This recipe tastes exactly like the legitimate honey cakes made by Russian women found at my local food fair! I can't fault this recipe, except that it takes hours and hours to make! If you aren't quite up to slaving away in the kitchen for 5 hours straight, you may want to start off by making a 5 tier cake rather than this 10 tier beauty.
The cake obviously tastes a lot like honey, but it also fills your mouth with so many other flavours such as the bubbly filling inside a Malteser, Lotus biscuits, stroopwafels and Nestle Golden Grahams cereal.
I can honestly say that this is one of my favourite cakes I've ever made, and I'm not going to throw that phrase around lightly. There are so many Russian Honey Cake (Medovik Torte) recipes out there and it took me so long to find one that I thought would taste like the real thing. After searching on and off for months, I finally found the one: Cleobuttera's Russian Honey Cake recipe. She sourced her recipe from Michelle Polzine, owner and pastry chef of San Francisco's 20th Century cafe. Some of the ingredients mixed into the cake are burnt honey and dulce de leche which truly makes for a super scrummy dessert.
Time: 4-6 hours baking & overnight to set
Difficulty: The steps are quite simple, but tedious
Serves: 16
Ingredients
Burnt Honey
-225g (3/4 cup) honey
-60ml (1/4 cup) water
Cake Layers
-225g (3/4 cup) cup honey
-240g (1 cup, 2 tbsp) granulated sugar
-200g (14 tbsp) unsalted butter, cut into 1 cm pieces
-6 large eggs
-2 and a half tsp baking soda
-Half tsp fine salt
-1 tsp cinnamon
-450g (3 and 3/4 cups) plain flour
Frosting
-150g (1/2 cup) burnt honey (from mixture above)
-380g (1 and 1/4 cup) dulce de leche or caramel
-Half tsp fine salt
-1.5 litres (6 cups) double cream
Method
Prepare baking sheets
1) Preheat your oven to 180C fan or 375F.
2) Line 2 or 3 baking sheets with see-through silicon mats. On a large piece of paper, trace a circle around an 8 or 9 inch cake tin and place the paper underneath the silicon mats. Set aside.
TIP: If you don't have silicon mats, draw out 12 circles onto separate pieces of parchment paper, then place this tracing-side-down onto the baking sheet.
Burnt Honey
1) Place 225g honey into a saucepan and set over a high heat and bring to a simmer. Then, reduce this to a medium heat and cook the honey until the colour darkens and turns from a pale yellow to a dark amber. Turn off the heat and carefully add the water and whisk to combine. Transfer to a heatproof measuring jug and set aside.
Cake Layers
1) Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer. Combine 75g (1/4 cup) of burned honey, 225g (3/4 cup) honey, sugar and butter in a large heat-proof bowl and place over the water. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.
2) Crack the eggs into a bowl and set aside. In a separate small bowl mix together the baking soda, salt and cinnamon and set aside.
3) Gently stir the honey/butter mixture until all of the butter has melted then whisk to combine the ingredients. Once the mixture is warm (test with your finger) gradually add the eggs while whisking. When the mixture returns to the same temperature, add the cinnamon mixture and continue to whisk for another 30 seconds. The mixture should turn quite pale and foamy. Remove the bowl from the heat and allow it to cool until its warm.
4) Place the plain flour in a sieve and sift over the batter in 3 batches. Whisk to incorporate the flour completely before the next addition until completely smooth.
5) Spoon a heaped 1/3 cup of the batter over the prepared silicon mat or parchment paper. Use an offset spatula to evenly spread the batter to the edges of the traced circle. Make sure that the entire circle is well covered, otherwise add a little bit more batter in the patchy areas to smooth it out.
6) If using silicon mats, slide out the paper with the traced circle from underneath the map. Repeat spooning and smoothing the remaining batter until your out of baking sheets. Ultimately you should end up with 12 layers.
7) Bake as many layers as possible at the same time. Depending on your oven, bake the layers for between 7-10 minutes. You are looking for the sponge to turn a caramel colour which springs back at the touch. Be sure not to overbake the layers, so keep a watchful eye through your oven door!
8) When each layer is done, slide the silicon mat or parchment paper off the baking sheet to prevent overcooking and place on a cooling rack.
9) When the layers are cool enough examine each one. If any spread outside the traced circles as the baked, use a sharp knife or scissors to trim them.
10) When all the layers are baked, reduce the oven temperature to 120C fan or 250F and return the two least attractive layers to a baking sheet and toast until they are a deep reddish brown colour and dry, this should take around 15 minutes. Allow it to cool then use a food processor to grind into fine crumbs. Cover and set aside.
Frosting
1) Place 150g (1/2 cup) burnt honey, caramel/dulce de leche and half a teaspoon of fine salt into a medium bowl and whisk by hand until combined. Then, pour in 100ml (3/4 cup) cream and mix until combined, place in the fridge to cool completely.
2) Pour in the remaining double cream into a large bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Then, add the chilled honey mixture and whip to medium stiff peaks
TIP: If your bowl is too small or the mixture is taking too long to thicken, make it in two separate batches.
Assemble the Cake
1) Place a cake layer into the centre of a flat serving place and spoon a heaping cup of frosting into the centre. Using an offset spatula, spread the frosting evenly until it reaches almost the edge of the cake. Continue with alternating layers of cake and frosting ending the last layer with frosting.
2) Use the leftover frosting to coat the outside of the cake
3) Using either an offset spatula or your hand, press the toasted cake crumbs into the sides of the cake.
4) Chill in the fridge overnight so that the frosting can work its way into the sponge and soften it up.
Store in the fridge for up to 3 days
