I finished nursing school a month before our wedding and then moved to Florida to join my new husband. I had to fly back to New York to take my State Boards a few months later. When I came back home, relieved to have it over with but and still nervously awaiting the results, I was met at the airport by my new husband, who was late. When he brought me home instead of taking me out for dinner, I found out that he had made dinner himself, which was the reason for his tardiness.
Serge isn't one of those guys who cooks, even though he always lends a hand in the prep work. (He's kind of like a sous chef.) But that day he had put in a full day of work, shopped for groceries and made dinner. Ah... the things we do for love. I also found two bikes on the back patio, which we later frequently took to the beach to enjoy relaxing evening rides. The grandiose finale of the evening was a gorgeous cake that he had created. As you can see, this cake always brings me back to that beautiful evening of newlywed sweetness.
This cake is assembled from “lady fingers” made from pate choux dough (заварное тесто), the same one that you use to make cream puffs or eclaires. This gives it such a unique flavor and texture but is so simple to put together. I also include a recipe for chocolate glaze that we use all the time. When using melted chocolate to decorate a cake, it will harden in the refrigerator but this glaze still continues to have a perfect texture that melts in your mouth. The flavor is so delicious, deep, intense and chocolaty.Yields: 1 cake
Ingredients:
Pate choux batter for lady fingers:
1 ½ cups water
1 ½ sticks of butter
⅛ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups flour
6 eggs
Frosting:
2 (16 oz.) containers sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup powdered sugar
Chocolate glaze:
2-3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
4 Tablespoons sour cream
6 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Lady Fingers:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add flour all at once. 
Mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball and the flour is mixed in thoroughly. 
Cool for about 5 minutes or mix with a paddle attachment in a standing mixer or with a hand mixer until steam is no longer rising. Add eggs one at a time. 
Transfer the batter to a large ziptop bag or a pastry bag and pipe 2-3 inch long strips, about 1 cm thick onto the prepared baking sheet. 
Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven. 
Frosting:
Combine the sour cream, condensed milk, powdered sugar and vanilla in a standing mixer using the whisk attachment. Add the heavy cream and continue whisking until frosting thickens. (This way, you are actually whipping the cream right in the sour cream mixture. Cool, huh?)
Chill the bowl and the whisk attachment to help the frosting whip up better. I usually place the bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Also, use very cold sour cream and heavy cream. The frosting will not be as thick as butter cream, but it will certainly thicken as you mix it.
In a 9 inch spring form pan, spread some frosting, about ¼ of a cup, on the bottom of the pan.
Dip the lady fingers in the frosting. 
Starting at the rim, arrange the lady fingers in a circle in multiple layers to fill the pan all the way to the top. 
Make sure to arrange the day fingers tightly, with no spaces in between them. If you have little gaps, break the lady fingers into the size that you need. 
Reserve the leftover frosting in a small bowl.
Refrigerate the cake for at least a few hours. I usually keep it refrigerated overnight. It's very important to give the cake time to set and chill, otherwise it will fall apart when you take it out of the springform pan.
Line the edges of a cake stand or plate with aluminum foil. (This is to facilitate easy clean up later.) 
Run a knife or spatula around the edges of the cake. 
Invert the cake onto the center of the platter and take it out of the spring form pan. 
Cover the top and sides with the reserved frosting. 
Chocolate glaze:
In a small saucepan, whisk together all the ingredients EXCEPT the butter, while they are still cold. 
Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, until sugar dissolves and the glaze thins out to a syrupy consistency.Whisk in the butter. 
Make a pastry bag from parchment paper or regular printer paper, by taking the edges of the paper and bringing them together to form a thin point. 
It will be a triangular/cone shape. 
Pour the hot glaze in, snip off a small hole in the tip of the paper and decorate the cake.
You need to work quickly, since the glaze will harden as it cools. (You can always return the hardened glaze to the saucepan and reheat it.)
Carefully remove the aluminum foil. 
Isn't this a great trick to keeping the frosting and chocolate of the plate? Notice how clean and neat the plate is. 
Of course, you can decorate the cake any way you like. Use your imagination and enjoy.
Lady Fingers Cake (Торт "Дамские Пальчики")
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 20 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 1 cake 1x
Ingredients
Pate choux batter for lady fingers:
- 1 ½ cups water
- 1 ½ sticks of butter
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups flour
- 6 eggs
Frosting:
- 2 (16 oz.) containers sour cream
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Chocolate glaze:
- 2-3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 4 Tablespoons sour cream
- 6 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons butter
Instructions
Lady Fingers:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan.
- Add flour all at once. Mix with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball and the flour is mixed in thoroughly.
- Cool for about 5 minutes or mix with a paddle attachment in a standing mixer or with a hand mixer until steam is no longer rising.
- Add eggs one at a time.
- Transfer the batter to a large ziptop bag or a pastry bag and pipe 2-3 inch long strips, about 1 cm thick onto the prepared baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven.
Frosting:
- Combine the sour cream, condensed milk, powdered sugar and vanilla in a standing mixer using the whisk attachment.
- Add the heavy cream and continue whisking until frosting thickens.
- Chill the bowl and the whisk attachment to help the frosting whip up better. I usually place the bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Also, use very cold sour cream and heavy cream. The frosting will not be as thick as butter cream, but it will certainly thicken as you mix it.
Assembly:
- In a 9 inch spring form pan, spread some frosting, about ¼ of a cup, on the bottom of the pan.
- Dip the lady fingers in the frosting. Starting at the rim, arrange the lady fingers in a circle in multiple layers to fill the pan all the way to the top.
- Make sure to arrange the day fingers tightly, with no spaces in between them. If you have little gaps, break the lady fingers into the size that you need.
- Reserve the left over frosting in a small bowl.
- Refrigerate the cake for at least a few hours. I usually keep it refrigerated overnight. It's very important to give the cake time to set and chill, otherwise it will fall apart when you take it out of the springform pan.
- Line the edges of a cake stand or plate with aluminum foil. (This is to facilitate easy clean up later.)
- Run a knife or spatula around the edges of the cake.
- Invert the cake onto the center of the platter and take it out of the spring form pan. Cover the top and sides with the reserved frosting.
Chocolate glaze:
- In a small saucepan, whisk together all the ingredients EXCEPT the butter, while they are still cold.
- Cook over medium heat until it comes to a boil, simmer for a few minutes, until sugar dissolves and the glaze thins out to a syrupy consistency.Whisk in the butter.
- Make a pastry bag from parchment paper or regular printer paper, by taking the edges of the paper and bringing them together to form a thin point. It will be a triangular/cone shape.
- Pour the hot glaze in, snip off a small hole in the tip of the paper and decorate the cake.
- You need to work quickly, since the glaze will harden as it cools. (You can always return the hardened glaze to the saucepan and reheat it.)
- Carefully remove the aluminum foil. Of course, you can decorate the cake any way you like. Use your imagination and enjoy.
Tried it! Was super yummy! Thanks for the recipe!!!
You're welcome, Sofiya! Thanks for letting me know that you enjoyed the cake.
Hi Olga! The recipe for the lady fingers is it the same recipe as for cream puffs?
Yes, it's the same type of dough.
Hi Olga,
"Sticks of butter" - what exactly does it mean?
Can you, please, convert in gm.
Thank you
Each stick of butter is approximately 100 grams.
Thank you , Olga!
Hi I REALLY loved your recipe I did it yesturday and it was amazing!! My sister dropped a store cake today and we used the cream to fill it up and it was truned out AMAZING!!!!!! THANK YOU GOD BLESS YOU!!!!
That's great, Melana. Glad you liked it.
Your detailed tutorials are amazing! I can only imagine how much effort you put into this. I am pinning lots of your recipes - thank you!
Thanks so much, Julia! It means a lot for me to hear your kind words.
I loved making this cake!! So easy and fun! Thank you for the recipe Olya!!!;)
I think it's fun to make too, Julie. It kind of feels like arts and crafts, making all the pieces fit together, dunking the lady fingers in the frosting...
Hello Olga. I made this cake tonight but waiting until tomorrow to finish it up. So I was only able to get exactly 36 lady fingers from the pastry. How many did you get? I felt like there was not enough of them and too much sour cream mixture. Just like almost everyone else stated, my sour cream mixture was really runny. I read all the comments and tried to do what others have done but my cream turned out soupy and runny. Hopefully it will become stiff overnight. I will report back tomorrow with the results. 🙂
Oksana, I don't remember the exact amount of lady fingers but it was definitely enough to fill the entire cake pan. The original recipe calls for JUST sour cream and sugar for the frosting. It's supposed to be on the thinner side so that the frosting soaks into the lady fingers. If the frosting is too thick, it will not soak into the lady fingers and your cake will be dry.
I've made this frosting and cake many, MANY times and have never had any issues with it. Unfortunately, I can't be in your kitchen, the best I can do is give you step by step pictures and instructions of how I prepare it. If it doesn't work out for you, I'm truly sorry.
Hi Olchik, how long do you mix the cream for? Approximately..
Hi Inna B.
It's been a while since I made this cake, so I don't really remember how long I mixed the frosting.
It really depends on how chilled your bowl and ingredients were and also what kind of mixer you're using. If you're using a hand mixer, you will need to mix it much longer than if you're using a standing mixer. You need to watch the consistency. When the frosting becomes thick, it's ready. You should be able to see it very well.
Hi Olga,
I am planning to make this cake about 8-9'' size. Is one batch of dough enough?
Thanks
Faith,
It will definitely be enough batter for a cake that size. That's the size that I made.
Olga thank you so much for this cake. Everyone loved it.My mom said it's her favorite cake now. She asked me to make it for her birthday that is coming up and dad said to make two one from me and one from him 🙂
This cake reminded me of ice cream that we ate in Russia. It is just so good. I love the cream, its just perfect. Not too sweet, but so delicious. Cake turned out so beautiful and unusual. I decorated it with roses that i made out of candy.
Thanks, Vera!
I love pastry cream and pastry dough, so this is a favorite of mine as well. It's pretty simple to make too, for a cake. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.
What kind of cream is "heavy cream"?
My cream was runny, is it because I used light sour cream??
Hi Veronika,
I've never used light sour cream, so I'm not sure if it would have an effect on it. My other suggestion is that maybe you didn't mix it long enough or the ingredients weren't cold enough.
I found a video on YouTube, and I found the solution, mine was too runny, I guess I used the extra large eggs... thanks for the reply
Hi Veronika,
I'm glad you were able to figure it out. Hope it works better next time.
may you tell me please, what's wrong with my ladies fingers, they didn't turn out round like your, I would like to know why
I'm not sure, Veronika. I've never had any issues with the lady fingers. I don't know what you may have done wrong, since I wasn't in the kitchen with you. Did you bake the lady fingers at the correct temperature and was your oven preheated? Did you follow the instructions for the pastry dough exactly?
this is awesome, and it looks easy, just a little more patients and time, going to try on Monday, Love your blog