The way to the kitchen
Mrs. Danguolė smiles that her story is different from that of many housewives who loved to mess around in the kitchen as little girls. As a child, she did not like to cook – her grandmother, a great hostess, spoiled her children not only with very tasty food, but also with sweet baked goods. Even when she grew up, Danguolė was not attracted to the kitchen, and when her grandmother was invited to help a little, she always found an excuse to make herself when she got married.
And so it happened. After getting married, Danguolė quite successfully got involved in cooking, first for her husband, and then for her children. A serious confectionary breakthrough, she says, happened in 1992, when she was preparing for her son’s second birthday, when she had the unexpected idea of baking a celebratory cake.
The traditional “Medutis”, which was baked according to the recipe suggested by my aunt’s friend, came out with a great taste. Inspired by her success, she tried to bake another “Medučis” cake according to the same recipe, only slightly adjusting it at her discretion – she put her foot in pig fat, which she used to replace the butter specified in the baking recipe.
“Because of such a failure, I was very angry with myself and simply quit the class,” says the interviewer.
But one day, in 1997, she received a call from an acquaintance who told her that she was leaving her position at the Gruzdzii Agricultural School and offered to replace her – to get a job as a cooking technology teacher.
The offer, D. Kraskauskienė laughs, did not really turn out to be attractive simply because she had only as much to do with food production as she did for the family, like a common woman in a family. But he needed a job, so he decided to give it a try. After being hired, she first taught herself a little so that she could teach others. This is how she became a professional teacher.
Sponge cakes and rose flower decoration
Danguola liked working with schoolgirls, future housekeepers – she experimented by creating cakes, “Ants” and cupcakes.
“Once, in Šiauliai kraste, I saw a recipe for a cake with condensed milk: one part is white, and the other part is brown, made from cocoa. I tried, it worked. I only adjusted the recipe according to myself: if in the recipe the layers were spread only with sour cream, then I also added fruit to that cream – strawberries grown by myself in the summer, and bananas, canned peaches, raspberries in the winter.”
And then they started baking biscuit cakes.
“It can be said that they are their own creations. I bake a light biscuit, cut it into four parts. I smear the first layer with lemon cream (recipe for it later), add fruit on it – strawberries, blueberries or raspberries, then apply a layer of mascarpone cream with sour cream (many housewives add cream). I dedicate the next layer of the cake to chocolate, I put bananas on it, and again mascarpone and sour cream on top, again a new sheet, and so I layer the cake. In the morning, I will decorate as I see fit,” says D. Kraskauskienė.
The owner of the “styles” of biscuit cakes, who finished her career in 2008 at the Gruzdzii School of Agriculture, has preserved to this day – the essence, she says, of creams of various flavors and colors created by herself, which become the highlight of the biscuit.
“The way I do it, there is no such recipe, it’s all from my head. For example, I prepare the mascarpone cream not with cream, as usual, but with 30 percent fat cream – then the cake does not stretch. The sequence is as follows: first I beat sour cream with sugar and vanilla sugar, then I add lemon acid or juice, and then I add mascarpone and mix everything slowly,” Mrs. Danguolė shares her pastry secrets.
He says that he really doesn’t like weighing and measuring products – he does everything “by eye”. If it seems that more sugar is needed that day, add more sugar, if you want more acidity or juice, add it according to taste.
“I used to measure. If there are six eggs, so much sugar, and the same amount of flour. And now I don’t even distinguish egg whites from yolks. I just beat the eggs, add sugar, vanilla sugar – ten thoughts and that’s it, all that remains is flour – if there were 6 eggs, then 6 spoons of flour, if it’s too liquid – I add another spoon – all the math,” says the interviewer.
She is open-minded and has no inclination towards art, so decorating baked cakes is not an easy task for her.
“It’s good that the fashion these days is open sides of cakes, you don’t need to cover them from top to bottom anymore. I even learned how to cook meringue cream for it once. And sometimes I had to invite the neighbor to the taluk,” he says.
When decorating the top of the cake, I usually use live flowers, if there are any – roses for decorating cakes.
D. Kraskauskienė likes to feed her colleagues, friends and close people with her baked goods, although she herself does not like sweets, she much prefers to replace them with vegetables, especially if they are homemade.
Now she spends relatively little time in the kitchen because, she says, there is no one to cook anymore. She really likes the fact that both children, both the daughter’s family living in Vilnius and the son’s family in Šiauliai, love home-cooked food and not only cook well, but also decorate the dishes themselves.
“Everyone can make and bake cakes, it just takes patience and a great desire. Sometimes I think to myself, how am I here now with those cakes.”
Heaven cake recipe
The weight of the baked goods will be about 2-2.5 kilograms.
For the biscuit you will need: 6 eggs (7 smaller ones), 6-7 tablespoons of sugar, 6-7 tablespoons of flour, 20 grams of vanilla sugar.
Beat the washed eggs in a mixing bowl, add sugar and vanilla sugar and beat until the volume increases five times. The whipped mass of eggs and sugar is stiff. Sift one spoonful of flour into this mass through a sieve and carefully mix with a pastry brush. The biscuit mass should be the thickness of sour cream. Pour the prepared mass into the prepared 24-centimeter round cake form, cover the bottom with baking paper. Brush the walls and bottom of the cake form with oil so that the biscuit can be easily removed. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 30 minutes, do not open the oven, only check with a wooden stick at the end of baking to see if the biscuit is cooked.
To spread the mascarpone cream, you will need: 500 grams of mascarpone cheese, 400 grams of 30 percent sour cream, sugar to taste, vanilla sugar, lemon juice to taste.
Whip the cream with sugar. Season with vanilla sugar and lemon juice. Add the mascarpone cheese and beat everything at low speed into a smooth cream.
For lemon cream you will need: 3 eggs, 200 grams of sugar, 2-3 lemons, 150-180 grams of butter.
Baking soda to wash eggs and lemons. Beat the eggs in a container, add sugar, grate the peels from the lemons, squeeze the juice and mix everything well.
Add water to the bottom of the pot and heat the prepared mass on the steam, stirring it all the time. When the mass thickens, add butter and mix everything well. Remove from the pot and leave to cool.
For the chocolate cream: melt 100-150 grams of chocolate together with milk, either on a steam bath or in the microwave.
Fruits – according to your taste: strawberries, canned peaches, raspberries, blueberries, bananas.
Assembling the cake.
Cut the biscuit into 3-4 parts. Spread lemon cream on the biscuit sheet, sprinkle with available fruit and spread mascarpone cream on top. Pour melted chocolate over another sheet of biscuit, place slices of sliced banana on it and spread mascarpone cream on top.
Continue to spread another biscuit sheet like the first one (lemon cream, fruit, mascarpone cream). This is how to layer all the biscuit sheets.
Cover the cake form with cling film and put it in the fridge. After 8-12 hours, remove the cake from the mold and decorate.
