Kiev Cake- Ukraine #85

Kiev Cake- Ukraine #85

Made in Kiev, Ukraine, since 1956 by the Karl Marx Confectionery Factory.
This cake has two airy layers of meringue with hazelnuts, chocolate glaze, and a butter cream filling.

Sponge Cake:

5 eggs
3/4 sugar
1 c. flour

Meringue:

6 egg whites
1-1/3 c. sugar
1 c. hazelnuts, chopped
2 c. jam, strawberry or apricot

Cream filling:

6 egg yolks
1/3 c. water
8 T. condensed milk
3 oz. chocolate chips
400 g. butter, room temperature

1. Sponge Cake: Preheat oven 350F.  Grease and flour 9" round springform pan.
2. Beat 5 eggs with sugar until it's 3 times in volume.
3. Using a spatula, fold in flour by thirds, be very gentle with the batter so you don't over mix it and lose the fluffiness. Pour into prepared pan. 
4. Meringue: Whip egg whites until they are doubled in volume, add sugar.
5. Whip until it becomes thick.
6. Using a spatula, mix in the hazelnuts, stirring in a circular motion, lightly mixing the ingredients.
7. Place the mixture into the 9"springform pan, lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake 250F for 6 hours.
9. Cream filling:  Beat egg yolks, add water and condensed milk. Stir until smooth.
10. Cook all ingredients on a very low heat, continually stirring.  Do not bring to a boil. Continue cooking until mixture has the texture of condensed milk.
11. Remove the mixture from the heat and add chocolate to it. Let it melt and blend in throughly. Cool completely,
12. Add butter to the cream mixture and mix well.
13. Assembling: Slice the cake horizontally, as thin as you can, into several layers.
14. Cover each layer with jam, excluding the top.
15. Begin layering the cake by covering the bottom layer cream on top of the jam, followed by meringue, followed by cream, repeat.
16. Cover the top layer with remaining cream. I added cocoa and melted chocolate to the remaining cream for a chocolate frosting.

Results: It tasted very good and people were impressed with the appearance. Then I sliced it and it became a mess. Even though that happened, I would still make it again. No one cared how messy it looked.

Bottom Line: This is not a difficult cake to make. It looks very impressive. However, when I cut into it fell apart due to the meringue layer, which is very fragile. The directions say to slice the cake horizontally into several layers.  I'm not very good at that, so I only sliced it once creating 2 layers. The 6 hours baking for the meringue really cuts into a day. I suggest making this on a day that you have no other plans, also, start in the morning. I didn't have enough frosting for the sides so they were bare.

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