Russian Honey Layer Cake

 

Some couples have a song and some friends have a cake. If my friend Moo and I were to have 'a cake', it would be Russian Honey Cake from a bakery here in London. As someone who makes a lot of cake I've often wondered how the layers are made so thin. Are they baked that thin or are they sliced thinly after? Turns out that the mix is more of a dough than a cake mix and so you roll out the layers and bake like a biscuit. It has the texture of cake because after a day or two with layers of soured cream in between them, they soften and absorb all the flavour and moisture of their filling. Clever cake. 

I followed this recipe and added lemon zest, a little juice, vanilla bean and a tiny pinch of salt to the cream mix.

I'm going to be honest from the outset, this cake received mixed reviews, some people loved it straight away and others including myself weren't 100% sure. It did however improve over a few days and I want to play about with chocolate layers soon to mix it up a bit.

 Separating the dough and rolling out thinly to bake.

 I used a bowl to cut out circles and cooled on a rack.

This is one of those naughty cakes (because of my own take on the technique) that allows you to keep the offcuts to munch through the afternoon ; )

Once cooled, spread with the sour cream mix and gently press down on the top.

 Smooth the cream over the top layer and all down the sides.

The recipe calls for biscuit crumbs but I used feuilletine but either will do! You could even blitz the offcuts in a food processor and use those if you haven't eaten them already. You can order feuilletine from http://www.souschef.co.uk/ a fab website a friend has set up selling everything a foodie could wish for!

Serve with berries, the cake is sweet and rich in honey and needs a little sharpness in contrast.