A holiday cake but not only! Large, fluffy, perfect. Honey cake is made of two layers of honey shortcrust, custard cream, and a fluffy sponge cake filling. The cake can be made 1-3 days in advance and kept for several days, not necessarily in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
About 30 servings
Honey cake
- flour: 2 cups
- sugar: 1/3 cup
- egg: 1
- honey: 2 tablespoons
- baking soda: 1 teaspoon
- soft butter: 150 g (3/4 stick)
Sponge cake
- eggs: 4
- sugar: 3/4 cup
- flour: 1 cup
- baking powder: 1 teaspoon
- vegetable oil: 2 tablespoons
Custard cream
- milk: 1 liter
- flour: 2 tablespoons
- potato starch: 4 tablespoons
- vanilla sugar: 2 packets
- sugar: 3/4 cup
- butter: 150 g (3/4 stick)
Icing
- heavy cream (30%): 1/2 cup
- white chocolate: 200 g
- dark chocolate: 4 squares
Preparation
Honey cake
Knead the dough from the given ingredients: pour flour into a bowl, add sugar, egg, honey, and baking soda. Mix roughly, then add butter and continue mixing with a mixer or spoon until the ingredients combine into a smooth and uniform dough.
Form a ball, flatten it, divide it into 2 parts, and refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Prepare a baking dish about 21 x 33 cm.
Roll out the first part of the dough to fit the bottom of the baking dish (it’s easiest to do this directly on baking paper and covered with plastic wrap). Transfer to the dish, place in the oven, and bake for about 10 minutes until golden.
Remove from the oven (handle the dough gently, as it will initially be crumbly, transferring on pads or thin boards). Bake the second dough layer as above.
Sponge cake
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Beat the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add sugar while continuously beating.
Gradually add the yolks while still beating.
In a separate bowl, mix flour with baking powder. Pour into the bowl with eggs and mix on medium speed until the ingredients combine into a uniform mass, adding oil at the end.
Transfer to a baking dish lined with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes.
Custard cream
Pour a glass of milk into a bowl and mix with flour and potato starch using a whisk.
Boil the remaining milk in a pot with vanilla sugar, sugar, and butter – the milk should boil thoroughly.
Pour the mixture with flours into the boiling milk and, stirring vigorously, bring to a boil again. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Assembling the cake
Spread half of the warm custard over the first layer of honey cake. Cover with sponge cake, then add the remaining custard and cover with the second honey cake layer.
Evenly weight the cake, for example with a wooden cutting board, cool completely, and set aside in a cooler place (a window sill is sufficient, it doesn’t need to be the refrigerator) for 1 day (or up to 3 days). On the day of serving, top with icing.
Icing
For the white chocolate icing: pour 1/3 cup of cream and bring to a boil, then pour into a clean bowl, add broken pieces of white chocolate, and melt while stirring, then pour over the cake.
For the dark chocolate icing: heat the remaining cream, add broken pieces of dark chocolate, and melt while stirring, then decorate the cake.
