improvista

samen = smen. it's a fermented/cultured (?) AND clarified butter that is very pungeant (in a cheesy moldy sort of way) and is used sparingly. commercial smen may not be as strong, but i wouldn't know as i've never seen it in stores. you could make a substitute by clarifying cultured butter, which is quite readily available now in supermarkets.

wow, this is one good cake! i made the "ultimate" recipe with the following changes: - used 1 cup of 2% milk and 1/2 cup full fat yogurt instead of 1.5 cups of buttermilk/sour cream because i didn't have either - kept the fat content at 3/4 cups (0.5 cup oil and 0.25 cup butter) the resulting product was moist even after three days. i wrapped the cake up in plastic in the fridge, and that seemed to have protected moisture loss pretty well. although i must say i should have chilled the cake layers in the fridge first before frosting them as they were quite delicate at room temperature. definitely a keeper recipe. i would up the butter amount a little more next time to make the texture a little bit firmer next time. thanks for all that testing, folks!