Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным.

The cake made yesterday was tasty.

Breakdown of Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным.

• вкусный: tasty
• торт: the cake
• вчера: yesterday
• быть: to be
• сделанный: done

Questions & Answers about Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным.

What exactly is сделанный here? Is it a verb, an adjective, or something else?

Сделанный is a past passive participle formed from the perfective verb сделать (to make, to do).

• It behaves like an adjective: it agrees in gender, number, and case with торт.
• Grammatically it is:
  
  • gender: masculine
  • number: singular
  • case: nominative
  • full (long) form participle: сделанный

So the phrase сделанный вчера торт literally means “the cake (that was) made yesterday”, where сделанный works like an adjective meaning “made” or “that was made.”

Why is it сделанный, not сделан?

Russian has two basic types of passive participle forms:

1. Full (long) form:

   • сделанный
   • Declines like an adjective
   • Used mainly before a noun or as part of an attributive phrase:
     
     • сделанный вчера торт – the cake made yesterday
     • торт, сделанный вчера – the cake that was made yesterday

2. Short form:

   • сделан
   • Does not decline (only changes for gender and number)
   • Used mainly in predicative position, like the complement of быть:
     
     • Торт был сделан вчера. – The cake was made yesterday.

In your sentence, the participle modifies торт directly, so we need the full form: сделанный.
If we rephrased it as a passive sentence, we would use the short form:

• Торт был сделан вчера. – The cake was made yesterday.

Why is it сделанный (masculine) and not some other ending?

Because сделанный agrees with торт:

• торт is:
  • masculine
  • singular
  • nominative (it’s the subject of был вкусным)

So сделанный must match:

• masculine → -ый / -ий / -ой-type ending (here -ый, but with нн: -нный)
• singular
• nominative

That gives сделанный.

If the noun changed, the participle would change too:

• Сделанная вчера пицца была вкусной. (feminine)
• Сделанные вчера пирожные были вкусными. (plural)

Why is вчера in the middle: сделанный вчера торт? Can I move it?

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible. All of these are grammatical:

• Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным.
• Торт, сделанный вчера, был вкусным.
• Торт, вчера сделанный, был вкусным. (more bookish / stylistic)
• Торт, сделанный вчера, был вкусным. is probably the most neutral written variant.

When the participial phrase comes before the noun (like сделанный вчера торт), Russian normally does not use commas.
When it comes after the noun (торт, сделанный вчера), it is usually separated by commas as a participial clause.

Placing вчера between сделанный and торт is natural; it emphasizes when the cake was made as part of that descriptive phrase.

What is the difference between Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным and Торт, сделанный вчера, был вкусным?

Both mean essentially the same thing. The differences are mainly in style and emphasis:

1. Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным.

   • Participial phrase before the noun
   • No commas
   • Sounds a bit more bookish / literary or carefully written than everyday speech
   • The whole phrase сделанный вчера торт feels like one compact noun phrase: the yesterday-made cake was tasty.

2. Торт, сделанный вчера, был вкусным.

   • Participial phrase after the noun
   • Set off by commas
   • This is the most common neutral written style
   • Feels closer to English “The cake, made yesterday, was tasty.” or “The cake that was made yesterday was tasty.”

In ordinary conversation, many speakers might even prefer a relative clause:

• Торт, который сделали вчера, был вкусным.

Can I say Торт, который сделали вчера, был вкусным instead? Is there a difference?

Yes, that sentence is completely correct and very natural:

• Торт, который сделали вчера, был вкусным.

Comparison:

• Торт, сделанный вчера, был вкусным.
  Uses a participle (сделанный). Slightly more compact and typical of written style.

• Торт, который сделали вчера, был вкусным.
  Uses a relative clause with который and a finite verb. Very clear and natural in both spoken and written Russian.

Semantically they’re almost identical. The participle construction sounds a bit more “compressed” and stylistically elevated; the который-clause feels more like everyday speech.

What tense or aspect does сделанный express?

Сделанный is a past passive participle of the perfective verb сделать.

That implies:

• completed action in the past (perfective aspect)
• passive meaning – the cake “underwent” the making, it didn’t do it itself

So сделанный carries the sense: “(having been) made / that was made (and is now finished).”

Using the imperfective делать (to be making / to make in general) would give делаемый, which is very rare and mostly bookish or technical. For a simple everyday context like a cake made yesterday, perfective сделанный is normal.

Why is it был вкусным and not был вкусный, or just вкусный?

All three exist in Russian, but they differ in nuance and style.

1. Торт был вкусным.

   • Predicate adjective in the instrumental case.
   • Very common and neutral in statements about what something was like.
   • Often used to describe a temporary state or characteristic.

2. Торт был вкусный.

   • Predicate adjective in the nominative case.
   • Also correct; can sound a bit more colloquial or emphatic in some contexts.
   • In many everyday situations it’s almost equivalent to был вкусным.

3. Торт вкусный. (no был)

   • Present-time description: The cake is tasty.
   • In the past, you usually need был (or some other past-time marker) to clearly show it’s past.

In your sentence, был вкусным is a standard, neutral way to say “was tasty.”

Could I say Сделанный вчера торт вкусный without был?

That would normally be taken as present, not past:

• Сделанный вчера торт вкусный. – The cake (that was) made yesterday is tasty.

If you want to clearly speak about the past, you should keep был:

• Сделанный вчера торт был вкусным. – The cake made yesterday was tasty.

In everyday speech, Russian often omits есть (is) in the present tense, but был in the past is usually not omitted when you want to clearly show past time.

How would I say “The cake made yesterday by my mom was tasty” using the same structure?

You keep the same pattern and add the agent in the instrumental:

• Сделанный вчера мамой торт был вкусным.
  – The cake made yesterday by mom was tasty.

More variants:

• Торт, сделанный вчера мамой, был вкусным.
• Торт, который вчера сделала мама, был вкусным.

In participle constructions, the “doer” of the action is usually in the instrumental:

• сделанный кем? → мамой
• написанный кем? → другом (written by a friend)

Why does сделанный have a double нн?

The spelling сделанный follows a common rule for participles and adjectives in Russian:

• Past passive participles of perfective verbs generally take -нн- in the full form:
  • сделанный (from сделать)
  • прочитанный (from прочитать)
  • написанный (from написать)

Short forms usually have a single н:

• сделан, прочитан, написан

So сделанный with нн is exactly what you expect for a full-form past passive participle derived from a perfective verb.