Hey everyone, it's Natasha from natashaskitchen.com,

and today we're making my favorite cake.

It's actually my mom's recipe for her Spartak cake or

Спартак cake, and we're gonna do a twist on it.

We're gonna make it chocolate.

This is one of the most requested videos on my blog,

and so, here you go, enjoy.

We're gonna start with the ingredients.

So you'll need two cups minus a tablespoon of flour,

a tablespoon and a half of cocoa, one cup of sugar,

one large egg, four tablespoons of soften butter,

1/3 cup of sugar, and one teaspoon of baking soda.

And for the frosting, you'll need one package or eight

ounces of cream cheese and get that to room temperature

so take it out now 'cause you'll need it later.

Also, two packages of unsalted butter,

also at room temperature, and one can of uncooked

sweetened condensed milk.

3/4 cups of heavy whipping cream and

about a tablespoon and a half of powdered sugar.

Now, if you don't want to make your own whipped cream,

you can use eight ounces of Cool Whip, if you want to.

I like the heavy whipping cream version,

but that's up to you.

So, let's get started on this great cake.

The first thing we want to do is sift together

your flour and your cocoa.

The baby wanted chocolate, that's what happened.

And so, can't refuse the baby, nope!

I'm 18 weeks now and these chocolate

cravings are getting crazy.

Okay, I think that's all that's coming out of

that little cup; it must have been wet.

I don't know, whatver.

Okay so, we've got that sifted let's put that aside.

Now, the next thing we want to do is in the bowl of a

stand mixer, and you can do this with a hand mixer,

it's just a little more tedious.

We're gonna put in one cup of sugar

and one egg.

Okay and you're gonna beat that for six minutes on

medium speed just to get the sugar nice and dissolved.

Scrape down the bowl as needed.

I just do that once in the middle of mixing.

We're ready to add our butter,

our baking soda,

and add warm milk.

Now, we're going to crank that up to medium-high

speed and go for another three minutes.

Next, you're gonna set up your water bath,

and you don't need any special equipment for this.

I just have a large pot of water,

well it's about a 1/4, filled with boiling water.

I've got a glass bowl over the top;

you can also put a smaller pot over the top.

You just want it sitting above the water so it's over

the steam and not actually submerged in the water.

So, we're gonna take our mixture from our stand mixer,

and just pour it into that hot bowl.

And, we're gonna mix it for about

10 minutes, just stirring frequently.

Okay our mixture has been on the stove for about 10 minutes,

and we're gonna remove it.

Just be careful because there's hot steam underneath.

Turn off the stove,

and, without waiting, we're gonna mix in

our sifted flour and cocoa.

You don't want to wait or you will ruin the dough.

Okay, so just stir that in.

Now, you can see what this looks like when the flour

is all incorporated, and it's still very sticky.

Now, keep in mind, it hardens as it cools,

so what you're gonna do is just set this aside

and let it sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, you can see that the dough is no longer

really sticking to the spatula.

It's still warm to the touch

so while it's warm is when it's the easiest time

to roll out this dough.

So, we've got our oven preheating to 350 degrees,

and we're gonna start by taking a heaping

tablespoon at a time of this dough.

Just transfer that dough onto a sheet of parchment paper.

And, you're gonna sprinkle the top generously

with some flour, and that'll just keep it from

sticking to your rolling pin.

Just start rolling it out.

You're gonna make it into an about a 9-inch round.

So just start working on it, and, if it start to stick

to your pin, just sprinkle a little more flour.

Okay I've got it about 9-inch round, and, to make sure

they're even circles, what I take is the bottom of a

springform pan, you can also use a plate,

and just lay it over the top.

And then, take a pizza cutter and

just slice all the way around.

And, what's easy about this is we bake directly

on the parchment paper so what you're gonna do is,

pull the scraps away because, if you don't, they'll bake

into the cake, and you don't want that.

We want to use the scraps later to make crumbs out of them.

So, just make sure that they stay on the parchment paper,

but they're pulled away from the cake.

Now, I'm usually able to get two layers on one large sheet

of parchment paper, so we're gonna bake this for about

three to five minutes at 350 degrees.

You can use a cookie sheet or the bottom of a cookie sheet

to help you get this into the oven.

But, otherwise, you just transfer it right onto the wrap.

Okay, our first two layers are done,

and they look just perfect.

I kept them in there closer to five minutes.

And, we're just gonna let those cool, set them aside,

and actually reuse that parchment paper.

Now, to make the process a little bit faster,

while your first layers are in the oven,

you can to start rolling out your next ones.

Also, keep these dried scraps because

they'll turn into cookies, basically, that you can crush

and then create this nice topping for the cake later.

So, you're gonna continue with the rest

of your layers until you're done.

Our cake layers are done.

Our crumbs are hardening nicely.

We'll want to let that cool to

room temperature while we start on the frosting.

So, start out with two sticks of softened butter.

Put that in your mixer.

And then add one can of sweetened condensed milk,

and it can just be a raw condensed milk.

It does not have to be cooked.

Easy-peasy.

Okay and, once that's in, we're gonna beat that on

medium speed for about seven minutes.

Okay, you can see it's turned into a frosting consistency.

So, now with the mixer still on, we're gonna add the

cream cheese, just one piece at a time, and,

once it's all in, we're gonna continue mixing for

another three to five minutes or until the

cream cheese is completely mixed in.

If you see cream cheese stuck on the walls,

just scrape it down as needed.

And keep mixing until your frosting is nice and smooth.

The last step of our frosting is whipped cream.

Now, again, you can use Cool Whip, but this is just so easy,

and it's natural and tasty that I love to do it this way.

So, we're gonna put 3/4 of a cup of

heavy whipping cream in a cold bowl.

I'll put this in the freezer for

10 minutes before I make this.

And that ensures the best and fluffiest

results for whipped cream.

Then our powdered sugar, add that right in and beat on high

speed for a little under two minutes or just until it's

thick and spreadable, but don't overdo

because it'll turn buttery.

Okay, nice and thick.

Now, fold your whipped cream into your frosting,

and just stir it together until it's well incorporated.

Ugh, looks wonderful.

Okay, now for the exciting part.

We're gonna put this cake together.

All right, so we've got our layers here.

And I like to assemble it right on that parchment paper

that I was using earlier to bake.

Less waste, less cleanup.

I like it.

Okay, so we're gonna start with

our first layer on the bottom.

Okay, and then we're gonna add enough frosting on top

to completely cover the surface.

Don't be shy with the frosting.

You'll have plenty,

for all seven layers.

Ugh, this thing's gonna be so good and beautiful

when you guys finish this.

Your family's gonna love it.

This is a favorite for kids too.

Kids love this cake, my son's favorite cake.

Okay, see how much frosting I added on there?

So now just take that next layer,

put it right over the top, center it evenly,

and push down on it.

This make sure that you don't get any

air gaps under the cake.

And continue with more frosting all the way til you're done.

Alright, I like to save the most lovely and

even layer for the top.

So, push that down; that's our last layer.

And now we're gonna cover the cake on the top and

sides with lots of frosting,

just use the rest of that frosting up.

Alright, our cake is frosted.

it's smooth down and beautiful.

Remember those scraps of dough that I had baking

on the sheet with the cake layers, you know those?

Well, what I did is I pulsed them in my food processor

to create a fine crumb, and that's what

I'm gonna decorate the top with.

Now, if you don't want to use the scraps,

you can also use crushed graham crackers.

You can use chocolate shavings, and I've got

a little bit of those just to add a little more

chocolate kick to the top.

Okay, so what we're gonna do is just start sprinkling

the top and the sides with these crumbs.

It's gonna give it that classic Spartak look.

This is exactly how my mom does it.

Now, the sides of the cake, that get a little bit tricky.

There's a few different ways that you can do this.

You could either just like toss it onto the cake,

which doesn't give you a super awesome coverage.

But,

once you've got some crumbs on there and some that

have collected on the bottom of the cake,

you can just kinda flick it up.

And see how that coats it a little bit better?

Alright, our cake is decorated and now comes the hard part.

You have to wait about 10 hours to let this cake rest and

really soak up some of that great

frosting into the cake layers.

It's gonna be soft, it's gonna be so good.

It's worth the wait guys.

So, what I did is I transfer the whole cake,

with the parchment paper, right onto a cutting board.

I'm gonna cover it lightly or losely with

a piece of plastic wrap, and I'm gonna put it

in the fridge for 10 hours.

It's gonna sit in there overnight.

You can also put this in a cold garage if it's cold out.

Ugh, I can't wait so we'll get back to this once it's

soft and delicious, and you guys will see the inside.

Alright, I've been waiting so patiently for this thing to

soften up overnight, and it's perfect now.

So, what I do to transfer it from the parchment paper

to my cake platter is I take a spatula, and I just run

it around the bottom of the cake to loosen it up from that