Kyiv cake history: who invented the main sweet symbol of Ukraine?
Let’s talk about Kyiv cake history: who actually invented Kyiv cake, intentionally or accidentally, and how it turned out to be a visiting card of the capital of Ukraine.
Ukrainians are known to fall into two categories: fans of Kyiv cake and those who find it too sweet. However, few people will refuse to eat a piece of the emperor of desserts of Ukrainian cuisine. Since the 80s of the last century, everyone who came to Kyiv at least for a day, was sure to take with them a sweet souvenir of the capital to have a tea party with family and friends. It was crunchy nut cake with airy cream.
Today, the delicious Kyiv cake can be bought in every corner of the country or baked in your own kitchen, and its fame has spread far beyond Ukraine. The dessert is served in many restaurants and catering establishments around the world, from Vancouver to London, from Berlin to Tel Aviv, and it has its own interesting history.
History of Kyiv cake: how it all started
As you might expect, there is no precise information about who and how invented the Kyiv cake. It is only known that the date of its birth is 1956, when the first biscuit cakes were baked at the Karl Marx confectionery factory (now Roshen). Probably mistakenly: the beaten egg mass for baking biscuits was forgotten to be put in the refrigerator.
According to this version, the dessert appeared thanks to the head of the confectionery factory branch, Konstantin Petrenko. He decided to hide the mistakes of colleagues and, after baking the so-called “unsuccessful biscuits”, smeared the cakes with cream and made a floral ornament.
According to the second version, the one who invented the Kyiv cake was Petrenko’s student Nadezhda Chernogor, who was only 17 years old at the time. It was thanks to the efforts of the girl who discovered her confectionery talents that the first eggs-walnut meringue crusts appeared. It was not without coincidence and… power outages. They say that when the power went out in the confectionery shop, the whipped egg whites were kept warm for 24 hours. They were used for baking cakes and, to the surprise of the cooks, they tasted better and looked puffier than traditional ones.
Interesting fact: in Soviet times, Kyiv cake was one of the few confectionery products that were exported abroad as a symbol of the high quality of the Soviet food industry. According to the patented recipe, at least 400 g of egg base with nuts and 600 g of cream were used per one kilogram of cake. Thus, the cake became a model of socialist abundance.
Who actually invented the Kyiv cake
Of course, we love and respect stories of “magic accidents”, but more often they have nothing to do with reality: the original unique recipe for Kyiv cake was developed over the years. The main task of the confectioners was to create a delicious dessert from affordable ingredients that would appeal to everyone. And so it turned out. And only in 1973 Anna Kurilo and Galina Fastovets-Kalinovskaya patented their recipe for the meringue cake, which was presented at an international competition shortly before.
The original recipe with all its subtleties is still kept secret. And, as it is not hard to guess, it belongs to the Roshen company.
Interesting fact: in 2013, a dispute started between Russia and Ukraine for the right to be called the birthplace of Kyiv cake. Ukraine defended its rights and now the cake is officially recognized as the Ukrainian national dessert.
Kyiv cake history: how main Ukrainian dessert been changing
Despite the fact that the modern cake recipe has not changed much since its creation, the production technology and appearance have undergone significant transformations. The favorite dainty of Ukrainians was constantly updated. At first, cashew nuts, which were supplied from India to the USSR, were used for the nut filling. However, very soon relations between the Soviets and the “brotherly Indian nation” deteriorated and India began to supply nuts to other countries for dollars.
When raw materials became more expensive, cashews were replaced by domestic hazelnuts, and eventually by cheap peanuts. The same happened with egg cream: it was replaced by denser butter cream, as it has a long shelf life. And candied fruits were eventually replaced by jelly.
The history and significance of the unique ornamentation of the Kyiv cake and its uniqueness
Only the appearance of the treat remains unchanged. Each master undergoes special training on cake decorating, in which everything is regulated: the number of leaves, the slope of the branches, the chocolate snake around the perimeter. Decorating the cake “Kyivsky” is a special creative process, not every confectioner can master.
The patterns decorating the dainty have a symbolic meaning. They depict flowers-“candles” of chestnuts, trees, which are symbols of the capital. There were times when confectioners could choose their own decor for the cake. Subsequently, the drawing was unified, as well as its color scheme. Standard colors used for decoration are white, blue, and pink. Another obligatory element of the Kyiv cake is the framing of flowers with a chocolate circle.
How Kyiv cake is made today
In Soviet times, buying such a seemingly simple thing as a Kyiv cake was a real quest. Sometimes you had to wait in line for hours for stores to open or buy the dessert from resellers. A separate difficulty is that the original cake was sold exclusively in Kyiv.
Of course, today, except of the Roshen factory, Kyiv cakes are produced by many confectionery shops. Many people have learned to bake the dessert at home, as it became possible thanks to household appliances of high quality. The basic recipe for Kyiv cake with its many variations has long been freely available.
How to bake a real Kyiv cake
Firstly, bake crispy cakes made of egg whites thoroughly beaten with sugar, to which flour and roasted chopped nuts are added. The cakes are baked in the oven for about two hours at a temperature of 140–160 degrees. Then prepare the cream with the poetic name Charlotte. Its main ingredients include milk, sugar, whipped yolks and butter. To achieve the chocolate flavor of the cream, cocoa is used.
Well, of course, if you decide to bake a Kyiv cake at home, then professional cooks will grumble: to bake a real original Kyiv cake, you will need at least two days, because the whole thing — in the very consistency of egg whites, which you simply can not achieve at home.
Well, that sounds like a challenge.
