One of Russia's most beloved cakes has an unusual history: we know exactly who invented it and when. The whimsically named Bird's Milk Cake (in Russian fairy tales, "bird's milk" is a luxury so fantastic it doesn't even exist) was created in 1978 by Vladimir Guralnik, the head of the Praga restaurant confectionary shop. It is an unusual cake that reverses the usual ratio of cake to filling: Guralnik's rich confection alternates thick, ethereally light layers of souffle with thin layers of cake, topped by a chocolate glaze. The trick of the souffle is agar-agar, a thickener that withstands the high temperature needed to make the sugar syrup.
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