Czech Republic – Medovnik (Honey Cake)

Five layers of deliciousness

I found this sweet little cake on a blog and couldnt resist creating it’s ‘sunshine like’ taste. My version looked nothing like the original but was still a hit at our Macmillan coffee morning. Check the blog for more information about the cake and it’s origins.

Ingredients

Cake ingredients:

• 2 cups hot honey
• 4 cups four
• 1 tbsp lard
• 4 egg yolks
• Stiff meringue from 6 egg whites
• 2 women’s handfuls of raisins
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• A little bit of cloves
• 2 tbsp baking soda (seems like a lot)

Cream Filling:

• 6 tbsp of superfine flour
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1  & 1/4 cups butter
• 2 packets vanilla sugar  (1/4 cup)

Steps:

1. Mix the hot honey together with the flour

Melt the honey on the stove

2. When cool, add in the lard, egg yolks, cloves, baking soda and cinnamon

Mix the ingredients together

3. Fold in the beaten egg whites

Fold in the egg whites to create air in the mixture

4. Pour into a pan the depth of 1 thick finger to the first knuckle (do this 5 times)

5. Bake each layer for a few minutes (around 3-5 min) – be careful not to over bake (you will find the cake somewhat dry).

Layer 1 baked to perfection

Steps to make the cream filling:

1. Mix flour with a little bit of milk

Whisk the milk and flour together

 2. Boil the rest of the milk

3. Add flour mixture to hot milk, then cook until creamy consistency.

It looks like and has the consistency of custard

4. To hot cream add sugar and vanilla sugar

5. Whip butter to a “frenzy”.

Blend the butter to get rid of lumps

6. Add cream mixture to the frothy butter, blend

 

Once the layers have been baked, follow these steps:

1. Starting with a cake layer, spread on some of the cream filling liberally

First layer of cream added

2. Add another cake, then more cream filling

Second layer added

3. Repeat these steps until you have spread cream on the 4th layer  of cake.

Pile the layers up and pour the cream on

4. For the fifth cake layer, crumble it in a food processor

Overnight the cream will sink into the layers

5. Spread the crumbs on top of the cream filling

Pulse the final layer in the blender

6. You can drizzle chocolate (melt chocolate with some butter, a little water together), honey or toasted and chopped walnuts on top

7. Let the cake sit, covered in the fridge, for at least 6-8 hours so that the cream seeps into the cake.

What I thought: “Using only one caketin meant I was cooking for hours. This cake seemed a little too hard to taste like sunshine but was definately an interesting taste and went down well at the macmillan coffee morning. A bit sticky and the cream was too runny so I would suggest cutting down on the amount of milk used in the recipe.”

Happy Baking,

love,

Miss Trays xxx

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Switzerland – Nusstorte (Nut cake)

The poor quality photo doesn’t do this Swiss treat justice

I don’t know much Swiss cooking but this cake looked particularly interesting and not too hard. It was pretty easy to make and was delicious served warm with the remaining cream.

I found a pretty easy looking recipe.

Ingredients

• 485 g (17 ounces) sugar
• 250-300 g (9-10 ounces) shredded walnuts
• 2 dl (6.8 fl. ounces) cream
• 375 g (13 ounces) white flour
• 220 g (8 ounces) margarine
• 1 egg
• 1 pinch of salt

Method

Filling:

1. Put 335 g (12 ounces) sugar in a frying-pan, fry slowly until the sugar starts to foam. Do not stir, because the sugar will get lumpy.
   

   Sugar melting away

2. Add the walnuts, mix well and remove from the heat before the sugar gets too brown.
   

   Adding the walnuts to the dissolved sugar

3. Add the cream immediately and let it boil down.
4. Let cool down the filling.

Dough:

1. Mix flour, margarine, the rest of the sugar (150 g equals to 5 ounces), the egg and the salt and make a dough.
2. Cut the dough into three pieces, two of the same size and one slightly smaller.
3. Roll the two pieces of the same size to make up a bottom and a top of the cake in a form with 28-30 cm (11-12 inches) diameter.
4. Form a roll with the third piece and place it on the bottom along the form, see figure below.
5. Pour the filling evenly on the bottom.
6. Cover the cake with the top.
7. Bake in the oven at a lower level at about 200°C (400°F) for 40-45 minutes.
8. Open the form immediately after removing from the oven to prevent the cake from sticking to the form.

Put bottom into the form Use the ring of dough to form the back of the cake Pour the filling on the bottom so that it is level to the top of the back Cover the cake with the top

What I thought: “This recipe was very easy to make and turned out to be deliciously different. The ‘dough’ seemed to be more like sticky cake batter and was therefore very difficult to roll and put into the form. I would suggest adding more the required flour to firm up the mixture and make it more malleable to use. The cooking time suggested was also way to much and the cake burnt slightly. Not your typical cake and certainly a delightful treat to accompany a coffee.”

Serving suggestion: Great with the remaining cream

The taste test:

Tony, Caerphilly: “Delicious, marriage matieral bakery”

Tracey, Bristol: “Amazing, really tasty and like nothing I’ve tried before”.

Happy Baking,

Love,

Miss Trays x

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