfer the dough into the mold, level it into an even layer and place it in a frying oven heated to 200 degrees for 15 minutes. Do not open the oven as the sponge cake will settle. The baked sponge cake needs to be cooled, removed from the mold and divided into two cake layers.

Now let’s take care of the soufflé, the “bird’s milk”.

1. Pour condensed milk and softened butter into a deep bowl, beat until fluffy and set aside.
2. Place a saucepan with agar in water on low heat and stir until completely dissolved.
3. As soon as the agar begins to boil, add sugar and begin stirring thoroughly until the sugar dissolves and boils.
4. At the moment of boiling, add citric acid to the mixture and heat to 110 degrees, then turn off the stove.
5. Immediately after preparing the syrup, remove the egg whites from the refrigerator and beat in a very large container until a fluffy snow-white consistency is formed.
6. Pour warm syrup into it in a thin stream, while not stopping the whipping process, but rather add maximum mixer power.
7. After the volume of the protein mass increases several times and its structure becomes denser, we reduce the rotational force of the machine, but continue to beat for another two minutes, simulating the infinity sign with the mixer.
8. Without ceasing to stir, add the previously prepared mass of butter and condensed milk with a tablespoon. At the moment of whipping, the mass will begin to settle a little - this is normal.

It's time to put the cake pieces together. Sprinkle the bottom of the springform pan with powdered sugar, then place one cake layer, half the soufflé mixture on top, then another cake layer and the remaining mixture.

Make a smooth surface with a spoon and place in the refrigerator until the soufflé hardens completely. As a rule, this takes 20-40 minutes, but to be sure you should leave it for an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze:

1. Place the existing chocolate, softened butter and powdered sugar into a small saucepan.
2. Place in a water bath and heat, stirring until dissolved. A temperature of 40-50 degrees will be enough, since the glaze should under no circumstances boil, as the consistency will change from liquid-like to plasticine-like.

Pour glaze over the already frozen surface of the cake and leave it in the refrigerator until the chocolate glaze completely hardens. We carefully release the finished masterpiece from the mold and cut it into portions with a hot knife.

If desired, you can decorate the cake with berries, protein cream, or simply sprinkle with chocolate chips. The classic Bird's Milk cake is ready - you can enjoy tea in pleasant company.

The history of the Bird's Milk cake originates in Poland. It was there that in 1936 they produced candies with a semi-airy filling, which were made according to the marshmallow recipe, only without adding eggs. Later these sweets became popular throughout Eastern Europe. Having visited Czechoslovakia in 1967 and tasted these sweets, the USSR Minister of Food Industry was greatly impressed by their taste. Upon his arrival in the USSR, he immediately gathered representatives of all the large confectionery factories of the Soviet Union in Moscow and gave them the task of reproducing these candies according to the sample he had brought.

These sweets were best reproduced by the Vladivostok confectionery factory under the leadership of technologist Anna Chulkova, who subsequently received the main order for the production of these sweets, the production volume reached 35 tons per month. A distinctive feature of the sweets produced by the Vladivostok confectionery factory was the use of the ingredient agar-agar, obtained from seaside algae, in the recipe. It was this ingredient that gave these sweets their most delicate consistency. These sweets were called "Bird's Milk".

The history of the name "Bird's Milk" is associated with ancient myths and legends, according to which birds of paradise fed their chicks with incredibly tasty bird's milk. At a time when people believed in legends, girls sent unwanted suitors into the desert in search of bird's milk, but those, exhausted by the search for a non-existent product, died of fatigue and thirst. It is known that bird's milk does not exist, but the idea of ​​it as something incredibly tasty formed the basis for the name of the Bird's Milk candies. The candies have an airy and delicate texture and amazing taste, which is why they are called “Bird's milk”, in honor of the fabulous and unattainable ingredient that people have been looking for for so long.

After the successful production of candies, the history of the Bird's Milk cake took a new turn in 1955 in the Moscow restaurant Prague, named after the tenth anniversary of the liberation of Prague, when 16-year-old Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik came to work there. It was he who, a little later, in 1974, came up with the recipe for this cake.

The idea of ​​​​making a cake appeared after Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik tried Bird's Milk candies, which he really liked. Then he and his team began working on the cake recipe. The process took more than 6 months. Vladimir Mikhailovich wanted the bottom of the cake to be made from an unusual dough, as a result of which a semi-finished pastry product was created. In the process of searching for the ideal recipe, I had to boil the filling for a long time, because the melting point of agar-agar is about 120 degrees Celsius, as a result, the optimal temperature was found - 117 degrees Celsius. In the process of searching for the perfect recipe for the Bird's Milk cake, the chefs from Guralnik's team added and removed ingredients, tasted them, and noted the best options. After six months, the perfect recipe turned out. To decorate the cake, a simple and correct solution was found - pour chocolate over the entire cake and decorate it with a bird. But the story of the Bird's Milk cake does not end there.

Producing 50 cakes a day, the Prague restaurant workshop simply could not cope with the growing demand. Then the capacity was increased to 500 pieces, but this was not enough. Thanks to this success, Mosrestorantrest spread the cake recipe throughout the USSR. In addition to the surprisingly delicate taste, this cake has another important advantage - it can be stored for up to 4 days at room temperature. This useful property simplified its delivery, storage and sale.

The Bird's Milk cake became incredibly popular in the USSR; every housewife tried to reproduce this amazing confectionery product in her kitchen, but not everyone succeeded. In 1980, Vladimir Mikhailovich Guralnik received a patent for its production, which became the first patent for a cake during the entire existence of the USSR. True, only the name of the cake remained assigned to the author, and its recipe became a national treasure.

The history of this cake continues to this day - now it is no less popular than before, it can be found in any store in various versions.

When I finally decided to bake Bird’s Milk, I, of course, looked through the Internet. My God! Perhaps no cake can boast so many “real” and “correct” recipes. Starting from a seventeen-egg cake and ending with Guralnik’s “original” recipe from memory, apparently rewritten by a journalist. In general, it's a terrible thing. Without in any way wanting to offend the authors of the recipes, I nevertheless want to note that the correct recipes were also found.
Story. The cake was invented by Vladimir Guralnik, a pastry chef from the Prague restaurant. Again, there is a lot of speculation. A typical example: Guralnik made a revolution by using agar, but in the confectionery industry no one used agar, only gelatin. I’ll say right away - it’s nonsense. The pastry chef borrowed the recipe from the factory, processing it into a more delicate, cake soufflé. Gelatin, however, was not used in our industry, since it loses its properties when heated. They produced quite a lot of agar, and not only soufflés were made with it, but also creams, such as “Charlotte” or protein.

By the way, the soufflé was sponsored, and it is included in several cakes according to GOST. But pay attention - it was “Bird's Milk” that became the favorite cake of many sweet lovers and, I would say, a kind of symbol of the then cake industry. The soufflé recipe can be found in reference books, the cake recipe is more rare, but I was lucky - I still found it in one of the dozen books I ordered.

About technology. Whipped egg whites brewed with agar-molasses-sugar syrup are used as the basis for the soufflé. It is boiled to a temperature of 117-118C, cooled and the whites are poured in, as when preparing Italian meringue. True, in Italian meringue the syrup is heated to 120C, but in our case, agar at this temperature loses its gelling ability. Since it is almost impossible to get starch syrup (what a Soviet word, alas!), you can replace it with sugar. What will change? Only that the molasses prevented the syrup from sugaring, and without molasses at 118C it quickly crystallizes and, unfortunately, the soufflé can turn out with grains. Therefore, we will only boil to 110C.
By the way, many recipes from the Internet are guilty of just this - molasses was simply crossed out from the list of ingredients, which means it takes longer to boil the syrup, and there is less sugar per protein.
Agar, unlike gelatin, hardens already at 40C. Therefore, butter and condensed milk must be mixed into the whites quickly, without waiting for them to cool, otherwise the structure of the soufflé will be disrupted.

Here I want to say again that sugar syrups are boiled over medium or high heat, sugar-agar - on medium, and with constant stirring. The agar must be soaked in warm water in advance, and then boiled until it is completely dissolved. Sugar interferes with the dissolution of the agar, and therefore sugar is added to the already prepared solution.

In general, the soufflé is very simple to prepare, and (if you have agar) you will succeed. In this recipe, agar cannot be replaced with gelatin. If you want to replace it, add the gelatin solution to the prepared sugar syrup, allowing it to cool slightly. Although I haven’t tried to do this myself.

Cakes:
100g butter
100g sugar
2 eggs
140g flour
vanilla extract

Souffle:
2 egg whites (60g)
460g sugar
1\2 tsp. citric acid
2 tsp. without a slide of agar
200g butter
100g condensed milk
vanillin or vanilla extract

Glaze:
75g chocolate
50g butter

Mold with a diameter of 25cm or more
the extract can be replaced with vanilla sugar, ground into powder

Cakes. The dough is like for a cupcake. Beat the butter with fine sugar, add eggs, vanilla and beat until the sugar dissolves white.

Add flour and knead the dough.

Spread into two circles around the diameter of the mold.

Bake at 230C for 10 minutes. If the cakes are too big, trim them right away. Cool without removing from the paper.

Place the cooled cake in the mold and start preparing the soufflé.
Soak the agar in 140 ml of water for several hours.

Butter and condensed milk for cream should be at room temperature. Beat them into a cream, add vanilla extract and set aside (not in the refrigerator).

Bring the water and agar to a boil over low heat, stirring thoroughly with a flat spatula so that the agar is completely dissolved and does not burn. Boil for a minute. Add sugar.

Place on medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. As soon as the syrup increases in volume and white foam appears, remove from heat.

Test the thread - tear the spatula off the surface of the syrup, a thin thread will follow it. This means the syrup is ready.

Cool the syrup to 80C. Meanwhile, beat the chilled egg whites in a large bowl until a stiff pattern forms on the surface. Add citric acid and beat until thick.

Pour hot syrup into the whites in a thin stream, the mass will greatly increase in volume.

Beat until thick.

Mix the butter with condensed milk, turning the mixer to low speed. Once mixed, the soufflé is ready.
Pour half the soufflé into the cake pan...

Place another layer on top and pour over the soufflé again. Place in the refrigerator to harden for 3-4 hours.

Melt the chocolate with butter and pour the glaze over the cake. Let it harden.

If necessary, apply a drawing.

Run a knife around the edge of the cake and open the pan. Ready!

By the way, what to do if there is no agar? This cake can be made without agar at all, the soufflé will be denser, more viscous, and not even a soufflé at all, but the taste will be the same! Just add half a teaspoon of citric acid to the boiled syrup and boil it to 117C (soft ball, see the lipstick recipe for details). Pour the syrup over the whites, cool to 30-36C and stir in the condensed butter cream so that it does not melt. By the way, I like this much better!