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.
One of my fav cakes! So good. Question? How in advance could I make the lady fingers before assembling the cake? I have a few days before the party and I wanted to get a head start.
Hi Inna.
I'm so happy you enjoy this cake. You can make the lady fingers in advance for sure. You can even assemble the whole cake the day before. Seal the lady fingers well when you make them a few days in advance.
I absolutely love your dessert recipes! I recently discovered your website and have made several desserts. My husband and I LOVED every single one, and we’re super picky desserts eaters! I have the lady fingers cake chilling in my refrigerator as I’m typing this. I can’t wait to try it! Keep these awesome recipes coming!
Thank you so much for the kind words, Ioana. I'm so glad you are enjoying my website and recipes. I hope you will be happy with the cake too.
Hi Olga 🙂 this cake looks delicious! I really like your recipes 🙂 what kind of vanilla did you use? Vanilla extract?
Beautiful cake, and a super delicious one!!! I made it this past weekend, Olga I trust your recipes and they never disappoint. Everything came out perfect. 💓 My frosting was a little more runny than yours - but manageable, I still was able to put the cake together, let it sit in fridge for 5 hours then I finished decorating. It's one of our favorite cakes now. Thank you dear., Gods blessings to you and your boys😊
Olga Help! For some reason my lady fingers came out too fat and it seems like I have way too many, as if it would fill 2 pans! What did I do wrong?
It is normal for the lady fingers to puff up when you bake them, but perhaps you piped them out too large? There should be a significant amount of lady fingers to fill up the cake pan, since they will be really jammed in one to another. I hope it still works out for you, Anna.
Thanks for posting this cake. I made it today, last time I made it was when I visited my favorite aunt in Belarus almost 10 years ago. She passed away from brain cancer a year ago, it was bitter sweet moment making this cake remembering her. Thanks again for posting it!!
What a sweet and sad memory, Erica.
Hello Olga,
I was excited to make the cake but once I finished it, I still had way too much frosting left over. More than half of it. I beat the frosting good and it was pretty thick but it was too much for the ladyfingers. Next time I will only make half the frosting. I don't know how yours turned out perfect with all the same measurements. I'm a little frustrated now because I don't know what to do with all that leftover frosting. Any ideas? Thank you.
Can you please tell me how much fat should the sour cream have? We have three options here: 5%, 14% or 30%.
Thank you.
I use regular American sour cream, that is made from whole milk, Oana. I don't know what the fat content is, since I am not home to look in my refrigerator, but from Googling it, this is what I found - hope that helps: "Sour cream, made out of cream, contains from 18 to 20 percent butterfat."
Hi Olga,
I tried the recipe in 2014 but it did not turn out well. It is surely because I live in Canada and the cream here is different. However, I desperately want to try it again. Could you please guide me a bit? Here are the creams that I buy here:
- 3 fat options from Western Creamery: http://www.westerncreamery.com/en/products_sc.html
- 35% whipping cream from Nature's Pride: https://www.loseit.com/nutrition/natures-pride-brums-whipping-cream-35-calories-ed317d570aa34c7da8ad155ffd0e76f1.html
What combination should I try? Thank you very very much.
Oana
Can you give me more details of what exactly didn't work out for you, Oana?
I personally use heavy cream or heavy whipping cream that has a milk fat content of 36-40%. To make the cream whip better, I make sure that it is very chilled before whipping it and also place the bowl and whisk that I will be using for it in the freezer for about 10 minutes before whipping.
However, I do have to tell you that the frosting needs to be thinner than a buttercream frosting that most people are familiar with. The frosting needs to be thin enough to be able to saturate into the lady fingers. The cake will be much lighter and fluffier than if you used buttercream, for example.
Hi Olga,
Thank you for your quick reply. My cake turned out soggy and would just fall apart on the tray. I don't know what proportion of whipped cream and sour cream to use from what is available here. The puffs turned out perfectly.
Thank you!!!
Oana
I'm sorry; I can only advise you from my own experience. Maybe this cake is not something you're used to. It's very unique and nothing like most traditional American cakes. It shouldn't fall apart though.
Hi Olga,
I am Romanian and not at all into the traditional American cakes. I am sure I would love this cake. I will not hold you accountable for a piece of advice and I am fully aware that I might fail again (I will not blame you). I just know for sure that you are more experienced than me and I was wondering if you could venture some advice on what combination you would try from the products that I mentioned above.
Thank you,
Oana
Maybe instead of heavy cream you can use an equal amount of Cool Whip. Cool Whip has stabilizer added to it, which will help it hold its shape. I personally don't like using Cool Whip, but I know many people like to use it and it will give the frosting more structure.
I trick I like to use sometime is to add a bit of unflavored gelatin to the frosting (sprinkle about a teaspoon or two over a few Tablespoons of water or cream, set it aside to bloom for a few minutes and then heat it in the microwave or on the stovetop just until the gelatin melts, being careful not to bering it to a boil. Cool very slightly then add to the frosting, mixing to combine. Cool the frosting in the refrigerator until it thickens up a cit. This will give the frosting a thicker texture without turning it into a gelatinous consistency. This is a little bit more involved technique and you need a bit of baking/pastry experience but it works great to thicken up a frosting.
Thank you! I don't like Cool Whip but I definitely like the idea of using a bit of gelatin. I've used it before so I hope it will work. Thanks a again!
Hi Olga! Have you ever try to froze this cake? I have wedding so I have to bake a lot and wondering if I can bake it in advance and freeze it?!
Thank you!
I've never personally tried it, but I wouldn't recommend it, Oksana.
Hello Olga. I'm from Polish. Can you tell me about that cream comes in that article? 2 (16 oz.) Containers sour cream. Is this the cream of 16%? Is fondant?I do not really know what to use.
Heavy cream is cream that contains 36 percent or more milk fat. Sour cream is made out of cream, and contains from 18 to 20 percent butterfat. I hope that helps, KuchrzyTrzech.
Olga.....
The recipe is a keeper. I do think the choux pastry should be piped with a filling as I found them too bland in combination with the frosting. A citrus cream or lemon cream piped into the pastry are excellent choices. I piped mine with a lemon curd.......perfect. The combination of sweet and tart......mmmm! I piped a semi-sweet chocolate design on top.
BTW: Choux pastry shouldn't be deflating if it is properly mixed and baked properly.
I guess I'm a girl with simple taste:). I prefer desserts to be less sweet, but lemon curd is a very creative idea. Good for you!
Olga.....
Your choux pastry recipe is EXCELLENT! I am assembling the cake now. This is going to be my birthday cake.
Oh, btw......I am a nurse too; RN. Baking helps me to relax after a hard day at the hospital.
Thanks, Ariane and Happy Birthday!
It's always nice to "meet" another nurse too:).
Olga,
The recipe calls for one can of condensed milk. How many ounces or ml would that be? I live in Europe, so the measurements and amounts are not the same here as in the U.S.
14 oz can, Ariane.
So I was trying to make this cake and at first the batter turned out very runny with six eggs, so I tried making it again and only put 4 eggs which was ok but still a little soft. When I put it into preheated oven they looked perfect but when I took them out they all became flat :(. I followed the recipe very closely too. Any advice?
It's hard for me to say, Julia. I try to be very detailed in the recipe, so I don't know why it didn't work out for you. Have you even made Cream Puffs of Eclairs? It's the same method.
Also, it's normal for this type of pastry to deflate some after it cools off after baking.
Hi Olga! Made this today for my daughter's 8th Birthday. I read a few comments that the cream turned out a bit runny, so just to be on the safe side (cause the cake will be served tonight:) i dissolved two packets of gelatin in 1/2 cup of water and added it to the cream at the end. So hopefully it won't ruine the original taste. Thank you Olga! I had fun making it...quiet different;). As always....THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
I hope you enjoy the cake, Lana:). Happy birthday to your daughter!