Honey cake recipe

Step-by-step

Before you start

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5. With a dark marker, trace ten 23cm/9­inch circles onto ten 28x44cm/11x17inch sheets of parchment; flip the sheets over.

For the burnt honey

1. Put the honey in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. It will foam up like crazy; continue cooking, stirring, until it starts to colour.
2. Now pay close attention: keep simmering, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula. Once the honey starts to smoke, reduce the heat to low and let it cook for 30 seconds longer. Remove from the heat and carefully swirl the honey in the pan for about a minute, to release some of the heat, then set the pan down and pour in the water, staying way the hell out of the way; it will steam and sizzle!
3. Once the honey stops bubbling like it’s going to kill you, give it a stir and pour it into a heatproof measuring cup. Stir in enough hot water to make 200ml (6.7fl oz) burnt honey. (The burnt honey can be made ahead; stored at room temperature, it will keep indefinitely.)

For the cake

1. In a medium heatproof bowl, combine the honey, burnt honey, sugar and butter and set the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and set aside. In a small bowl, combine the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
2. Whisk the honey and butter mixture. When the butter has melted and the mixture is hot to the touch (but not so hot it will burn you), add the eggs all at once while whisking. Continue whisking until the mixture is once again hot to the touch, then whisk in the baking soda mixture. The mixture will look a little foamy and smell kind of weird.
3. Remove from the heat, whisk in the cold water, and let cool until warm but not hot.
4. With a fine-­mesh sieve or sifter, sift the flour over the batter and whisk it in until it is perfectly smooth. Do not worry about overmixing.
5. Using an ice cream scoop or a measuring cup, scoop about 90g (⅓ cup) of the batter into the centre of each of the traced circles on the pieces of parchment. With a small offset spatula, spread the batter into thin even circles.
6. Transfer two of the pieces of parchment to sheet pans and bake, rotating the pans at the halfway point, until the cake layers spring back when lightly pressed, 6.5 to 7 minutes (it may take up to 1 minute longer, but remember, you can bake it more but not bake it less, and subsequent layers, baked on warm sheet pans, may take less time).
7. Remove the baked layers from the sheet pans (still on their parchment) and let cool. Repeat the baking process with the remaining layers. It may be easier to peel the layers off the parchment when they are warm, but do not stack the layers until they are completely cool (yes, you will have layers on every surface – clear space!).
8. Turn off your oven and let it cool for 10 minutes. Take your least favourite layer, slide it onto a parchment-­lined sheet pan, return it to the oven, and toast it (in the turned-­off oven) until it’s a nice reddish brown and very dry. Remove from the oven and let cool, then grind the layer into crumbs in a food processor, or just crush between sheets of parchment with a rolling pin.

For the frosting

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl, using a handheld mixer), combine the dulce de leche, burnt honey and salt, and beat on medium speed until smooth.
2. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add 178ml (¾ cup) of the cream and mix until homogeneous.
3. Transfer to a bowl and refrigerate, along with the mixing bowl, until chilled. Keep the mixer bowl or the large bowl cold in the fridge. (The magic can be made ahead to this point and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 2 months.)
4. Switch to the whisk attachment if using the stand mixer and, in the chilled mixer bowl (or the large bowl, using the handheld mixer), whip the remaining 1.18litres (5¼ cups) cream to soft peaks.
5. Gradually pour in the chilled honey mixture and whip until the cream again holds soft peaks. It should be very glossy but hold a nice mound. Refrigerate the frosting while you prepare to assemble the cake.

To assemble

1. You can assemble the cake on a 23cm (9­inch) cardboard round or directly on a cake plate, but beware that this is a very tall cake and your cake dome might not cover it.
2. Place your first cake layer on your building surface of choice and place about 150–160g (1 heaping cup) of frosting on top.
3. Spread the frosting evenly across the cake layer, all the way to the edges. It’s okay, and even helpful, if you go over the edges a little, which will help you finish the outside of the cake easily. The idea is to have equal parts cake and frosting. Top with a second cake layer, and repeat the spreading and stacking process until you’ve stacked and frosted all 10 layers.
4. Using a bench scraper (and a cake turntable if you have one), hold the bench scraper at a right angle to the cake plate and go around the cake, pushing those extra bits of frosting into any cracks as you go, smoothing the cake and straightening the layers by pushing them this way and that, until your frosting is perfectly smooth and your layers are all aligned. Don’t worry, though, if the edges of a few of the cake layers are peeking out from beneath the frosting. The final coating of crumbs will hide it all.
5. Pick up a handful of the cake crumbs and gently press onto the sides of the cake, re-­scooping the ones that fall, going all the way around the cake, and using the remaining crumbs, until the sides are completely coated. I do a final little sprinkle on top, as if it fell from the sky onto my cake.
6. This is the worst part: put it in the fridge until tomorrow. You cannot eat this cake the day you make it. You must satisfy yourself with fallen crumbs and blobs of frosting. (The cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)
7. When you’re ready to serve it, remove the cake from the fridge, admire your brilliance, and slice into wedges.

This recipe is excerpted from Baking at the 20th Century Cafe by Michelle Polzine (Artisan Books). Copyright © 2020. Photography by Aya Brackett.