Peach and Blueberry Sharlotka

Sorry for the quality of this pic, y’all. My heathens don’t wait for posed pics when it comes to sharlotka!

Wait, what? Why are we doing cake right now, you ask? Because, honestly, I’m tired of bread and though we all might like a dessert instead. This just uses baking soda, which I assume everyone’s got.

I learned about sharlotka many years ago, when some former-Soviet block people in my life asked me to make them an “apple pie.” I made them an apple pie, and across the board they were upset.

…

Why did you ask me for apple pie if that’s not what you wanted?

Turned out that what we might call “apple cake” gets translated a little differently than one might expect. They wanted an apple cake. Now, this happened many years before the internet had achieved its current glory, though we were outside the Juno and AOL-only era. I did what non-library research I could, using weird search strings like “Russian apple pie,” because for some reason it never occurred to anyone that the actual name of the cake might be helpful. Eventually I found a recipe written by a wonderful and unknown-to-me woman named Olga. She also called it “Russian apple pie,” rather than sharlotka. I didn’t understand some of the instructions, because it told me the batter would be thick like sour cream. She was talking about smetana rather than the sour cream we Americans are used to, and it really is quite a lot thicker. I just didn’t know that back then, and I was astonished when I later did learn about smetana. Mostly because wow, that batter is like it.

I made her recipe, and yeah. It was worth the trouble, for sure. Her base recipe is still what I use, though I added salt, often spices, sometimes extracts, and so on in later versions. It wasn’t until grad school that it occurred to me to try fruits other than apples, because I looked at this cake through the narrow lens I had received it in. During a class, I was having a conversation with a Ukrainian woman about what foods we were going to make for the class party. Since the class was about Vygotsky, we obviously were all bringing regional foods. I mentioned the soup (ukha) I planned to bring (her family makes it a bit differently than I learned it, favoring mushrooms over the cabbage I prefer to add), and I explained the cake to her. At last, I was given an actual, real name for this cake! Sharlotka! The word rolled off my tongue satisfyingly, because at last I could address it, talk about it, and think about it with the right label! She also told me it’s common to use dried fruits in the winter, and her favorite fruit for it is peaches. I do this with dried and fresh fruits of multiple varieties now, and my sharlotka life is better for it. This is my go to for when I’ve got unexpected guests, because it’s easy to make and everyone likes it.

This particular version has canned peaches in it, because I knocked a can off the shelf and it dented. I normally keep a few cans of fruit hidden in the pantry for treats for the child, but with the dent it was going to have to happen faster than I’d intended. I gave her some peaches and she told me she didn’t know until then that she only likes peaches fresh. Now I have this can of peaches, and I know no one else is going to eat them this way. Enter sharlotka, my current savior on the food waste front!

Here’s what you need

1 can of sliced peaches (or other fruit), well-drained

1/2 cup or so fresh or dried blueberries (or not, or different fruit) - dried makes a prettier end product, but you’ll use less

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cardamom (if you won’t have this, you can use cinnamon or whatever spice you like instead)

1/2-1 teaspoon fresh lemon or orange peel (I used bergamot orange, which is sharper like lemon; if dried cut the amount in half)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup flour

Classic preparations call for 3 tart apples, peeled, cored, and sliced, none of the spices or extracts, and generally don’t have the salt either. Directions below will be the same, irrespective of the fruit you choose or any other add-ins.

Prepare the pan!

In a 9” springform pan, 9” round, or 8-9” square pan, you’ll want to grease the bottom of the pan or use a silicone insert designed for that purpose. I use an 8” pan for this, because I don’t want my family to remember I have a springform. They might ask for cheesecake!

Once you’ve got the pan prepared, spread your peaches out on the bottom and fill in the gaps with blueberries. As such.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, salt, spices, and extract. You want to do a good job on this part. Then whisk in the soda (I sift my baking soda to ensure no gross lumps get in people’s mouths), then the flour. Pour it into the pan, but remember: this batter is THICK, so you’ll move the bowl around as you pour rather than expecting it to evenly disburse on its own. No need to spread it out to cover everything - this cake can manage its own business in the oven! It should look like this when you’re done:

Bake Time!

Preheat your oven to 400F/200C/Gas mark 6, then put that little pan of delight in the oven for 1 hour. When it comes out, give it 10-15 minutes to rest on a cooling rack (it will look like the picture below), then run a knife along the edges before inverting it onto your serving plate or platter. Most people dust powdered sugar on the cake once it’s inverted and cooled, but I rarely get the chance to since they don’t even wait until it’s cooled to dig in, most of the time. Enjoy!