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Dry Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
8 eggs

Whip egg yolks with sugar until white. (you may also add grated peel from one lemon or orange). After that, mix with flour and carefully add egg whites whipped to stiff peaks. Place resulting mix into a mold and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes.

Sponge Cake Roll

Prepare sponge cake dough (see recipe), pour it out on a baking sheet (greased with butter and sprinkled with flour) in thickness of 1 cm / 0.4 in. Put sheet in medium-hot oven. As soon as sponge cake becomes caramelized and will start separating from baking sheet, immediately put in on a table and wash with a thin layer of jam or preserve (250 g / 9 oz), then fold it into a roll and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
When the roll cools, slice it diagonally, place on a plate and serve.
You may add vanilla to the dough for aroma and flavor.

Berry Baskets

Ingredients:

2 cup flour
150 g / 5 oz butter or margarine
3/4 cup flour
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla or lemon peel

Prepare dough the same way as for shortbread pastry. Roll out dough so that it is 1/2 cm / 0.2 inches thick. Cut out circles that are a bit larger than metal molds for baskets. Put dough circles on top of molds and press them in, evening out the edges. Place molds with dough on skillet or on baking sheet and put in oven for 12-15 minutes to bake. When they are ready, remove baskets from molds by turning them over. Then fill the baskets with berries – strawberries, raspberries or grapes and then pour them over (using a spoon) with hot marmalade (see marmalade recipe). Baskets can be decorated with chopped nuts or fried almonds.

Pastry with Whipped Cream or Custard

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
100 – 125 g / 3.5 – 4.5 oz butter or margarine
4-5 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup cream
2 – 2 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla or 1-2 spoon liqueur

Pour one cup of water into a pan, add butter, salt and bring to boil. As soon as the water boils, add all the flour, stir and cook on low heat for 2-3 minutes while stirring. Then remove from heat and add eggs, one by one, thoroughly mixing. As soon as dough starts stretching, stop adding eggs. Make small buns out of the dough, place them on a baking sheet about 3 1/2 – 4 cm / 1.4 – 1.6 inches apart. Put in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes. As soon as buns become caramelized and increase in volume, reduce heat and bake until buns are ready.
Cut prepared buns lengthwise, crack them open and fill the inside with cream that has been whipped with sugar, vanilla or liqueur. You may also fill them with custard or cream filling (see appropriate recipe). Then sprinkle with powdered sugar, put on a plate and serve.

Sponge Cake with Jam

Ingredients:

100 g / 4 oz wheat flour
100 g / 4 oz potato flour
1 cup sugar
10 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla

Separate egg whites from yolks. Put egg whites in col place or cold water. Whip yolks with sugar (you may add vanilla), then add flour, mix and add whipped egg whites, mixing them with dough from bottom to top. Put dough into a mold that has been greased with butter and sprinkled with flour. Fill the mold 3/4 of the way and put into medium-hot oven for baking. A cake that is ready easily comes off from the edges of the mold and a thin wooden stick will remain dry, if you test the cake with it by inserting it. Remove cake from mold and let it cool, then cut it into two layers. Wash each layer with jam, then return cake into its original shape. You may also glaze the cake, decorate it with berries, citron and nuts. Put cake on a plate with a napkin and slice with a thin sharp knife.

Sour Cream Sponge Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sour cream
6 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat sugar with egg yolks until white in color, add vanilla extract, sour cream, mix well, add flour, and after it has been incorporated — add whipped into a foam egg whites. Carefully mix them in, pour the batter into a buttered mold and put into a note very hot oven 20-25 minutes to bake.

Transfer baked cake to a plate covered with a napkin and sprinkle it with powdered sugar.

Shortbread Pastry with Almonds

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour
150 g/6 oz butter or margarine
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
or zest from 1/2 lemon
100 g/4 oz almonds

Mix together flour and sugar, add butter or margarine cut into pieces, eggs (leave one egg white for brushing), vanilla or finely grated zest and make a dough. Roll the dough into a ball, cover and leave it in a cool place anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Roll the dough out 1/2 cm (1/5 in) thick, cut our circles with a cookie cutter and cut a smaller circle from the middle of the bigger circle. Transfer the dough circles to a baking sheet and brush with egg white, sprinkle with chopped almonds or walnuts and bake in a preheated oven 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle finished pastries with powdered sugar, transfer to a plate covered with napkin and serve.

Puff Pastry with Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
250 g/9 oz butter
1 egg
3/4 cups water
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 lemon or a little bit of dissolved lemon acid
For meringue:
4 egg yolks
1 cup fine granulated sugar

Make the dough according to instructions of the “Puff Pastry” recipe. Roll the dough out thinly to the size of the baking sheet. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and prick with fork in a number of places and bake in a preheated oven 12-15 minutes. Make a number layers following this procedure. Transfer baked sheets to a work surface and straighten the edges. Finely chop the trimmings and put them aside. Put a layer of cream (pastry or butter cream) on top of one of the layers of puff pastry, smooth and cover with another layer of puff pastry. Make 3-5 layers following this process. Sprinkle the top layer with cream with chopped trimmings. Cut the cake into strips 6-7 cm (2-3 in) wide, and the cut each strip into pastries. Sprinkle the top with powdered sugar, transfer pastries to a serving plate and serve.

When the cake is cut into strips it could be topped with a layer of merengue, about 1 cm (2/5 in) thick, smooth the top, sprinkle with chopped trimming and put into the hot oven for 2-3 minutes, remove from the oven, cut each strip into individual pastries and transfer to a serving plate.

Puff Pastry with Apples

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
250 g/9 oz butter
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cups water
1/4 lemon or a little bit of dissolved lemon acid

1 kg/2 lb 4 oz apples
1 1/2 cups sugar

Make the dough according to instructions of the “Puff Pastry” recipe. Roll the dough to 1/2 cm (1/5 in) thickness as long as the sheet on which it will be baked. Cut the dough into the strips of 7-8 cm (~3 in), put on a lightly moistened sheet, brush strips with beaten egg and decorate with drawings using a fork or a tip of a knife. Bake in a preheated oven 20-25 minutes. Baked pastry should be 4-5 cm (~2 in) thick. Make apple filling following the recipe “Apple Stuffing“. Cut baked strips of pastry along into two layers. Put some apple filing on top of the bottom layer, smooth the top of the filling and cover with the top layer of the pastry. Cut each pastry into servings, sprinkle with powdered sugar and transfer onto a plate covered with paper napkin.