My honey cake

This is my childhood honey cake - my very first self-baked cake (when I was 10) - with tears and burned hands late into the night. In the evening, the kitchen looked like war zone - crumbs were everywhere. Dirty dishes, too. When the cake was assembled the next day, I decorated it with the only thing available in 1993 - those small, inedible, silver sugar beads. And then evening came, the moment I dreaded so much because what if it was not good? We ate the cake and the family praised me because everything had come together perfectly. I had that incredible feeling of pride that children get. It was then that I realized that food makes the world a more beautiful, better, and tastier place.

This cake was and is baked every Christmas in our house. And that's why it's so special – memories and a lot of honey, love, and feelings in one piece of cake.

cake:
320 g soft honey (250 ml/1 cup)*
240 g golden caster sugar (250 ml/1 cup)*
3 medium eggs, lightly beaten
410 g all-purpose flour (875 ml/3.5 cups)*
110 g wholegrain flour
2 tsp baking soda

cream:
1 l very good and thick 25% sour cream
1 tbsp vanilla sugar or extract
400 g various coloured jellied candies (yellow, red, green), finely chopped**


Heat the oven to 190°.

Mix all the ingredients for the cake in a bowl. Draw several 24 cm diametre circles on parchment paper – that will be the size of the cake. I use several cake or tart bases (it’s easier to judge the size of the cake and place the layers in the oven), but you can also just put them on baking sheets. “Eyeball” the dough into 8-9 parts.

Place one piece of the dough in the centre of the parchment paper. Using a spoon dipped in hot water, spread the dough around the circle (any extra that goes over the sides will be cut off and used for crumbs when assembling the cake). You may have to dip the spoon into hot water several times for easier spreading. Try and spread as thin a layer as possible. You should be able to make 8-9 layers. 

When the dough is prepared, cook it in the centre of the oven for 10‒13 minutes until the cake is golden and just turning brown. If you remove it too quickly, it will be difficult to remove from the paper and it won’t have the fullest taste. Remove from the oven and transfer the cake (with the paper) to a cooling rack. Repeat with the other layers. 

Cool all the cake layers completely (will take about 1.5 h). Then peel off the paper, stack them, and trim the edges – this is easiest if you place a cake or tart bottom on top of the stack as a template. Put the cut off cake bits to the side.

Prepare the cream. Pour half the sour cream in a bowl and add the vanilla powder and jelly pieces and stir. Let sit for 30 minutes. During this time the cream will get thinner and sweeter, thanks the sugared edges of the jellies. With a mixer, whip the remaining sour cream for a minute, add to the jelly cream, and mix.

Place the first cake layer on a serving plate and spread some cream evenly across the top (make sure you don’t put too much in the centre so the finished cake doesn’t bulge in the middle). Place the next cake layer on top, and cover with cream. Repeat for the remaining layers. Spread cream on the top layer and the sides.

In a food processor or meat grinder, process the cake cut offs and sprinkle on the top and the sides of the case to cover completely. Let the cake rest in the fridge for at least 12 hours, but 24 is also good. Serve cold.