This show stopping dessert is called "firewood under snow" in Russian - Дрова Под Снегом. It's unconventional and unique but is so appealing in simplicity. The juicy and flavorful cherries are rolled in layers of thin, dainty crepes. That would be delicious enough as it is, but when it's assembled as a cake and saturated with smooth and refreshing frosting that is silky in texture, it looks phenomenal and is surprisingly tender and delectable.
The actual crepe batter is the best one I've ever worked with. It's my favorite go-to crepe recipe hands down. Since my Mom doesn't have a written recipe for her crepes, she just eyeballs everything while she's mixing it up, it took me many attempts to finally get the recipe down pat so that it would work out perfectly every time. It was worth it, though. The crepes are thin and have an incredibly tender texture. Surprisingly enough, they are stretchy and don't break when you're flipping them. I'm convinced that it's the combination of both cornstarch and flour in the batter. Also, another thing that I love about this recipe is that you don't have to chill the crepe batter before making the crepes. Most recipes for crepes require at least 30 minutes of chilling before they are workable, but not this one.
You can really adjust the recipe to your taste preferences. The cherry filling is really delicious, cooked with some red wine and cinnamon, but you can make it really easy on yourself and use store bought cherry pie filling, or use other flavors, such as strawberry, raspberry or peach pie filling. You can even use canned fruit instead of pie filling.
Ingredients:
Crepe batter:
2 cups milk
4 eggs
6 Tablespoons cornstarch
8 Tablespoons flour
4 Tablespoons oil
¼ teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
Cherry Filling:
2 packages (12-16 oz each) frozen cherries
¼ cup sugar
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup water
¼ cup wine
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Frosting:
1 package (16 oz) sour cream
½ cup heavy cream
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
white chocolate shavings for garnishing or coconut flakes
Instructions:
Whisk all the ingredients for the crepe batter in a bowl or use a blender to combine them all together. 
Melt ½ tablespoon of butter in a nonstick skillet on medium high heat. You can use a 10 or 12 inch nonstick skillet. Pour in a little less than ¼ cup batter, tilting the skillet to distribute the batter over the surface of the skillet. 
Heat until lightly golden, 1-2 minutes, flip and cook for about 30 seconds. Cook all the crepes and set aside.
Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the cherry sauce in a small saucepan. Make sure to dissolve the cornstarch before you start cooking it. 
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5-10 minutes, just until the sauce thickens. Drain all the syrup. (Save it and pour over ice cream, pancakes or french toast. Absolutely delicious!) Set aside to cool.
To make the frosting, whisk the sour cream, sugar and vanilla until well combined in a chilled bowl using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or using a hand held mixer. Pour in the cold heavy cream and whisk until the frosting thickens, 3-5 minutes. 
To assemble, spread a thin layer of frosting over the surface of each crepe. Place cherries in a line in the center of the crepe. 
Wrap the crepe around the cherries. 
Trim off the edges of the crepes to make them a little neater. Repeat with all the crepes.
Place 5 filled crepes side by side on your serving plate. 
Top with frosting. 
Place 4 more crepes on top with more frosting.
Continue assembling cake each time with one less crepe until you are left with one crepe at the top, forming a triangle. 
Grate some white chocolate over the cake. You can also use coconut flakes to get the snowy look. You are now looking at snow-covered firewood:). 
You should be able to have a few extra crepes, sauce and frosting, so you can make it a little bit bigger, if you'd like. This is just how it works out for the plate that I use for this recipe. For a simpler presentation, you can place the cherry-filled crepes in a caserrole dish and top with frosting.
Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. You can make this cake a day or two in advance and store it in the refrigerator, tightly sealed. To serve, cut it crosswise into wedges, and it will look kind of like a honeycomb, or serve it by "log". I've done it both ways.
Cherry Crepe Cake - "Дрова Под Снегом"
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Category: Sweets
Ingredients
Crepe batter:
- 2 cups milk
- 4 eggs
- 6 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 8 Tablespoons flour
- 4 Tablespoons oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
Cherry Filling:
- 2 packages (12-16 oz each) frozen cherries
- ¼ cup sugar
- 3 Tablespoons cornstarch
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup wine
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Frosting:
- 1 package (16 oz) sour cream
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- white chocolate shavings for garnishing or coconut flakes
Instructions
- Whisk all the ingredients for the crepe batter in a bowl or use a blender to combine them all together.
- Melt ½ tablespoon of butter in a nonstick skillet on medium high heat. You can use a 10 or 12 inch nonstick skillet. Pour in a little less than ¼ cup batter, tilting the skillet to distribute the batter over the surface of the skillet. Cook until lightly golden, 1-2 minutes, flip and cook for about 30 seconds on the second side. Cook all the crepes and set aside.
- Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the cherry sauce in a small saucepan. Make sure to dissolve the cornstarch before you start cooking it.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5-10 minutes, just until the sauce thickens. Drain all the syrup. (Save it and pour over ice cream, pancakes or french toast. Absolutely delicious!) Set aside to cool.
- To make the frosting, whisk the sour cream, sugar and vanilla until well combined in a chilled bowl using a standing mixer with a whisk attachment or using a hand held mixer. Pour in the cold heavy cream and whisk until the frosting thickens, 3-5 minutes.
- To assemble, spread a thin layer of frosting over the surface of the crepe. Place cherries in a line in the center of the crepe. Wrap the crepe around the cherries. Trim off the edges of the crepes to make them a little neater. Repeat with all the crepes.
- Place 5 filled crepes side by side. Top with frosting. Place 4 more crepes on top with more frosting.
- Continue assembling cake each time with one less crepe until you are left with one crepe at the top, forming a triangle.
- You should be able to have a few extra crepes, sauce and frosting, so you can make it a little bit bigger, if you'd like. This is just how it works out for the plate that I use for this recipe.
- Grate some white chocolate over the cake. You can also use coconut flakes instead of the chocolate. You are now looking at snow-covered firewood:). For a simpler presentation, you can place the cherry-filled crepes in a caserrole dish and top with frosting.
- Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. You can make this cake a day or two in advance and store it in the refrigerator, tightly sealed. To serve, cut it crosswise into wedges, and it will look kind of like a honeycomb, or serve it by "log". I've done it both ways.
I make this all the time! For weddings, guests, my family.
A huge hit in our town lol
Thank you!
That's wonderful, Tanya. So happy to hear that. Thank you for taking the time to write.
Even though I forgot to add the heavy cream, the frosting is so good with raspberries! I’ll try substituting yogurt for the sour cream and use it as a fruit dip. 👍🏼
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Nelya. What a great idea to use it as a fruit dip. Thank you for taking the time to write.
Olga thank you so much for the recipe. I absolutely love all your recipes. My question is can I freeze or fridge the cherry filling ? And for how long ?
You can refrigerate the cherry filling for a few days, Natasha. I have never tired freezing it, although I think it would work.
Hi Olechka, can I make the crepe batter and cherry felling the night before and make the actual cake the next day?
Do I have to use wine in the cherries? I'm currently pregnant and want to make this for my birthday but do want to avoid all alcohol.
There's only a small amount of wine in this recipe and most of it will be cooked off, but you can just use water or juice if you want.
Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to our international dinner at church Sunday. The Russian table is going to have at least 8 recipes from your blog!!!
Wow! That's amazing, Mary. I am so honored. Enjoy your dinner!
Wanted you to know what a hit our Russian table was. We had green borsch, black bread, creamy tomato salad, cabbage rolls, beef stroganoff, potato salad, potato pie, beets, firewood under snow, cherry crepe cake, ricotta cheese cake. Most of the recipes came from here and were a great hit. THANK YOU!
Can this be assembled the night before and kept ok? I need it for after church on Sunday.
Thanks
Absolutely, Mary. That's what I usually do. Just make sure to keep most of the liquid from the cherries out of it, or it will leak too much.
Olga, this cake is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! I made it two times in 4 days!!!!!!!!!! The taste is incredible!
Instead of frozen cherries I used moms conservirovannie cherries and also added some sgychonka to the frosting! It was all phenominal!!! Hubby loved it! and said " teper delay mne vsegda drova pod snegom, and v gosti tozhe bydem hodit s drovami'
Thank you , thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!!!
That's wonderful, Lidiya! I'm so happy that you enjoyed the recipe. You're very welcome.
Do you use red tart cherries or dark sweet cherries? There is a lot of difference in the taste. Living in Michigan - the cherry capitol - I'll have to try this. Although it'll have to be in the summer when we won't mind seeing a little more snow since in the winter we are covered in it! 🙂 Also, I don't cook with wine but I think I'll use a little almond extract to give it a little more flavor.
I use dark, sweet cherries, but you can definitely use the tart cherries as well, just season with sugar according to the tartness. Enjoy!
I have made this cake for a Russian-themed dinner to coincide with the Winter Olympic Games. It was a very hot and humid night, and we are a very, very long way from anywhere with snow. I haven't seen snow for 20 years and our children have never seen it - but the cake took us to Russia and it was delicious and we had a fabulous time. Thank you! Andrea, Coorparoo, Australia.
What a fun memory for your family, Andrea.
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thank you so much for visiting my blog:).
Hi
I have seen Akins of russian pastry with a dough and cherry filling inside and a mixture of caramelised condensed milk and butter cream as frosting. The shape is like your crepe three layers are putting together. Do u know the name
Thanks
Hmmm... I'm not exactly sure what you are referring to. Possible Monastirskaya Izba?
does it matter what kind of cherries u use?
You can use fresh or frozen cherries, Tanya.
Hey where can I buy frozen cherrys I went to winco and they didnt have it?
Alena,
I can always find it in the frozen fruit section of the store, but grocery stores are different around the country. Some have certain ingredients all the time and others don't.
Hi Olga,
Had a gathering a few days ago and made that cake my first time and it was so good and delicious people were asking me for that recipe. So I told them where to find it.
Thank you so much, so happy to try new recipes out from your website.
Yay! I'm so happy to hear that, Sabina. Thanks for taking the time to let me know.