Potato “Napoleon” Cake with Three Fillings
Only the shape earns this the name “cake”: in place of pastry there are thin rounds of potato, and between them three separate fillings — meat, mushroom, and brains. Soviet-era home cooks built these in a tall springform pan precisely because the round cross-section looked like an occasion, and because offal was cheap, respected, and worth dressing up.
The technique. Everything rides on how thin you slice the potato: aim for roughly 3 mm, an eighth of an inch. Thicker rounds won’t cook through in the time the top takes to brown, and the cake collapses under the knife. Potato appears four times among the seven layers, buttered each time so the slices don’t fuse into one dense slab, while the egg-and-milk pour seeps down and sets, stitching everything into a single pie.
Cook each filling fully before it goes in; anything raw releases water and slumps the layers. The brains are membraned, poached in salted water, chopped, then bound with beaten egg and smetana — thick full-fat cultured sour cream, for which American full-fat sour cream or crème fraîche substitutes cleanly — and that dairy is what keeps the layer creamy rather than grainy. Squeamish? A firm liver pâté slots in with nearly the same texture. Serve warm in wide wedges, with sauerkraut or a sharp salad against the richness.
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Ingredients
Instructions
Assembly and Baking
Take a tall baking pan and grease it generously with butter.Layer the ingredients: 1st layer — peeled potatoes cut into rounds, with a little butter; 2nd layer — meat filling; 3rd layer — potato with butter; 4th layer — mushroom filling; 5th layer — potato with butter; 6th layer — brain filling; 7th layer — potato with butter.
Beat the egg with a little milk, season with salt and pepper, and pour this mixture over the cake.
Bake in the oven until the surface is well browned.
Fillings
Meat filling: to any ground meat add a chicken bouillon cube and the sautéed onion, and mix well.Mushroom filling: boil the mushrooms, chop them finely, add olive oil and simmer for 10 minutes, then season with salt and spices.
Brain filling: remove the membrane from the brains, boil them in salted water, chop finely, add the beaten egg, sour cream, salt and pepper, and mix.
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