Bear cake in the North with sour cream and praline cream

Step-by-step preparation

Cooking time: 2 hr 30 mins

1. STEP 1

   

   Products for preparing praline mass. You can make 2-3 servings in advance to save time in the future. Then you can experiment by adding this mass to any ready-made butter cream (at the rate of 2 tablespoons of praline mass per 100 g of butter), the main thing is to mix it thoroughly with the cream. The cream will be light brown or lilac in color, depending on the quality of the cocoa. If you put more mass, it will be more brown.

2. STEP 2

   

   Pour boiling water over the almonds for 1 minute, then drain the water and rinse the almonds with cold water. Now the husk will come off very easily.

3. STEP 3

   

   Fry walnuts or other nuts in a frying pan or in the oven until golden brown, cool and peel.

4. STEP 4

   

   Dry the almond kernels in a frying pan or in the oven until lightly golden (you can do this at the same time as the walnuts in different frying pans).

5. STEP 5

   

   Pour sugar into a small metal saucepan and add both types of nuts.

6. STEP 6

   

   Place over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spatula (to prevent the sugar from burning) until the sugar melts and turns a light yellow color.

7. STEP 7

   

   Place the hot sticky mixture carefully (so as not to burn yourself) onto a lightly greased baking sheet or plate. You will end up with a mass that looks like grilled meat. Cool it down.

8. STEP 8

   

   Crush the resulting solid mass in a mortar or break it into pieces. Then grind into powder using a coffee grinder (it's quick and easy). If you don’t have a coffee grinder, you will have to work hard - pass the mixture through a meat grinder several times. Skip for the penultimate time, add cocoa.

9. STEP 9

   

   You will get a beautiful coffee-colored powder with an amazing aroma! This is the praline mass! Place it in a jar, close the lid tightly and store (in hot weather - in the refrigerator), using it as needed.

10. STEP 10

    

    Products for dough

11. STEP 11

    

    First, mix the melted butter and sugar in a deep bowl.

12. STEP 12

    

    Then add sour cream and soda and mix again. Add half the flour and knead the dough.

13. STEP 13

    

    Divide the dough into two parts. Pour cocoa into one of them and stir.

14. STEP 14

    

    Add the remaining flour little by little to both parts of the dough until you get a soft, elastic dough. Sometimes not all the flour goes away, the amount depends on the thickness of the sour cream.

15. STEP 15

    

    Divide the dough of each color into 3 parts. Roll each piece into balls of the same size. You will get 6 balls.

16. STEP 16

    

    It is impossible to roll out the dough, so first press the ball of dough onto a board sprinkled with flour, forming a circle. Then transfer it to the pan and stretch it with floured fingers to the edges of the pan. This is easy to do. Then make several punctures with a fork in the crust so that it does not bubble when baking. Light cakes are baked quickly, 7-8 minutes at 200 degrees. Brown ones are a little faster.

17. STEP 17

    

    As you bake, trim each finished cake along the edge of the plate so that it has an even edge. This must be done while the cakes are hot and pliable, since when they cool, they become hard. Then dry the trimmings on a baking sheet in the oven.

18. STEP 18

    

    Products for sour cream. While the cakes are baking, beat the sour cream, gradually adding sugar. It should dissolve well.

19. STEP 19

    

    You will get 6 cakes: 3 white and 3 brown. Cool them down.

20. STEP 20

    

    Grease the cakes with sour cream and sprinkle with nuts (I took pre-fried and chopped walnuts, you can use any others). When assembling the cake, alternate between white cake and brown cake. Keep in mind that the topmost cake is brown. Do not cover it with cream!

21. STEP 21

    

    Since our cakes are quite hard, let’s let them soak thoroughly. If the sour cream is not greasy or thick, just leave the cake on the table until the morning to soak overnight. If the sour cream is fatty and thick, I recommend placing a board on the top cake and some kind of pressure on it. If you decide to bake a cake in the summer, in the heat, then you cannot leave it without a refrigerator for a long time - a maximum of 2 hours. Then put it in the refrigerator and let it sit for a day or a little more.

22. STEP 22

    

    Now prepare the butter cream. Thoroughly mix the softened butter with condensed milk.

23. STEP 23

    

    Then add 2 tablespoons of praline mass to the cream and mix thoroughly until smooth.

24. STEP 24

    

    Cover the top and sides of the cake with buttercream and praline mixture. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with breadcrumbs from oven-dried cake scraps ground in a coffee grinder. Decorate the cake as you wish. I decorated it with Umka like this, using chocolate melted in a water bath and white coconut flakes

25. STEP 25

    

    This is what our cake looks like in cross section. Prepare some tea or coffee and enjoy a healthy treat!

Comments on the recipe

Faith faith

03.10.2023

5

Mom with a sweet tooth, the cake turned out excellent! When I saw the name of the cake - Bear in the North, that’s exactly how I imagined it, that the cake would be decorated with Umka’s drawing made from coconut shavings. We thought about the decoration in exactly the same way.

mother of a sweet tooth

03.10.2023

5

Vera, thank you for your nice review! I'm glad that you and I think alike. From the very beginning of my acquaintance with our site, I have been a fan of your recipes and your ability to decorate dishes!

Maslova Tatyana

03.10.2023

4.7

How did I miss such a magnificent cake, especially with such a delicious praline? I'll add it to my bookmarks.

mother of a sweet tooth

03.10.2023

4.6

Thank you for your nice review! Cook for your health, Tatyana! I hope your son will appreciate it. As for praline at home: it became an incredibly pleasant and delicious discovery for me. I recommend everyone to try this deliciousness!

Oxan_ka

03.10.2023

4.7

I really want to make your cake, but please tell me what diameter the cakes should be?

Andrey

03.10.2023

4.6

Please tell me for a 26 cm mold what should be the calculation (for how many servings)