Honey Cake

I spent a good chunk of my childhood in Prague where I grew up on this honey cake or Medovník. This cake might seem intimidating, but when you get through the recipe once its easy sailing from then on - and the results are so worth it.

Yield 1 cake

Time 4 hours including cooling time

Ingredients for the Cake

• 100g butter

• 120g sugar

• 50ml whole milk

• 4 tbs honey

• 2 eggs

• 2 tbs vinegar

• 500g flour

• 1 ½ tbs baking soda

• Sugar syrup (1 part water and 1 part sugar)

Ingredients for the Cream

• 1 can of dulce de leche

• 300 ml of heavy cream

Method

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 170 C. Make a water bath and melt butter, sugar, milk and honey – do not let the mixture boil.

Step 2

Take the mixture off the heat and add the eggs and the vinegar. Then put the mixture in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the flour and the baking soda until just incorporated.

Step 3

Roll the dough in a cylinder and divide into four pieces; roll the pieces in plastic wrap and put in the fridge until cool.

Step 4

Roll out the pieces into 4mm pieces and prick the dough with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes or until the pieces are a golden dark brown. Each piece fits onto one baking sheet, so it will probably require putting them in the oven one or two at a time.

Step 5

To make the cream, whip the cream until it has soft peaks and mix it carefully with the dulce de leche. Put in the refrigerator to keep cool.

Step 6

To make the simple syrup, dissolve the sugar in the water over heat. Cool to room temperature.

Step 7 - Assembly

Cut the four pieces of cake into large squares. Then take the leftover pieces and blitz in the food processor to create crumbs.

Take the first piece of cake, and with a pastry brush, brush the top with the simple syrup. Then when dry, add the first layer of cream and repeat this process with all the layers.

Cover the layered cake in the rest of the cream and then take the crumb mixture and cover the entire cake. Place the cake in the fridge to harden and then enjoy!