Czech Honey Cake or Medovnik
Degree of difficulty: hard
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 30-40 minutes
Baking time: 15 minutes
Waiting time: 2 hours
Assembly time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
For cream filling
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380g tin caramel top and fill
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200g tin sweetened condensed milk
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9 tablespoons runny honey
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100g/3.5 ozs. walnuts, toasted and crushed
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300/10 ozs. softened butter
For cake
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180g/6.36 ozs. caster or superfine sugar
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180g/6.36 ozs. butter, softened
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1 egg
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4 tablespoons cream
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3 tablespoons runny honey
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450g/1 pound self raising flour
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1 tablespoon cocoa
For syrup
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50mls/1.7 fl ozs. honey
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50mls/1.7 fl ozs. water
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2 tablespoons rum or rum essence (optional)
To decorate
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120g/4 ozs. walnuts, toasted and crushed
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Whipped cream and walnut pieces
Step 1 - Firstly, make the creams as they need to firm up in the fridge. You'll be making a sweetened condensed milk cream as well as a dulce de leche or caramel cream. In one bowl, add 200g of the softened butter, 60g of the crushed, toasted walnuts, six tablespoons of honey and the whole tin of the caramel top n fill or dulce de leche and whisk all of the ingredients together until there are no longer lumps in the butter. In another bowl, add the remaining ingredients, that is, 100g of the softened butter, 40g of the crushed toasted walnuts, three tablespoons of honey and 200g of sweetened condensed milk and whisk all of the ingredients together until there are no longer lumps in the butter. Cover and place both bowls in fridge for at least two hours.
Step 2 - Place a large heatproof bowl snugly on top of a pot of simmering water. To the bowl add the sugar, butter, egg, cream and honey and melt all together until smooth. While it is melting, sift the cocoa and mix the flour and cocoa together.
Add one quarter of the flour mixture to the butter mix on the stovetop, while it is still warm-adding it slowly and whisking it means that there are not as many lumps. Gradually add the rest of the flour mixture in three or four more lots until it is smooth. This becomes a dough-because of the amount of butter, it doesn't stick to your hands.
Step 3 - The key to this cake is having the layers as thin as possible so you can between five or seven but if you want to be cautious as thin means it tears more easily, make five layers instead of seven. Tear out as many pieces of baking parchment as you are making layers. I found this easiest if I drew a circle on each piece.
To make it fairly even, I calculated how much the dough weighed (1148 grams) and divided it by seven. I pinched off about 168 grams of dough and pressed it down on a sheet of marked parchment. I then rolled it gently with a non stick rolling pin and trimmed the edges using any extra for another layer-it rerolls easily.
Step 4 - Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Have three oven racks and baking trays ready so that you can do a few at a time. Bake the layers for about 4-5 minutes. You will need to bake them more if they are thicker but I baked mine for 4 minutes exactly. The tops should not be sticky.
Step 5 - Allow to cool completely and do not place anything on top of it (I made the mistake of placing them on top of each other while warm and they became very delicate). Place cling wrap between cooled layers (I found that the baking parchment stuck to some).
Step 6 - To make the syrup, place all of the ingredients in a small jug and stir.
Step 7 - To assemble, carefully trim the cakes using the bottom of a round tin and a knife so that they are all the exact same size. Place the first cake layer on the serving plate or stand. Brush with the honey syrup and then spread with the cream filling. Repeat until you have added the last layer.
Step 8 - Spread cream filling all over the top and sides and press extra crushed, toasted walnuts on top. Once you have a good layer of crushed nuts on top, you can gently but firmly press the nuts against the icing with an angle spatula or knife. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge to firm up. You can add some whipped cream and walnut pieces too if you would like but do this after you add the whipped cream roses.