This article describes the detailed preparation of Anthill cake with condensed milk according to a photo recipe, and also suggests various cooking options: from simple to the most original, and also provides recommendations on the choice of products.
A few words about the cake
Despite its enormous popularity, it is still unknown who the author of such a simple and at the same time amazing product is: the Anthill cake remains one of the favorites among people who lived in the early 90s. No matter how interested individuals tried to find out the history of the creation and father of the cake, this fact still remains open.
All that is known is that it spread massively during perestroika and terrible food shortages (which is probably why it became so beloved by everyone).
The calorie content of the “Anthill” cake (with condensed milk) is 385 calories per 100-gram serving, so you should not overuse it, because because of its taste, you may not stop in time and eat a couple of extra kilos.
Cooking options
There are several recipes for Anthill cake with condensed milk (instead of cream), but they are all based on chopping the base and shaping the cake into a pyramid or cone. The following options are considered the most common and accessible for preparation:
- A classic recipe based on shortcrust pastry: according to it, the dough is passed through a meat grinder to obtain thin strips, which are baked and broken into pieces, smeared with condensed milk.
- “Anthill” cake made from cookies: this option is called lazy because you don’t need to spend a lot of time with preparing the dough and baking, and the basis is taken from ready-made cookies of the “Tea”, “Baked Milk”, “Yubileinoe” type.
- Original and author's versions with the addition of candied fruits, dried fruits, nuts and other goodies. Also, this version of the cake may not contain the usual boiled condensed milk, but with the addition of cocoa powder, Nutella, or condensed milk whipped with butter.
Shortcrust pastry recipe
The classic “Anthill” cake with condensed milk is made from shortcrust pastry, so that those with a sweet tooth and those who like quick recipes won’t say so. The dough recipe is as follows:
- 300 grams of high-quality margarine (fat content must be at least 76%), you can also use butter in the same amount.
- 120 grams of granulated sugar.
- Two or three spoons of poppy seeds, it is this that gives the special feeling of eating an anthill because of the black seeds in the dough. There is no need to pre-steam or chop the poppy seeds.
- 800 grams of wheat flour.
- 0.5 teaspoon of soda, quenched with vinegar or citric acid.
- Ice water.
The dough is kneaded in the traditional way: margarine is grated on a coarse grater or chopped into small pieces with a knife and ground with flour (pre-sifted through a sieve) into buttery crumbs. It is important to do this carefully so that all the pieces of butter are crushed. Next, add sugar and baking powder, poppy seeds and knead the dough. To do this, you need to add a small amount of cold water to the dough, which should be added during the kneading process, just a little, so that the dough forms into a dense lump.
In no case should you knead it for a long time, since shortbread dough is categorically unacceptable: during baking it will become hard and dense instead of becoming light and crumbly. Be sure to place the dough in the refrigerator for one to two hours, wrapped in plastic. This is also a prerequisite for preparing good quality shortcrust pastry.
Dough recipe with sour cream
Also, the dough base for the Anthill cake with condensed milk can be prepared according to the following recipe:
- Soften 400 grams of butter at room temperature and mash with a fork.
- Lightly beat three eggs with a blender and mix with butter until smooth.
- Gradually pour 280 grams of warm milk into the butter mixture, stirring, and then add one packet of baking powder. If it is not there, then mix 0.5 teaspoons of soda with citric acid on the tip of a knife and pour into the dough.
- Sift 800 grams of flour through a sieve and add to the milk-butter mixture, constantly kneading immediately with a spoon and then with your hands.
Knead the dough and, placing it in a plastic bag, put it in the refrigerator for an hour and a half. After this, you can start baking the base for the cake.
Cake molding
The “Anthill” cake (with condensed milk) has a lumpy structure, thanks to a specifically prepared dough base: we take it out of the refrigerator and pass it in small portions through a regular meat grinder. Place the resulting thin strips of dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake in the oven at a temperature of 200-220 degrees until light golden brown. It is advisable not to dry them too much, otherwise the cake will need more cream for impregnation and time for this, respectively.
If you don’t have a meat grinder or you don’t really want to use one for this kind of thing, then you can freeze the dough further and then grate it on a grater with large holes onto parchment, which is laid out on a baking sheet. Spread the grated mass in a thin layer over the entire surface, bake in the oven and, after cooling, divide into pieces.
We break the baked pieces of dough into small pieces, no more than one centimeter in length, and place them in a wide bowl, put boiled condensed milk there (at least two cans of 400 grams each) and mix thoroughly. The mass should be viscous, but not too tight, the dough should absorb the liquid part, and then the cake will become dense and hold its shape. If you have a deep and narrow bowl, you can use it as a mold; if not, you will have to wait a couple of hours for the baked pieces of dough to absorb the cream a little and be able to hold the shape of the cake. If you are using a mold, you should line the inside with cling film and simply place the prepared mixture of cookies and cream there, compacting it tightly. If the cake is formed without utensils, then simply pile it up, making it look like an anthill.
How to make cream correctly
The classic recipe for Anthill cake - with condensed milk. Moreover, boiled to a brown thick state. To do this, two ordinary tin cans of condensed milk are placed in a small saucepan, filled completely with water and placed on the stove. After boiling, the fire becomes smaller, but small bubbles of boiling water should still be present. If you suddenly find that the water is boiling away and the jars are not completely closed, then you should add hot (!) water to the required level. After about two hours, we take out the jars and, after cooling, open them. The thick sweet mass is condensed milk boiled to cream.
Another version of cake cream
You can coat the cake with the resulting boiled condensed milk, or you can beat 400 grams of the best quality butter with prepared condensed milk, gradually adding it to the whipped mixture and achieving the desired consistency. Also, if desired, you can add 200 grams of walnuts, lightly toasted in a dry frying pan and crushed to small crumbs. You can use chocolate chips or nuts to sprinkle the top of the cake, and pour chocolate glaze over it. In the classic recipe, the cake is sprinkled with crumbs from the remnants of cookies, crushed to the state of fine sand.
Quick recipe: from cookies
If you don’t have the time or desire to bother with baking the base, then you can do without baking. Anthill cake with condensed milk can be made from regular cookies, crumbled into small pieces. To do this, use the simplest tea cookies made from baked milk, shortbread (without cream or glaze) or with a small addition of peanuts.
The cookies are broken into pieces by hand or using a rolling pin (just roll the cookies out on the table) and mixed with condensed milk cream prepared according to the recipe above. Under no circumstances should you grind the cookies with a blender - they will turn into fine crumbs, and this contradicts the main idea of the cake, because it should be lumpy, with cavities of cream, and not smooth. After cooking, such a cake must be soaked for at least twelve hours to achieve optimal taste.
Modern version: “The bigger the pile, the better!”
Over the past ten years, the simple recipe for Anthill cake made from cookies with condensed milk has changed beyond recognition: now various additives have been added to it to diversify the taste and appearance. For 800 grams of cookies, crushed into small pieces, you need to take one hundred grams of raisins, chopped dried apricots, pitted prunes, dried figs, walnuts or hazelnuts, you can also take marmalade with a dense texture and also cut into small cubes, adding to the cookies.
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and add condensed milk: boiled or whipped with butter, mix thoroughly until the cream is evenly distributed throughout the mass. On a dish we form the cake in the form of a cone, and to give it a similarity to an anthill, you can sprinkle it with grated chocolate or chopped walnuts.
You should not buy ready-made boiled condensed milk for the Anthill cake, as it is characterized by an increased amount of artificial thickeners, which significantly distort the taste of the product. At the same time, such a low-grade product will not be able to fully saturate shortbread dough, which requires a lot of moisture.
When purchasing condensed milk, you need to study the label: the product should contain only cow's milk and sugar. Everything else is pathetic attempts to make money by adding vegetable fats to this product or something worse. How to distinguish the right product from a fake? Real condensed milk is called that, but “Condensed milk”, “Natural condensed milk” or “Varenka” is another, not necessarily a quality product.
Ingredients:
For the test:
- 100 gr. butter.
- 4-5 tbsp. spoons of sugar.
- 5 tbsp. spoons of sour cream.
- 350 gr. flour.
- 1 teaspoon baking powder.
For cream:
- 100 gr. butter.
- 200 gr. boiled condensed milk.
For decoration:
- Confectionery poppy
How to make Anthill cake with condensed milk:
1. First, let's do the dough. Softened butter must be ground with sugar.
2. Then add sour cream to the resulting mass. Mix well again.
3. Now it’s the turn of the flour and baking powder, which must first be sifted.
4. Knead the dough, which will be more like crumbs. But we need to achieve exactly this texture.
5. Now the most interesting process begins! We pass our dough through a meat grinder and immediately place it on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. When all the dough has been distributed, place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
6. At this time, prepare the cream. To do this, beat the softened butter with a mixer until white, then mix with it and beat thoroughly again.
7. Remove the browned shortbread dough from the oven and let it cool completely. Then use a rolling pin to crush it into crumbs.
8. In a deep bowl, thoroughly mix the resulting crumbs and cream, compact well and leave for about an hour.
9. After this, place the workpiece on a flat dish, form a slide and sprinkle with poppy seeds. We put it in the refrigerator for half an hour, after which the delicious Anthill cake with condensed milk can be served with tea!
Today we will reproduce the time-tested and time-tested classic recipe for the Anthill cake. Simple homemade baking in the form of a small mound of pieces of dough twisted through a meat grinder, coated with butter cream, was very popular in the early 90s. But even now, despite the colossal competition from other dessert products, “Anthill” is in demand and is actively prepared at home and in confectionery factories.
This cake can be either a simple dessert for an everyday cup of tea or a sweet dish as part of a holiday menu. You can prepare and bake the dough pieces ahead of time, and coat them with cream and assemble the mound at any free minute. The only thing that needs to be taken into account is the time for soaking the dessert, so it is better to prepare the “Anthill” in the evening.
Ingredients: 
For the test:
- butter - 200 g;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- milk - 150 ml;
- baking powder - 2 teaspoons;
- flour - 500 g.
For cream:
- condensed milk (boiled) - 380 g;
- butter - 200 g.
For registration:
- poppy seed (optional) - 1-2 tbsp. spoons.
Cake "Anthill" recipe with photos step by step
How to make dough for Anthill cake
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator in advance and allow it to melt and soften as much as possible. Cut the pliable butter mass into random pieces and mix with the eggs. Rub with a spoon or beat lightly with a mixer.
- Pour milk into the butter-egg mixture. Mix the flour with baking powder and gradually add it to the liquid mass.
- Knead a soft, manageable dough. Next, you should choose exactly how the “Anthill” will be prepared - you can use a meat grinder, manually tear the dough into very small pieces, or grate it. In our example, we will give preference to the last option.
- For convenience, divide the mass into 4 equal pieces, wrap each of them in cling film and put them in the freezer for an hour and a half. The dough should cool well and harden a little so that it is easy to grate and does not smear on the grater. In the case of a meat grinder, it is enough to keep the dough on the refrigerator shelf for 30-40 minutes.
- We take two chilled pieces of flour mass out of the freezer, rub it with large shavings and spread it in a thin layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 15-20 minutes (the flour pieces should turn slightly golden). Rub and bake the remaining dough in the same way.
Cream for Anthill cake recipe with photo
- While the baked goods are cooling, prepare a simple cream. Beat the softened butter until fluffy.
- Add boiled condensed milk. We work with a mixer until a homogeneous mass of light caramel color is obtained.
- Break the cooled baked dough into small pieces and add to the cream.
- Mix very thoroughly so that all the pieces are soaked as evenly as possible.
- After tamping, place the mass on a plate in the form of a small slide.
- If desired, sprinkle the cake with poppy seeds or grated chocolate to imitate ants. Place the product in the refrigerator overnight to completely soak it in.
- Cut the finished “Anthill” cake into portioned segments and serve.
Enjoy your tea!
Hello, dear readers!
Today I will be preparing a very tasty dessert from childhood with crispy shortcrust pastry crumbs and delicate milk cream. I think everyone has guessed that this time I will share with you the recipe for Anthill cake. Hearing this name, I always remember my school years, when he was a frequent guest in our house and was a decoration of the holiday table.
Why was this particular sweetness prepared more often than others during the years of perestroika - the time of my childhood? Probably due to the availability of all the ingredients included in the Anthill, and also for its attractive appearance, so reminiscent of a forest anthill, and exciting a child’s imagination.
Time has passed, but even today this dessert continues to be a favorite of kids and adults. And all because this cake combines two opposites - a crispy, airy dry base and a sweet, fatty, but at the same time delicate butter cream that envelops each sand ball and turns the whole dish into a delicacy that melts in your mouth.
Well, that’s enough lyrics, I think everyone can’t wait to start preparing the delicious Anthill cake...
Nutritional value of the dish per 100 grams.
BJU: 6 /25 /43.
Kcal: 414.
GI: high.
AI: high.
Cooking time: 50 min.
Number of servings: 7 servings (1.45 kg).
Ingredients of the dish.
Shortbread dough.
- Butter (margarine) - 200 g (1 pack).
- Wheat flour - 450 g (3 tbsp).
- Egg - 2 pcs.
- Sugar (powdered sugar) - 100 g (1/2 tbsp).
- Soda - 2 g (1/4 tsp).
- Lemon juice - 10 ml (1 tsp).
- Salt (optional) - 2 g (1/4 tsp).
Cream.
- Butter - 180 g (1 pack).
- Boiled condensed milk - 380 g (1 can).
Recipe of dish.
Prepare the ingredients. All products, butter (margarine), eggs, condensed milk, must be chilled.
You can use margarine for the flour base, but butter will make it more crumbly.
Sift the flour first, this will make the dough airy. I advise you to grind the sugar to a powder (I do this using a blender), so it will dissolve more easily, and the finished mass will simply melt in your mouth.
Set the oven to preheat to 200-220 C.
Butter or margarine (200 g) must be finely chopped (grated) and thoroughly ground with powdered sugar or sugar (100 g).
You can do this by hand, but I prefer to use a mixer with hook attachments at all stages of preparing the dough, since body heat can heat the dough, which creates the risk of getting a dense and hard product.
Then add eggs (2 pieces) to the bowl and mix the mass again. Instead of eggs, you can use only yolks (3 pcs), then the shortbread dough will be more crumbly.
Add soda (1/4 tsp), slaked with lemon juice (1 tbsp) and a pinch of salt (for a piquant taste) into the egg-oil mixture.
The finished mass can be placed in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes, so that all the ingredients are distributed more evenly over its area, and the finished product becomes more airy and crumbly.
Now the dough must be passed through a meat grinder. To do this, place the device over a baking sheet and lay out the sausages coming out of it in one layer on a metal sheet.
There is no need to pre-treat the surface.
Bake the sand base in an oven preheated to 200-220 C until golden (light brown) for 20-25 minutes.
Beat the mixture with a mixer until smooth.
We take the fried cookies out of the oven and grind them into crumbs while they are hot. The crumb is about the size of a fingernail.
Place the cream and crushed shortbread dough in a bowl and mix everything with your hands until smooth. I left 1-2 tbsp of very fine crumbs for sprinkling the cake.
Place the resulting mass onto a plate in a heap, compacting it well with your hands.
To make the dessert look like a real forest anthill, you can sprinkle it with poppy seeds or finely grated chocolate on top. I didn’t have either of these, so I used the remaining fine sand crumbs for this purpose.
Now we need to put our dish in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours so that all its elements set and form a dense, solid surface throughout the entire volume.
The cooled cake does not crumble when cut and holds its shape well.
This is what an appetizing, crispy and tasty dessert I got.
I'm looking forward to your comments about this recipe, I'm very interested in how it turned out.
Bon appetit!
Below is a video of the preparation of this wonderful dish.
Products for the test:
- Flour - 400 gr.
- Sour cream - 150 gr.
- Drain. butter - 200 gr.
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Sugar - 4-5 tbsp.
Products for cream:
- Boiled condensed milk or condensed cream - 1.5 cans
- Butter - 200-300 gr.
For decoration:
- milk chocolate bar.
Anthill cake is very easy to prepare, so even a novice housewife can handle it. The base of the cake is shortbread dough, and the filling is condensed milk mixed with butter. Decorated as desired, but usually shaped like a tubercle. But even such a simple cake can be beautifully decorated on top if desired. For example, make small ants and sticks from it that they drag into the hole.
And here is an equally delicious one made from wheat sticks and toffee, which DOES NOT NEED to be baked!
Step-by-step recipe with photo of anthill cake:
1. Add sugar to soft butter and mix. I don’t add a lot of sugar to the dough (only 4 tablespoons), because the cream will be very sweet. Its sweetness is enough to satisfy your taste buds.
2. Break two eggs into butter and sugar and mix.
3. Add 150 gr. sour cream. I didn't have it on hand, so I added milk. But it made the dough a little tough. It’s better not to add milk or sour cream at all, or sour cream, or something richer.
4. Add 1 tsp. baking powder.
5. Sift the flour and mix.
6. Once the dough is no longer stirred with a spoon, knead it with your hands.
7. Divide into small balls, so that they can then fit into your meat grinder. Chill the dough balls in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Chilled dough will spin better through the meat grinder and will mess it up less.
8. While the dough is resting in the refrigerator, make the cream. Beat soft butter with a mixer. If the whipping container does not have very high sides, cover it on top with your hands so that the oil does not splatter on the table.
9. Add condensed cream or boiled condensed milk and mix everything together again with a mixer.
10. The cream for our anthill is ready. Let him stand on the sidelines and await his fate, while we return to the test.
8. Pass the chilled dough through a meat grinder and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
9. Bake the finished rolled sausages in the oven until golden brown. I baked them for 20 minutes at 180 degrees. Apparently they turned out plump, I usually bake the shortbread dough for 10-15 minutes. For example, like here, with very tasty and crumbly dough. By the way, this dough can be used as the basis for a homemade Anthill cake.
10. Crumble the finished strips with your hands while still warm. Due to the fact that the dough was passed through a meat grinder, the strips crumble easily, especially when warm.
11. Add the cream that was waiting for us on the side to the broken crumbs and mix.
12. The main stage of preparation is done, all that remains is decoration.
13. But after trying the kneaded crumbs with cream, I realized that not everyone in our family likes to bite the hard dough (I think it became like that because of the milk). Therefore, it was decided to twist the main part of the mass again through a meat grinder, and leave a small part for decoration on top. So I did.
14. I poured chocolate melted in the microwave on top of the ant hill using a culinary syringe. Chocolate topping, one might say). And cooled it in the refrigerator.
15. Homemade Anthill cake was a great success. I really liked that I ground the coarse crumbs into fine ones. In this version, the cake is more tender and even somewhat reminiscent of halva. If you prepare for it
