Welcome everyone to my blog! Everyone loves a variety of sweets and treats, and pastry is one of my favorites. When I prepare such dishes, the joy of children and relatives knows no bounds. Turtle cake reminds us of the famous taste of childhood. Preparing this dessert is very simple, quick and does not require any special skills.
Just follow the step by step instructions and respect the proportions. I am sure that you will get wonderful results. One of the conditions is to use only fresh and high-quality products. I hope everything will be clear to you and you will prepare an amazing dessert for the whole family.
By the way, when preparing sour cream, you can adjust the calorie content of the finished product. When using sour cream with 10% fat content, the finished product will contain 224 kcal per 100g. Of course, if you reduce the amount of sugar, you can further reduce this indicator.
The simplest recipe for Turtle cake with sour cream
An excellent baking option for both novice cooks and experienced cooks. The speed and ease of preparing the dessert are its main features. You just have to adhere to the order of actions and established proportions.
Having created the base, you can add originality to your work by decorating with chocolate, fruit, syrup or jam.
Ingredients for flatbreads:
- chicken eggs - 4 pieces
- sugar – 1 standard faceted glass
- vanillin – 1 sachet
- baking powder for dough – 1 teaspoon or slaked soda – 0.5 teaspoon
- salt - a small pinch
- flour – 1.5 cups
For cream:
- sour cream – 500-600 g (depending on fat content)
- sugar – 1 tablespoon
For decoration:
- in this case chocolate, but you can show your imagination and take what you like
Preparation procedure:
1. First of all, I advise you to prepare the oven. Check that there is nothing unnecessary there, and immediately turn on the heating. The optimal temperature for making flatbreads is 180 degrees.
2. Wash and dry each egg and break them into a bowl. Pour sugar in there too. Next we need to beat all this stuff.
You can do this with a mixer or a regular whisk. Bring until the mixture in the bowl turns white.
3. Having achieved a white, dense foam in a bowl, you need to add vanillin and baking powder. The latter can be replaced with slaked soda.
4. Finally, it's time to add the flour. Add it gradually, in small portions. At the same time, without stopping whisking the mass. We achieve the consistency of the dough, as for pancakes.
There are different types of flour. Therefore, if you feel that this amount is not enough, add a few more spoons.
The main thing is that the dough is not liquid and our cakes do not spread too much on the baking sheet.
5. So, let's start baking cakes for the base of the cake. Cover the sheet with baking paper. Usually I oil it a little. In this case, our products will definitely not burn. Because we have no oil at all in the dough.
6. Take a teaspoon and use it to place the preparations on a baking sheet. Of course, at a distance from each other.
Remember that during baking, they will increase in both height and width.
Why is it worth making small cakes? Firstly, because it will be easier to lay out the cake itself and it will look much more beautiful. Secondly, this way the baked goods will be better saturated with cream and will be much tastier.
7. As soon as you fill the entire surface of the baking sheet, immediately send it to the oven. Undoubtedly, she has already warmed up perfectly. Now you understand why the stage of its inclusion was the first.
If you have a good oven, the baking process will take about 5 minutes, otherwise wait a little longer.
You will understand everything when you take the flatbreads out of the oven, they should be browned. Just in case, try piercing one with a toothpick and checking if it is baked. After collecting the finished products on a plate, place the next batch on a baking sheet.
Assembling the Turtle Cake
8. Since we are making a Turtle cake with sour cream, it’s time to start making it. Beat the sour cream and sugar in the indicated proportions until there are no grains left in the mixture. For faster whipping, you can replace sugar with powdered sugar. For a detailed description and some secrets of preparing the cream, see below.
9. When the sour cream is ready, you can start soaking. To do this, take the flatbreads and dip them in the sour cream mixture. It will be better if they are thoroughly soaked in cream. Next, start laying out the base of our cake.
I’ll tell you a life hack that I came to over time. First, take larger cakes for the base. Subsequently, use the smaller ones to create the silhouette of the turtle.
The height, width and length of the cake depends only on your imagination, desires and preferences. If you have some cream left and you've run out of shortcakes, pour the rest on top. There is never too much cream in a turtle!
11. Now I melt the chocolate and pour it into a pastry bag. I use it to draw patterns on the shell. If you are too lazy to bother, just grate the chocolate on a fine grater and sprinkle it on top of the turtle.
Finally, we put the finished cake in the refrigerator for two to three hours, or better yet, overnight. Undoubtedly, the longer it sits there, the better it will be soaked and softer it will be. So don't rush to eat it right away.
How to make turtle cake.
We pamper our guests and children with a wonderful sponge cake. For a while, forget about counting calories and enjoy a tempting dessert with a moderately sweet taste.
Turtle cake is a delicious and visually attractive homemade cake, which is perfect for a children's party. Thin sponge cakes with a layer of delicate cream in a funny design will definitely delight capricious kids.
Ingredients:
For the test:
- Eggs – 6 pcs.
- Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp. spoons
- Sugar – 1.5 cups
- Baking powder – 2 tsp. (or 1 teaspoon slaked soda with vinegar)
- Flour – 2 – 2.5 cups
For cream:
- Sour cream – 850 gr.
- Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp. spoons
- Butter - 250 gr.
- Sugar – 1.5 cups
For the glaze:
- Sour cream – 150 gr. (6 tablespoons)
- Butter – 50 gr.
- Sugar – ½ cup
- Cocoa powder – 2 tbsp. spoons
To decorate the cake:
- Walnuts (optional) – 150 -180 gr.
Preparation:
1. Start by preparing the biscuit dough. Mix the eggs with sugar in a deep bowl, beat with a mixer until the mass increases in volume and lightens. If you use soda instead of baking powder, add it at this stage (quench with vinegar first).
2. For a chocolate tint, add cocoa powder to the sugar-egg mixture. Mix flour with baking powder and sift parts into a bowl, mix the mixture. Adjust the portion of flour based on the consistency of the dough—it should be about the same thickness as sour cream. Our dough is ready.
3. Use a spoon to scoop out the dough and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment in the form of cakes. Keep a distance between the dough pieces, as they will increase slightly in size during the baking process.
Place the baking sheet with our dough into a hot oven. Bake sponge cakes at a temperature of 180 -190 degrees for about 5 minutes.
4. To check the readiness of the cakes, pierce them with a match and pull it out. If it remains completely dry, remove the baking sheet from the oven, carefully remove the cakes from the parchment and cool. Similarly, form the next batches of biscuit blanks.
5. At the same time, prepare the cream for the cake. Combine sour cream with softened butter, sugar and cocoa powder.
6. Beat with a mixer until the components combine into a homogeneous smooth mass.
7. To assemble the cake, choose a large kitchen board, tray or large plate. Dip the biscuit cakes one by one into the cream and lay them out in a heap, forming something like a turtle shell. Remove five cakes at once to imitate the legs and head of a turtle.
8. Pour the remaining cream onto the formed “slide” and coat the workpiece on all sides using a spatula.
If you don’t want to waste time on forming a “turtle”, you can simply lay the cakes in layers in a spring-form container, soaking them in cream - regardless of the shape, the dessert will turn out very tasty.
9. For the glaze, mix sour cream, sugar, butter and cocoa powder.
10. Place over low heat and cook, stirring until it boils. Afterwards, remove from heat and let cool.
11. Pour chocolate icing over the biscuit shell. Place one cake at the base of the cake to act as a turtle’s head, and place the rest on the sides to imitate legs. Carefully remove any excess glaze that drips onto the plate/board with a napkin.
12. If desired, decorate the cake with pieces of walnuts. Be sure to put the cake in the refrigerator so that the glaze hardens and the cakes are soaked in cream. On average, this will take 4-5 hours. When serving, cut the baked goods into portions.
How to make sour cream at home
The cream emphasizes the richness of all the taste qualities of any dessert. It seems that the recipe for making cream from sour cream and sugar is simple. We just need to mix the ingredients until we get a homogeneous mass. It doesn’t matter whether you use a blender, mixer or a regular whisk for this. The main thing is that there are no small grains of sugar left in the impregnation. In addition, you can add various additives to suit your taste. For example, cocoa or other compatible component. At first glance, everything is clear. However, is everything so simple and easy?
The cream for the cake is 50% of the dish itself, so creating it is an important step. One of the main problems when preparing Turtle cake is poor impregnation. Of course, if the mixture is not made correctly, we will get a tasteless dessert. So how can you avoid embarrassment?
Recommendations:
1. Firstly, choose high-quality sour cream; there should not be any milk fat substitutes in it. You can’t create cream with vegetable oil. Let it be less fatty, but real. If you purchase store-bought sour cream, then only from a trusted manufacturer and with a specified production time.
Using a product with a fat content of 10%, we will get a light and airy cake. The amount of product itself that I indicated will be used. However, if we take 20% dairy products, then the finished product will be fattier and more satisfying. For this reason, the creamy layers themselves will be more pronounced.
2. Secondly, following the proportions of the ingredients will also ensure a positive result. Although, even by slightly reducing the amount of sugar, you can get a very tasty and thick cream. I recommend using 500-600 grams of sour cream and 1 cup of sugar. This proportion will be optimal. However, sour cream can be more or less sour. And everyone has different tastes.
3. Thirdly, adding cocoa, raisins, berries or nuts. This is also an important point. If you decide to use such elements in your cream, then be extremely careful.
Classic recipe for Turtle cake with condensed milk
For children and adults who love condensed milk, I am posting this recipe here. Of course, it’s easier to prepare than with sour cream. Because condensed milk is a ready-made cream. We only need to prepare the glaze. But believe me, it's worth it.
I would also like to add that you should only use natural condensed milk. In this case, you will not spoil the taste of the finished cake. It is also important that a quality product does not contain harmful additives.
Dough:
- chicken eggs - 4 pcs.
- sugar - 120 gr.
- wheat flour - 180 gr.
- slaked soda - 1 teaspoon
Cream:
- condensed milk - 150 g
Glaze:
- sugar - 2 tablespoons
- sour cream - 1 tablespoon
- cocoa - 1 tablespoon
- butter - 1 tablespoon
- dark chocolate – 20 g
Preparation:
First of all, I want to say that this list of products will make a very large cake. If you have a small family, reduce the amount of ingredients by half.
1. First of all, we will beat eggs and sugar into a fluffy mass. Then add flour and slaked soda and beat everything again. As a result, we obtain a homogeneous, moderately thick dough.
2. Now place the flatbreads on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. We take the dough with a teaspoon and pour it at some distance from each other. The pieces should be baked until golden brown, at a temperature of 180 degrees.
3. When all the shortcakes are ready, let them cool a little. Pour the condensed milk from the can into a wide bowl. Dip each cake in it and place on a plate. Thus, we create the image of a turtle from them. Don't forget about the paws and face.
4. For the glaze, mix sugar, sour cream, butter and cocoa until smooth. The butter should already be soft. Therefore, take it out of the refrigerator in advance. The resulting mixture must be boiled and grated chocolate added. When the glaze has cooled, pour it over our cake.
The finished dish should be refrigerated for several hours. In this case, the cream will completely saturate the shortcakes. Enjoy your tea!
Classic recipe
Turtle Cake has become popular and truly “folk” due to the simplicity of the ingredients, most of which are always available in any refrigerator. You can prepare the dessert in a few hours, and the result is worthy of an ordinary evening tea party, a children's party or a friendly party.
Composition of ingredients
Simple ingredients provide a delicate taste, as well as the desired consistency, only if they are fresh and chosen correctly. You will need butter with a fat content of at least 72.5%; for cream, sour cream with a fat content of more than 25% is used. Premium bread flour must be sifted before adding to the dough.
Ingredients for the dough:
- eggs – 6 pcs.;
- sugar – 300 g;
- flour – 500 g;
- baking powder – 2 tsp;
- cocoa powder – 2 tbsp. l.
As for any biscuit, the baking powder in the composition can be replaced with soda (1 tsp) and citric acid (0.5 tsp). The powders are mixed dry and added to the flour before kneading the dough.
Ingredients for cream:
- sour cream – from 700 to 900 g;
- sugar (preferably in the form of powder) – from 300 to 500 g;
- cocoa powder (optional) – 2 tbsp. l.
The amount of sour cream is measured based on the desired consistency of the finished cake. When layering, you can add more or less cream between the sponges or just dip them into the cream. The result will be either a juicy, soaked dessert, or a dryish one with less calories. The amount of sugar is chosen to taste. Most often, nothing else is added to the classic Turtle cake cream, leaving it white.
Ingredients for glaze:
- butter – 50 g;
- milk or sour cream – 60 g;
- sugar – 100 g;
- cocoa – 3 tbsp. l.
Sometimes white icing is chosen to decorate a cake. Often they simply coat the surface with the remaining cream. White icing is easy to make by melting a bar of white chocolate with 50g of butter. But the traditional, recognizable look of the Turtle cake involves a chocolate topping with a soft consistency.
Step-by-step cooking process
Turtle Cake (classic recipe), with careful beating of eggs and mandatory sifting of flour, it always turns out successful. Even a not so fluffy sponge cake, which “did not rise” in the oven or fell off when cooling, cannot spoil the final taste of the dessert. The traditional method of preparing the base of the cake - baking small shortcakes - always partially smoothes out culinary shortcomings.
Cooking the cake step by step:
- Begin preparation by kneading a simple biscuit dough. To do this, break 6 eggs (pre-cooled) into a mixing bowl and beat without additives until stable foam. The mass should turn white, greatly increase in size and not fall off.
- Continuing to mix the mixture with a mixer, gradually add flour and baking powder. At the end cocoa is added. This ingredient is required in the dough - the cakes should create a contrast to the white cream on the cut of the cake.
- Stir the mixture until smooth and lumps are completely dissolved. The dough should be of medium thickness, like homemade sour cream, which is easy to scoop with a spoon. If necessary, add a little flour.
- Having prepared the dough, cover the baking sheet with baking paper and, using a spoon, distribute the thick mixture over it into small flat cakes. A distance is left between the future cakes for possible spreading of the mass.
- The oven is heated to a temperature of 180 °C, only after that a baking sheet with dough is placed in it. Bake the cakes for no longer than 10 minutes and remove them without waiting for the crust to turn brown.
- Immediately after releasing the sheet, bake the next portion of sponge cakes and begin preparing the cream.
- To mix the ingredients, take a deep container. If the sour cream is of high quality and thick, you can beat it with sugar using a mixer. If the product is store-bought, it is better to gently mix it with powdered sugar with a spoon.
- Each subsequent portion of cakes, after being removed from the baking sheet, is dipped in cream and placed on a large dish, forming a mound. The layers of biscuits are additionally coated with cream, filling the voids between the cakes.
- By laying out the cakes in a circle and reducing the diameter of each subsequent layer, a “turtle” shell is formed. To depict the paws, head and tail, leave 6 biscuits without cream.
- To prepare a pourable chocolate glaze, mix all the ingredients from the recipe in a ladle, bring the mixture to a boil and allow to cool.
The top of the cake is greased with the remaining cream to form a smooth shell or the original stepped shape of the slide is left. Attach the paws, head and tail at the level of the first layer of cakes. Place the cake in the refrigerator until the cream hardens, and then pour the cooled glaze over it.
What can I add?
Many ingredients can be added to the traditional Turtle Cake recipe when decorating it. Decorating with walnut halves and prunes imitates the shell well. This combination of flavors is considered classic for cakes with sour cream. If desired, you can fill the cake with nuts and pieces of prunes when assembling, placing them in the spaces between the sponge cakes. To decorate the head, paws, and create patterns on the shell, the icing is placed in a pastry bag.
Drawings, patterns, and spirals are drawn on the surface by squeezing the chocolate mass through a small hole. You can decorate the turtle shell with pieces of marmalade, berries, dragee candies in bright glaze, or simply sprinkle with grated chocolate.
How to serve a dish
The cake can be eaten immediately after decoration. It is served to the table uncut, otherwise the effect of its design will be lost. But such a dessert acquires juiciness and balanced taste only after complete soaking, so it is advisable to keep it in the refrigerator for at least 1.5 hours. The best results are obtained after infusing the dessert for about 8 hours. Turtle Cake, whose classic recipe does not involve the use of exotic products, has a balanced taste, suitable for serving with tea, coffee, cold cocktails or hot cocoa.
Prepared for a children's party, this bright dessert will go well with sweet carbonated drinks.
No-bake turtle cake made from gingerbread
There is not always time to knead the dough and put batches into the oven several times. The following recipe will greatly simplify the preparation of dessert. In order not to bake the shortcakes, we will use store-bought gingerbread.
So, let's try to make a Turtle cake that even a child can do.
Ingredients:
- gingerbread - 500 gr.
- bananas - 4 pieces
- sugar - to taste
- sour cream - 500 grams
