Nijolės Šakočienės šakotis

Appearance & taste

The cake has the shape of a tall, truncated cone and is hollow along its entire length; inside, there are imprints of string and baking paper. On the outside it is irregularly covered with “branches” of various shapes and sizes, so that no two look the same. It is 30 to 60 cm high, up to 40 cm wide at the base and up to 20 cm at the top, and weighs 1.0 to 6.5 kg. On special occasions it is served whole; otherwise it is cut into rings of 5 to 30 cm and 0.7 to 3.5 kg or into smaller pieces.

Depending on the baking temperature and time, the colour ranges from yellowish brown to brown; the surface is glossy and may be lighter than the inside. When cut, the differently coloured layers form irregular rings. The cake smells distinctly of butter and egg with a hint of smoke and tastes slightly sweet, buttery and of egg, with a slightly fatty finish. It is moderately dense and relatively short, but does not crumble when cut; it is easy to chew and breaks down into fine particles as it is chewed. It contains 6.4 to 7.5 % moisture, 35.5 to 38.5 % fat and 25.5 to 27.5 % sugar.

Production

The ingredients are butter with 82 to 87 % fat, cream or sour cream with 30 to 40 % fat, hen’s eggs, sugar and wheat flour traditionally ground with millstones on slowly turning shafts. The flour is scalded and the batter rests; the bakers judge how long from experience. According to the specification, this makes a glossy, deeply coloured crust form more quickly during baking, the crumb becomes lighter, and the cake stays fresh for longer without additives.

It is baked in a special traditional oven with dry birch wood from which the bark is removed, because its resin would impair the cake during smoking. The flue must be set correctly, which depends greatly on the surroundings and the air pressure. With a wooden skimmer, the batter is ladled by hand in thin layers from all sides onto the hot, turning spit, where it bakes and sets at once. The bakers control how the “branches” grow through the temperature and the speed of rotation. All steps, from preparing the ingredients to cooling, take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area is the village of Skaistgiriai in the Kėdainiai district. According to the specification, tree-shaped cake was first baked in Lithuania at the end of the 19th century in monasteries, which kept their recipes secret. At the beginning of the 20th century manor houses and parsonages, and later experienced housewives, took up the idea; it was baked only for special occasions.

The great-grandmother of today’s bakers received the recipe from the parsonage housekeeper. Since then the cake has been baked in Skaistgiriai by her descendants using the same method; there are no written instructions, and the knowledge is passed down from generation to generation. Until 1997 it was made only to order; then sales began. Visitors from Lithuania and many other countries come to Skaistgiriai to watch and to try baking it themselves; in consumer surveys between 2010 and 2016, over 90 % of respondents knew the cake from Skaistgiriai.