Russian Honey Layer Cake

Adapted from http://www.russianrecipes.co.nz/recipes/dessert-medovie.html

Ingredients

Cream Filling

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter

14 oz organic sweetened condensed milk.

8 oz organic sour cream.

Cake

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup local honey

1/2 cup raw sugar

3/4 stick unsalted butter

1 tsp baking soda.

8 inch round baking pan

Cream Filling

Soften the butter and beat together with the sweetened condensed milk. Next mix in the sour cream and refrigerate while you prepare the cake.

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the eggs until combined. Gradually mix in 1 1/2 - 2 cups of the flour.

In a saucepan gently heat together the honey, sugar and butter. Add the baking soda, stir together until foaming. Turn off the heat.

Add the honey mixture to the dough. Stir to combine. Gradually add in more flour, half a cup at a time until the dough comes away from the sides of the mixing bowl.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two until smooth. Then divide into 8 equal portions by slicing down the center of the dough, then across horizontally, then slice diagonally each direction to total 8 sections.

Roll out each portion until it is 8 inches in diameter and 1-2mm thick. Place each round onto a greased flat baking tray and bake for 4-5 minutes until lightly cooked - the texture of soft cake rather than hard biscuit. Remove layers from the baking trays and cool.

(Rotate between rolling out the dough, one sheet baking in the oven, and another baking sheet cooling. The timing should work out perfectly and more efficiently.)

Assembly

Using the baking pan as a cutting guide, trim the edges off each baked layer to create 8 equally sized rounds. Keep the trimmings as they will be used for the topping.

Place one baked layer of cake into the bottom of the pan. Spread 1/8th of the cream filling over the layer of cake. Repeat with the remaining layers, topping with the last portion of filling.

Crumble the leftover cake trimmings in a food processor until they become fine crumbs. Sprinkle 1/3 to 1/2 of the crumbs over the last layer of filling on the top of the cake. Reserve the remainder to coat the sides after the cake has been removed from the pan.

Refrigerate the cake for 12 - 24+ hours, until the filling has solidified and been partly absorbed by the layers of cake.

It would be easier to use a spring form pan with a loose bottom so you could remove the sides of the pan once the cream has absorbed so that you could spread the crumb topping on the sides and it would look better for presentation. I do not have one, so my regular round cake pan worked fine.

I can not take credit for this recipe because it was only slightly altered from the original recipe. Not only that, I was not the person who found this recipe. I was lucky enough to have have some friends make this amazing dessert for me. When you first look at it the cake looks good, but once you actually taste it it quickly becomes the best dessert you have ever tasted. The smooth taste of the honey dough mixed with the sweet cream completely satisfies every taste bud in your mouth. I am usually a chocolate fan, but this is by far the best dessert I have ever had. I decided to make this for easter with my family to celebrate my Dad's birthday. I think everyone had the same first impression that I did. It looked good, but then they were quickly surprised at just how good it was. It was so rewarding to have every member in my family continuously repeat how amazing it was.

I know the recipe may look complicated, but it really is quite basic. It is so worth the effort. I highly recommend making this recipe. I know it's far from being healthy, but I think it is good to indulge for special occasions:)