Odesa Honey Cake from Maria Kalenska cook book “Cuisine of Odesa”

From Maria Kalenska

INGREDIENTS

For dough:

400 g flour

200 g sugar

100 g butter

100 g honey

2 eggs

10 g baking soda

For custard:

500 g milk

200 g sugar

150 g butter

3 yolks

50 g flour

seeds of 1 vanilla stick or 1 tsp. vanilla paste

For sour cream filling:

400 g sour cream (at least 30% fat)

200 g powdered sugar

For cream "Iriska":

300 g condensed milk

METHOD

STEP 1

In a large bowl mix eggs, sugar, honey, butter and baking soda. Mix lightly with a whisk. Place the bowl over a steam bath and melt the dough until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring constantly. The dough should be homogeneous, smooth and airy.

STEP 2

Sift the flour into the bowl with the dough. Stir with a wooden spoon. The dough should be dense, the color of the dough with a creamy caramel tint. Sprinkle the work surface with flour. Transfer the hot dough to it. Form into a ball, cover with a towel and leave to cool.

STEP 3

Divide the dough into 8 parts of 120 g. Roll out the cakes layers with a diameter of 24 cm. Bake at a temperature of 180 ° C on a silicone mat for 8-12 minutes. The rest of the dough and trimmings are also baked and crushed into crumbs.

STEP 4

Prepare custard. In a small bowl, mix sugar, vanilla seeds, yolks, flour. Add 200 g of cold milk, mix well with a whisk. Strain the mixture through a sieve so that there are no lumps.

Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan, put on fire and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Slowly pour in the egg yolk mixture, stirring vigorously. Cook the cream, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Add cold butter cut into cubes to the hot cream. Stir until the cream and butter are completely combined. The consistency of the finished cream resembles thick sour cream. Cover the saucepan with the cream with cling film and set aside in the refrigerator until completely cooled.

Prepare sour cream filling. In a bowl, mix sour cream and powdered sugar until smooth.

Prepare buttercream. In a water bath, boil condensed milk in a jar until cooked for 3 hours. Transfer the condensed milk to a small bowl and let cool.

STEP 5

Collect cake. Place the first cake in a springform pan without a bottom and spread a layer of custard on it. Repeat the process with each cake, alternating custard, sour cream and buttercream. The last layer should be the custard. Cover the cake with cling film and refrigerate overnight.

STEP 6

Using a blender or manually chop the trimmings from the cakes. Remove the cake from the mold: carefully remove the detachable part and transfer to a dish. Sprinkle the cake with crumbs on all sides.