Honey Cake

Honey Cake, which is called Midoviy Tort in Russian, was and still is one of my favourite dessert cakes of all time. When I was growing up I would always ask my mom to bake this, and would always ask her to buy this cake when we were going to visit relatives and friends. As time went by and we moved to Canada, I completely forgot about this delicious and rich cake, until we went to visit back home after 5 years of being away.

It was at one of many family gatherings that my cousins, sister and I were given the task to go out and buy a cake. When we entered the bakery and as soon as I saw this yummy cake, so many memories flooded my mind, and I immediately told everyone that’s what we were going to get. Thankfully, I didn’t have to convince anyone too hard, as everyone seemed to agree this was the best option. I had to be so patient after we came home, to wait until dinner was over and it was time for dessert. As soon as I dug in with my spoon and was finally able to taste this deliciousness, I was in dessert heaven!!

Since then, I’ve been dying to make this cake at home, and recently was able to obtain the recipe from one of my favourite women, my sister’s future mother-in-law. This is one of her signature cakes, and I just had to try it!

And try it I did! It was absolutely delicious and I got rave reviews from everyone who was lucky enough to try a piece. I made this cake a few weeks ago, and have been saving the recipe to share with you all on the blog. As I’ve been putting together this post, I am getting increasingly hungry to make it again soon. And you should too! It is a real piece of cake to make And here I will show you how.

Here is a recipe to start you off with.

Honey Cake
Preparation time: 20 minutes, baking time: 3-4 minutes per layer (usually you’ll have 4-5 layers in total)

INGREDIENTS

For the dough:
2 eggs
1 cup white granulated sugar
1 tbsp honey
1 cup unsalted butter
2 tsp baking soda
4-5 cups of sifted flour

For the cream:
1 can of condensed milk
3/4 stick unsalted butter

And again, because all posts are better with photos, here is what you’ll need:

Sugar, eggs, sifted flour, baking soda, honey, butter and condensed milk (which we’re going to boil)

Put the can with the condensed milk in a pot and cover with water. You’re going to need to boil the condensed milk for about 2 hours in advance to making the cream. So plan ahead.

Next, if you have a double boiler use that, if not (like me here), use a small pot, fill it with water and bring to a boil. On top, in a glass bowl combine sugar, butter, eggs and honey…

Keep stirring the mixture over the steam of the boiling water, as it melts and make sure to not let it boil over.

Once it’s all nice and melted, take it off the heat, and sprinkle in the baking soda, and put back over the boiling water.

Keep stirring, until it’s all combined. You’ll notice the mixture is going to lighten up in color considerably after you’ve added in the soda. That’s a good thing.

Now that it’s well combined, take it off the heat and start adding in your sifted flour, one cup at a time, mixing well to combine.

The batter is going to be extremely sticky, because of the honey, so you’ll need to add plenty of flour to make it manageable. I can’t remember how many cups I used exactly, since it’s been awhile. But I think you’re probably going to need about 4-5 cups. Basically, you want the dough to be soft and pliable, so you’ll be able to spread it over the parchment paper. Use your judgement here.

Now, using the bottom of a spring form pan, outline the shape on a parchment paper and cut it out. You can either make 4-5 of these to use for each layer that we’re going to bake, or you can just make 2, and keep re-using them, which is what I did.

Now spray the parchment paper with cooking spray oil lightly…

Dip your fingers in flour and flour the surface of the parchment paper to prevent the dough from sticking. Next, take a chunk out of the dough and place in the middle of the circle. Using your fingers, gently spread the dough to cover the entire circle in an even layer. Don’t worry if you didn’t get enough dough, you can always add some if you don’t have enough to spread all around. Or add in places if you have any holes or tears.

This is what it should look like when you’re done.

At this point, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Take the bottom of the spring form pan and place the circle with the dough on top of it.

Once your oven is heated to 350, place the circle in the center of the oven, on a middle rack and bake for about 3-4 minutes, depending on your oven. Want you want is a nice golden-brown color all around.

While it’s baking, spread a large kitchen towel over a flat surface (kitchen island or dinner table). Once the layer is baked, take it out of the oven (be careful not to burn yourself), and turning it upside down, place it on the kitchen towel. Once it’s cooled a bit, carefully remove the parchment paper from the baked cake layer.

Repeat and do the same thing with all of the layers. I managed to get 4 layers out of my dough, which worked out fine, but if you can get more, you’ll end up with a nice, high cake.

Leave all 4 layers to cool on the kitchen towel

Now on to make the cream.

Crack open the can of condensed milk…. And exercising all of your will power, try REALLY hard not to grab a spoon and devour all of its contents at once.

Assuming you were able to withstand the temptation, dump the condensed milk into a mixing bowl and your butter, which should be at room temperature. Cube the butter, so it will be easier to mix.

Using a mixer, beat the butter and the condensed milk until it’s well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes to cool.

Once the cream got a chance to cool a bit, it’s time to assemble the cake.

Using whatever platter you want to serve the cake in, place one layer of the cake onto it…

NOTE: I should mention here, the mistake I did… I forgot to consider that I would need some extra dough to make the crumbles that are supposed to cover the entire cake after you’ve assembled it. So what I did is, after my cake was done, I went around it with a knife and cut off the uneven edges, and crumbled up those pieces. But my mistake was in that it was hard to crumble, because the cream is so sticky.

So what I should have done instead is either: A) bake an extra layer of dough and use that to crumble, or B) put all 4 layers on top of each other without the cream and cut around the edges then. Oh well, live and learn!

Back to the assembly…

Spread the first layer with a generous amount of cream over top

Repeat the same with all of the layers, including the top layer.

Now using those crumbles that I’ve just talked about (hopefully you used one of the A & B options, and not do what I did), sprinkle them evenly over the entire surface of the cake…

The trick with this cake is patience. Once it’s assembled, you’re supposed to leave it alone for at least a few hours, so the cream can work its magic and absorb into the dough. If you’ll be patient enough, then you’ll have a deliciously rich, soft and moist cake to indulge all of your senses.

Because it’s a very rich cake, I recommend enjoying it with a nice, hot cup of tea…

Mmm… Yum! I want a slice.

Make it soon, I promise you won’t regret it!

What is your favourite childhood dessert? Go ahead and share it in the comments below. =)