Chocolate Kiev Cake {Chocolate, Walnuts, Meringue & Dulce de Leche}
~ Soft Chocolate Sponge cake layers are filed with Light Dulce de Leche Buttercream and Chocolate Walnut Meringue to make a Chocolate version of the most iconic Ukrainian Kiev Cake ~
Back when I was making cakes to order, Kyiv cake was one of the most requested cakes. Traditionally it is made with vanilla sponge cake layers, meringue studded with nuts, and a very popular Russian Buttercream. The different textures within the cake work amazingly well, while the nuts do a good job offsetting the sweetness of the buttercream.
I like the cake after a day or two in the fridge since by that time the meringue has the time to soften up and it is much easier to cut into neat pieces.
Many people make the cake with one solid layer of meringue in the middle, but I like making it with small mounds of meringue. The mounts do not take as long to dry and absorb the cream much quicker making it serve-able sooner.
Reading the recipe you might be intimidated by the number of steps that are involved in making the cake, but that is just because I really broke everything down into baby steps. I want you to succeed. Breaking the process into steps in your head might make it easier to understand the process and keep you from getting confused. Since the meringue does take about 1.5-2 hours to dry, you might even want to split the process into two days.
When I make this cake this is how I break it down:
1. Make the meringue;
2. Toast the walnuts;
3. Bake the Chocolate Sponge Cake;
4. Make the Buttercream;
5. Make the soaking syrup & Ganache;
6. Assemble everything into a cake & decorate.
I hope you enjoy this cake friends!
Chocolate Kiev Cake Recipe {Chocolate, Walnuts, Meringue & Dulce de Leche}
Ingredients for Chocolate Sponge Cake:
Meringue:
- egg whites
- sugar, granulated
- Pinch of salt
- cocoa powder sifted
- chopped walnuts, to
Soaking syrup:
- warm water
- sugar
- liquor
- vanilla extract
Frosting:
- unsalted butter, room temperature
- dulce de leche (or cooked sweetened condensed milk)
- whipped topping or whipped heavy cream
Chocolate ganache:
- chopped chocolate
- hot heavy cream
Also:
- walnut halves
- walnuts, roasted
Equipment:
- 9 inch round baking pan
- Ziplock or Pastry Bag
- Star tip
- Cake Ring (optional)
(optional)
Preparation:
Start by gathering your ingredients and measuring them out.
The cake needs to be started the day before you plan to serve it.
How to make the meringue:
In a mixer fitted with a whisk, whip the egg whites with 1/2 the sugar and a pinch of salt until foamy, about 2 minutes.
With the mixer still running, slowly pour in the remaining sugar. Continue whipping for about 10 minutes or until a whisk is dipped into the meringue then brought upside down keep the peak straight up without the bend.
Sift the cocoa into the meringue, then carefully fold it in to keep the meringue from deflating. Now get a teaspoonful of meringue and using a second teaspoon scrape it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Take a good pinch (about a teaspoon) of chopped nuts and press it into the top of each meringue mount.
Bake in a preheated to 225F oven for about 1.5 hours. To check if it is dry, remove it from the oven, break it in half and allow it to cool. If it’s dry in the middle, it’s done. Remove from oven and let cool before using.
Make the Chocolate Sponge Cake:
Make the Chocolate Sponge Cake following the recipe here.
Make the Dulce de Leche Lightened Buttercream
Whip room temperature butter for about 5 minutes stopping and scraping the sides and bottom several times through. When the butter is properly whipped, it is white in color, increased in volume, and very fluffy. Add the dulce de leche in halves, whipping for about 30 seconds after each addition. Also, don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the bowl in between.
Once you whipped after the last addition of the dulce de leche, don’t worry if not all of it is nicely incorporated. You can stop when some streaks are still left. Beating for too long at this point will make the buttercream runny.
Add the whipped cream and carefully fold it into the buttercream. Do not overmix or the cream will be runny. As soon as everything is incorporated and folded thoroughly, the lightened dulce de leche buttercream is ready to be used. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use it, but no more than half an hour to 1 hour, otherwise it might be too thick to spread.
Make the Soaking Syrup for the Chocolate Kiev Cake
Combine all ingredients in the bottle or cup and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Assembling the Chocolate Kiev Cake
Line the edges of the serving platter with 4 strips of foil or wax paper – this is done for easier cleanup.
Put a dab of frosting in the middle and spread it on the plate – this is to help the cake adhere to the plate and prevent sliding. Reserve and refrigerate about 2 cups of frosting for later.
Place one half of the chocolate cake and using a bottle or a pastry brush/spoon, soak the bottom half of the cake with half the syrup.
Spread a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake. Sprinkle with couple of tablespoons of nuts on top.
Take one meringue mount and dip it top side down into the frosting, and wiggle it to collect some frosting.
Now place it bottom side down onto the frosted cake layer. Continue doing so until the cake is covered in meringue.
Take the ones that do not fit and break them into smaller pieces, dip in frosting and adhere them between the larger pieces and gaps.
Soak the cut side other of the other half of the cake with the remaining syrup. Put a spoon of frosting on top and spread it around. Set it aside.
Sprinkle the remaining nuts and crushed meringue on top. Top with remaining frosting and even it out.
Put the second layer of the Chocolate Sponge cake on top of the meringue, frosting side down.
Run the spatula around the sides of the cake and spread the frosting around to fill in any gaps. If you have a Cake Ring , put it around the cake and tighten it. Tie around the cake ring with a ribbon to keep it from getting loose (I used the Regency Evenbake ) and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour. This will solidify everything in place and make it easier to decorate the cake and frost the outside.
Remove from the fridge, run a knife on the inside of the cake ring to loose then cake and remove the cake ring.
Use about 1 cup of frosting to frost the outside of the cake, leaving about 1 cup of frosting.
6. Decorate the Cake
Cover the sides of the cake with chopped nuts. To do so, take a handful of the chopped nuts into the palm of your hand and press against the sides of the cake. Scrape the remainder of the nuts that fell to the edge of the plate off, now take another handful into the palm of your hand and keep going around the side of the cake until it’s all covered in nuts.
Make the Chocolate Ganache:
Pour hot cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Put in a ziplock bag. Snip off the end. Make a circular swirl on top of the cake.
Now take a toothpick or with the side of a fork make a line from the middle towards the outside of the swirled lines. Make 9 of these lines evenly spaced around the cake.
Next make a line going from the outside perimeter towards the center, in between each line that you already made going from the middle towards the outside.
Fit the corner of a ziplock bag with an Extra Large Closed Star Decorating Tip
and fill with frosting. Pipe rosettes all around the border of the cake, by swirling the frosting in a tight circle.
Carefully pull back the foil from underneath the cake revealing a clean platter. Place half nuts on every other rosette on top of the cake. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve, preferably the next day.
Here are some other great Cake recipes:
- Markiza Cake – Shortbread cookie layers with buttercream.
- Chocolate Custard Cake – A simple chocolate cake with a custard filling.
- Polish Cake Recipe – Shortbread cake layers with tart jam, meringue layers and walnuts.
Chocolate Kiev Cake {Chocolate, Walnuts, Meringue & Dulce de Leche}
Soft chocolate sponge cake layers filled with walnut meringues
and covered in a dulce de leche buttercream.
Ingredients
Chocolate Sponge Cake:
Meringue:
- 2 egg whites
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar granulated
- Pinch kosher salt
- 4 tsp cocoa powder sifted
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Soaking syrup
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 Tbsp liquor
- 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Frosting:
- 8 oz unsalted butter room temperature
- 14 oz dulce de leche or cooked sweetened condensed milk
- 8 oz of whipped topping or 8 oz of whipped heavy cream
Chocolate ganache:
- 2 Tbsp chopped chocolate
- 2 Tbsp hot heavy cream
Also:
- 9 walnut halves
- 1/2 cup walnuts roasted in the oven at 350F for about 5-7 minutes, or until fragrant and toasted
Equipment:
- 9 inch round baking pan
- Ziplock or pastry bag
- Star tip
Instructions
Preparation:
-
Start by gathering your ingredients and measuring them out. The cake needs to be started the day before you plan to serve it.
How to make the meringue:
-
In a mixer fitted with a whisk, whip the egg whites on medium-high speed with 1/2 the sugar and a pinch of salt until foamy, about 2 minutes.
-
With the mixer still running, slowly pour in the remaining sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue whipping for about 15 minutes or until a whisk dipped into the meringue then brought upside down keeps the peak straight up without the bend. When the meringue has been properly whipped it will start balling around the whisk instead of splashing on the walls of the mixer. Using a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer will take more time.
-
Sift 4 tsp cocoa into the meringue, then carefully fold it in as to keep the meringue from deflating. Now, get a teaspoonful of meringue and using a second teaspoon scrape it onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Take a good pinch (about a teaspoon) of chopped nuts and press into the top of each meringue mount.
-
Bake in a preheated to 225°F oven for about 1.5 hours. To check if it is dry, remove from the oven, break in half and allow to cool. If the inside is dry when it is cooled down the meringue is baked and ready to be removed from the oven.
Make the Chocolate Sponge Cake:
-
Make the Chocolate Sponge Cake following the recipe here.
Make the Dulce de Leche Lightened Buttercream
-
Whip 2 sticks room temperature butter for about 5 minutes stopping and scraping the sides and bottom several times through. When the butter is properly whipped, it is white in color, increased in volume and very fluffy. Add 1 can dulce de leche in halves, whipping for about 30 seconds after each addition. Also, don’t forget to scrape the bottom of the bowl in between.
-
Once you whipped after the last addition of the dulce de leche, don’t worry if not all of it is nicely incorporated. You can stop when some streaks are still left. Beating for too long at this point will make the buttercream runny.
-
Add 8 oz whipped cream and carefully fold it into the buttercream. Do not overmix or the cream will be runny. As soon as everything is incorporated and folded thoroughly, the lightened dulce de leche buttercream is ready to be used. Refrigerate until you’re ready to use it, but no more than half an hour to 1 hour, otherwise it might be too thick to spread.
Make the Soaking Syrup for the Chocolate Kiev Cake
-
Combine all ingredients in the bottle or cup and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Assembling the Chocolate Kiev Cake
-
Line the edges of the serving platter with 4 strips of foil or wax paper. Put a dab of frosting in the middle and spread it on the plate.
-
Place one half of the chocolate cake and using a bottle or a pastry brush/spoon, soak the bottom half of the cake with half the syrup. Spread a generous amount of frosting on top of the cake. Sprinkle with couple tablespoons of nuts on top.
-
Take one meringue mount and dip it top side down into the frosting, wiggle it to collect some frosting.Now place it bottom side down onto the cake layer. Continue doing so until the cake is covered in meringue. Take the ones that do not fit and break them into smaller pieces, dip in frosting and adhere them between the larger pieces.
-
Soak the cut side other half of the cake with remaining syrup. Reserve about 2 cups of frosting for decorating and frosting the sides. Put a spoon of frosting on top and spread it around. Sprinkle the remaining nuts and crushed meringue on top. Top with remaining frosting and even it out on top.
-
Put the second layer of the Chocolate Sponge cake on top of the meringue, frosting side down.
-
Run the spatula around the sides of the cake and spread the frosting around to fill in any gaps. If you have an adjustable cake ring, put it around the cake and tighten it. Tie around the cake ring with a ribbon to keep it from getting loose and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour.
-
Remove from the fridge, run a knife on the inside of the cake ring to loose then cake and remove the cake ring. Use about 1 cup of frosting to frost the outside of the cake, leaving about 1 cup of frosting.
Decorate the Cake
-
Cover the sides of the cake with chopped nuts. To do so, take a handful of the chopped nuts into the palm of your hand and press against the sides of the cake. Scrape the remainder of the nuts that fell to the edge of the plate off, now take another handful into the palm of your hand and keep going around the side of the cake until it’s all covered in nuts.
Make the Chocolate Ganache
-
Pour hot cream over the chocolate. Let sit for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Put in a ziplock bag. Snip off the end. Make a circular swirl on top of the cake.
Continue with decorating the cake
-
Now take a toothpick or with the side of a fork make a line from the middle towards the outside of the swirled lines. Make 9 of these lines evenly spaced around the cake.
-
Next make a line going from the outside perimeter towards the center, in between each line that you already made going from the middle towards the outside.
-
Fit the corner of a ziplock bag with an Extra Large Closed Star Decorating Tip and fill with frosting. Pipe rosettes all around the border of the cake, by swirling the frosting in a tight circle.
-
Carefully pull back the foil from underneath the cake revealing a clean platter. Place half nuts on every other rosette on top of the cake. Refrigerate the cake until ready to serve, preferably the next day.
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Marina | Let the Baking Begin
Made this cake so many time and always such a hit!!
Wanted to know if it would work making it in a rectangle cake? And if the measurements would be the same?
Thank you!!
Is it 8 oz. Of butter or 16?
8 oz or 2 sticks of butter.
Can I make the buttercream 2 days in advance?
Yes, but you’ll need to keep it in the fridge and then bring it back to room temp before using, at which point I think I would just make the buttercream the day of. But, it is ok to make it in advance.
No específicas cantidad en kilogramo de dulce de leche y de mantequilla, gracias!
Fixed it. You should be able to see it now.
I made this cake with my mom for my 16th birthday, and it turned out amazing! The meringue was perfect, and the buttercream was one of the best things I ever tasted! I also used your chocolate sponge cake, and it was so light and fluffy. The cake was a huge success and made the day even more special, thank you greatly for the wonderful recipe! (:
Hi!! I am prepping to make this but a tad confused. It says roasted walnuts & to toast them in your shortened steps but it doesn’t show it in the longer steps. Do they all need to be toasted? Just the halves? Not sure which ones to toast or if all should be toasted. Thanks!
Hi Lauren,
Toasted nuts taste better so toast them all 🙂
Hi Marina, when you say “whipped topping” do you mean cool whip? Or the bottle that sprays out whip cream?
Hi:)
I mean cool whip out if a tub, not the spray.
Easy to make and tastes great!!!Thank you so much….
Thank you Oksanochka!
What liquor should I use?
Hi Leonie,
I use Bacardi Gold.
This recipe was amazing!! Best cake I’ve ever made! Although, one note of criticism: The cake recipe did not turn out for me, so I used a different recipe. The cake recipe tasted like burnt butter even though the cake hadn’t been burnt. Despite this, I definitely recommend this recipe!!
Hehe, I’m confused lol. You used a different recipe and it tasted like burnt butter, or you used this recipe and it tasted like burnt butter?
Hallo Marina! The cake is really amazing! I am trying it now, and despite your instructions and reccomendations my cream became too runny. I hope, and I am worried that if I use the cream like this my meringues wouldn’t became like wet sponge, after the cake came out of the frige 🙁 I’ll be more careful next time, but now is there any way I can fix it?
! I have tried your Markiza cake before, with huge success:) Everybody loves it :)!
Thank you in advance!
Best regards,
Elitsa
Hello Elitsa,
Thank you so much for your kind words, I am glad your family likes the Markiza cake!
For the Kiev cake, unfortunately once the cream goes runny, there’s not a way to go back and make it not runny. That said, if the filling is just slightly runny, but not soupy, I would still use it with the cake ring. Once the cake settles in the fridge it will be fine as the butter will firm up and the meringue will be fine.
If the cream is so runny to the point that it’s soupy, I am not sure I would use it for the fear that it will indeed make the meringue just melt into a goopy mess.
This was by far the best cake I have ever made! It was my husband’s birthday, and the whole family loved it. It held up pretty well without a cake ring, too. I will try baking other cakes from your blog, thank you so much for sharing this with us. Wish I could post a picture. Instead of piping buttercream on top, I decorated the top with some remaining meringue cookies and poured ganache just like you have it in your other Kiev cake recipe and it looked beautiful.
Thank you so much Kseniya for your wonderful review! It makes me giddy with excitement to read comments like yours 😀 I’m always a little surprised how many people dare to try this cake, because it is not the easiest or the fastest one to make. So good job on not only making it, but succeeding!!
If you’re anywhere on social media, you can tag your recipe or tag me in the picture, or even message it to me on there. I would love to see it!
Thanks so much Kseniya!
Have a lovely day!
Is the meringue supposed to get soft after assembly and letting it stand in the fridge for 24 hours?
Hi Tatyana,
The meringue is not to be soft, it just gets easier to cut through it, but not like chewy soft, more like crunchy soft.
Then I am not sure what I did wrong. It was so soft that that my guests couldn’t even tell that there was meringue in there. It wasn’t crunchy or chewy – just blended in with the cream. 🙁 I had it assembled for 24 hours in the fridge before slicing.
Hi Tatyana,
I’m sorry things didn’t go as they should’ve 🙁
I’m not sure what exactly went wrong with the meringue, I wonder if the meringue pieces were too small and that’s why they just absorbed cream and blended in? Or may be the cream did not whip up properly and was too runny, so too much was absorbed into meringue making it disappear?
Proper meringue should be fine even for a couple days in the cake, so you definitely didn’t leave it too long in the fridge and that’s why it happened.
Same problem. I made this cake twice so far, and both times didn’t feel any meringues, they were melting with the butter. I decorated the cake with some meringues and they were very soft too. The butter was very good, not runny at all. So I don’t understand what was the problem. Despite my disappointment, everyone loved the cake.
Hi Ana,
Sounds like your meringue didn’t come out properly both times. Try increasing the whip time to get a very stiff meringue next time. With my Kitchenaid mixer that usually takes about 15-20 minutes of whip time on high. If you’re using a different type of mixer – that might take a little longer. Properly made meringue stays crispy even when open to the air for weeks, so the fact that it was soft tells me that the meringue either wasn’t properly whipped, or some grease got into it. Hope this helps!
Can this cake be frozen
Hi Marina!
I made this for my Bfs dad on fathers day and everyone loved it! However, I think the meringue recipe is missing cream of tartar…
Hi Emma,
That’s so great to hear! Did you have any trouble with the meringue?
I have done meringue with and without cream of tartar and to be honest I didn’t find enough of a difference to recommend putting cream of tartar, but if you do think it helps, that is totally fine to add.
This was a hit. Best cake EVER made. And it was quite simple, not a hassle which was a plus!
Thanks Lez! So great to hear you loved the cake!
This is now my go to cake for special occasions. I’ve made it 3 times so far. Thank you so much for sharing- it’s delicious!
OMG – WOW! I made this, and while my first attempt was not perfect, it certainly looked sophisticated and tasted great – I’ll be making it again for special occasions – I can’t wait to perfect the cake and for the process to become second nature.
A few things I learned that might help others – in Australia ‘heavy cream’ is called double cream – I got to the supermarket and didn’t know what to buy so came home with regular cream. I improvised by whipping this up and using it. I had to make the buttercream twice as I did not have enough to frost the cake with my first batch. One mistake was in translating ounces to grams – I was out by 100g of cream for my first batch! And while I still didn’t have double cream for my second batch, I paid more attention while whipping the butter (thanks to reading the comments here) – it seems that there is considerable time in between the butter turning white, increasing in volume, and then becoming ‘fluffy’. I’m not sure if I really got my butter fluffy, but it was a considerable improvement on my first batch.
OMG yum! Thank you so much Marina for sharing this recipe – you have me intrigued with Ukrainian cuisine – I want to try so much more!
Hi Katara,
thank you for sharing your experience in adjusting the recipe to your local ingredients, sometimes we got to be really creative to make things work, but where there’s a will, there’s a way, isn’t there? 😀
I hope you try many other recipes that Ukrainian cuisine has to offer 🙂
Marina
I made this cake last week, and it turned out so amazing and delicious!! My husband even loved it, and he doesn’t usually like sweets. Perfect combination of everything, and the buttercream is amazing!! Thanks for the recipe! my new favorite cake 🙂
Julie, thank you so much for your feedback, I am so happy you liked the cake!
I want to make this cake but I need to cover it with fondant. Any tips how it will hold? what cream should I put on top? And also how it will taste without walnuts and chocolate any ideas?
j’adore it is delicious i want to do it thank you what is mean ofFrosting:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 can dulce de leche (or cooked sweetened condensed milk)
8 oz of whipped topping or 8 oz of whipped heavy cream
Chocolate ganache:
2 Tbsp chopped chocolate
2 Tbsp hot heavy cream
please write me in frensh thank you very much
Tomorrow my daughter is turning 16 and she chose this cake for her birthday. I am not very good at baking and I got scared, but I did it, I did it , I did it……. It looks almost as nice as yours. I liked all the steps, it made it easier.
Thank you very much!
Hi Susanna!
It is stories like yours that inspire me to create and post new recipes! Thank you so much for sharing your success! Happy Birthday to your princess!
Hello!
I tried to make this recipe, and it worked out great until the buttercream part. The moment I add the room temperature butter and dulce de leche mix to the cold whipped cream (which I can’t make from heavy cream at room temperate), the frosting mixture separates as the fat hardens up from the butter. I tried to fold in the whipped cream slowing and don’t really see a difference. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Veronica!
This happened to me on two separate occasions – and the other two times I made this buttercream, it worked great. So here’s what I found. If you made your own dulce de leche, it may have been very solid and overcooked. When the dulce de leche is cooked longer than it should be – it gets this beautiful caramel colour, and is very solid. The consistency of your dulce should be softer – and then the buttercream turns out perfect. If you bought your dulce, try a different brand. It took me a while to figure this out – but this is definitely the problem that I encountered, and it was fixed when the dulce I used was softer. Hope this helps! Happy baking!
Hi
I noticed that in the ingredient list for the meringue you wrote egg yolks instead of egg whites. this cake sounds awesome and you are awesome. you put in so much of effort by displaying each step of the cake in pictures. I am making this for my sister’s birthday and will def come back to let you know how it turns out. thank you Marina.
Wow just wow !
I made it and just let me tell you how crazy my client was for this cake ! They say it was insanely good all the flavours together just worked amazing together !
It is a lot of work but so worth it !
Only negative I have is the Chocolate sponge cake. Maked it 2 times and kept on failing even if I followed the recipe to a T
Hi Rochelle,
Thank you for your feedback! I’m sorry to hear that you were having trouble with the sponge cake. Most often the cake falls when it is taken out of the oven too soon. Depending on the elevation and the oven temperature you might need to increase the baking time.
Hello,
I tried to make this cake for the Easter, but… had a major issue with the meringue. After three tries I got very nice flat chocolate egg whit cookies, which my kids and husband loved 🙂 I have noticed that this recipe does not include cream of tartar, lemon juice or vinegar. Could this be the reason for the egg whites not keeping their stiff, whippped form?
I am Polish girl and most of your recipes are familiar to the food we cooked back in Poland and to what I cook for my family in NY 🙂
Thank you for those lovely recipes
Jola
Wow! What a beautiful cake and it tastes just awesome! My Mom makes a beautiful sponge(also egg based) cake…but yours is just out of this world! I made this cake last night and my husband and I couldn’t stop smiling! I had a bit of trouble after adding the wipped cream – started curdling. I suspect this is due to our NZ cream which is whippable, but not heavy cream and turns very quickly once just whipped. Despite this the taste was still great. I can’t wait to try another one of your cakes!
Hei! I had seen this recipe a few months ago and it just got in my head – “I must make this cake!”. And yesterday I made it! Today…nothing left! I thank you truly for this recipe…it was the best cake I have ever made, and I have made a loooot of cakes! I took it at work and everyone came and found me just to say “My God, it was SO good!”.
The only thing I changed was that instead of 2 tablespoons butter, I added 1 tbs butter and 1 tbs sunflower oil!
Thank you again! I am now searching here for another amazing recipe! 🙂
Mindblown.
I was intimidated to make this cake but decided to give it a try for Christmas! Wow, it turned out so beattifully and so delicious! Thank you Marina for the recipe, you have made a baker out of me.
Yes!! Best comment ever! Thanks for your feedback Nelya!
Made this for Thanksgiving dinner and my family loved it! The cake melted inside, so delicious! Thank you for such detailed instructions!
You’re welcome Olya! Thanks for coming back to share your feedback!
Made this cake for a family gathering this weekend. It was a hit! Everyone loved it! Thank you! 🙂 as I’m typing this, my 3 year old finished the last slice of cake..and asking for more!! 🙂
Hi Marina,
So you perfer the cool whip that’s in the container right? I believe they are an 8oz. I will give that a try because I used heavy cream last time and it was delicious. Do you whip the butter on high too?
This cake looks AMAZING!! 🙂 although I’m a big fan of Kievskiy cake cuz of the meringue.. but I gotta give it a try!! 🙂 I’m sure I’ll fall in love with it!! 🙂
In the printable recipe, under ingredients for the meringue it says 2 egg yolks shouldn’t it be 2 egg whites?
Thank you Inna! and yes, it should be 2 egg whites, I’m sorry I’m not sure what I was thinking lol
Let me know when you try it!
I made this cake and it ive gotten a lot of compliments on it. It is very tastey! and the Rum adds a wonderful taste! Except i didnt have a lot of cream as you did. I didnt have enough cream to make those roses on top and hardly to do the sides. But with the chocolate, it still looked wonderful! could that be really the amount of cream that you mentioned? and my cake was a little lopsided but thats alright =)
Hi Olga, I’m glad you guys enjoyed the cake!
I’m not sure why you didn’t have enough cream for the decoration and outside crumb coat… Could it be that you didn’t whip the butter long enough and therefor it didn’t increase in volume enough? I’m not sure what else it could be… In the future, try taking away about a 1.5 – 2 cup of frosting for the decoration and for the frosting of the outside and then use the remaining for the inside, that way you’ll know for sure that there’s enough for the outside…
Hope this helps 🙂
This looks really good! What does the liquor in the syrup do? Can I leave it out or substitute it with something else? Thanks!
It won’t make you drunk since it’s such a scant amount, but it adds a little bit if flavor. You can totally leave it out if you do not use alcohol in baking.
For the liquior, is Barcardi Gold Rum okay to use?
Just finished making this cake for my son’s b-day. Ahhh, can’t wait to try! Was fairly easy to follow instructions, thank you so much! Love the idea of making it with small merengues, as large circle really came out dry sometimes and cracked as you cut the cake. Oh, and the whole chocolate idea Is genius !!!
Thanks Natasha! Hope you enjoy the cake as much as we did!
Looks really good. Maybe I will try to make this tomorrow to take a guests house the following day. Question…1. what difference is it to make small безе vs one large round circle? 2. No liquire at home can I substitute coffee instead? 3. What’s better to use heavy cream or ready whipped cream? 4. Which do you prefer more chocolate or vanilla sponge cake Kiev cake?
Thanks Jenny for your questions!
When you make them smaller, they have a better chance at absorbing some of the cream and making the inside crunchy, but not to the point that you can’t cut it (like it is when you do one big one). It is ready to eat faster than if you were to use just one solid circle.
With this frosting, I have found that Whipped Topping works better because it’s lighter, so it doesn’t way down the cream as much. I am saying as a person that absolutely hates the fact that Whipped Topping is not made with natural ingredients.
I don’t really have a preference just because they taste very different and both are very very good. You really should try both and decide for yourself.
Omg, I want this. I cant believe you didnt make this cake for us to try. You are so talented! I love it
To be honest I wanted to, but ran out of time)) But hey, there’s a reason to get together again 😀
No words my friend. This is fabulous, you have such talent with cakes!! 🙂
Thank you dear :* !
That is absolutely stunning! I will try to make it as soon as possible because I just can’t get this cake out my mind now 😀 However, I’m a little worried about meringue as I’ve always had problems with it. But I hope your directions and photos will help me. Thank you for your great recipes. I’ve already tried your Napoleon cake and have some other cake recipes in my plans 🙂
Hi Ernesta,
Thank you!
I know some people do have problems with meringue that’s why I really tried to spell it out, hopefully it will help you get perfect meringue on the first try! To increase your chance of success, try to do it on a dry day, I’ve heard it helps 🙂 In any case, let me know how it all goes!
A promising recipe! Shouldn’t it be egg whites for the meringue?
Yes it should lol, thanks for catching that! It was such a long post that I am surprised I didn’t write scrambled eggs hehe
Not only are your recipes so concise and doable ; the pictures are also warmth exuding! How do you click such real looking pictures?
I am so impressed, Marina! I have never made a Kiev cake and I am not even sure I’ve had one. If I have it was so deep down in my childhood that I don’t remember but it looks like EVERYTHING I love! I am definitely going to make it and because the closest suitable occasion is Canadian Thanksgiving it will be soon. I love the step-by-step instructions too. I know how long it takes to produce them, so well done, my friend! I love that the cake looks like a classic cake of the Soviet period, such a nostalgic thing for the likes of us. 😉
I’m not sure if you know, but the original recipe that was made by the soviet bakery was made of hazelnut daquoise layers and buttercream, not sponge and meringue, but homecooks never made it with daquoise and always with sponge and meringue. So even if you did have it at times of the soviet era, it probably wasn’t this one :D. Nevertheles, you should try it 😀 It’s kind of like that “Marina’s Bird’s Milk Cake”, a lot of steps but so so worth it!
And yes, the step by step photos are such a pain, but I think for recipes that are a little more involved it’s almost crucial.
Let me know when you make it! I bet I will see it somewhere on Facebook when you do 😉