Dessert fundraiser offered for Ukrainian people

AUBURN – St. Paul Lutheran Church at Auburn followed up on its art auction at the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a dessert fundraiser Sunday.

Vira Lillenas uses recipes given to her by her great-grandmother and grandmother, who baked for weddings in Ukraine.

 

Lillenas: “One of them, like six-layer chocolate cake we call Spartak. Actually, it takes up to three days to make that cake.”

She and her daughter also made a variety of cupcakes, strawberry cake and a cookie-dough cake her grandmother called Canadian.

Lillenas came to the United States 30 years ago.  She and Pastor Paul Lillenas raised their daughters at Auburn.

Christina Lillenas said the heart-breaking war is hard to watch on a national scale and hard to watch closer to home because her mom is so sad about it.

Christina: “She used some of her Ukrainian ways to raise me and I’m half Ukrainian and I’m proud to say it. It makes me who I am.”

Lillenas: “We’ve been here for over 15 years and the people are very supporting and always contribute a lot to the Ukrainian needs now. They have a lot of charitable donations for different needs, but one of them is Ukraine.”

The congregation at Hickory Grove celebrated vacation Bible school with a  youth service and prayed for Vira’s sister in the Ukraine at Sunday’s service.

 

Lillenas: “She is in the west part of Ukraine, but our family is very nationalist. They will not leave the country. They are contributing to the needs in the country. They make the food and send it to the front line. Some of them, like my brother-in-law, he’s over 60. He can’t go to the war, but they have a local militia. They contribute that way.”

She said her family is hopeful, but does not see the end yet.

Lillenas: “I think the Ukrainians, by themselves, they can not win the war. They need help, not just contributing stuff. We’re helping people, but probably from different governments, Europeans and here.”

 

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This recipe was translated from Ukrainian language into English by Vira and Pastor Paul Lillenas of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Hickory Grove.

Spartak

Ingredients: 3 to 4 cups of all purpose flour, 4 tablespoons of coca, one cup of sugar, 100 g of butter, one egg, 1 tablespoon of baking soda, mixed with vinegar.

Divide dough into six equal balls. Refrigerate for the night. On the next day, roll the dough between the parchment paper to very thin layers. Bake at 350 degrees for six minutes for each layer. Let it cool completely.

The next step is frosting the cake with homemade whipped cream.

"Sometimes I brush the cake with equal parts of cognac, sugar and water that I boil together  until the sugar melts and then let that cool off.

After four days, you will be done with this cake. LOL. Vira