russian honey cake

SERVINGS: 8 IN HUGE SLICES, 12 IN NORMAL ONES

TIME: ABOUT 2 HOURS ON THE FIRST DAY + AN
OVERNIGHT REST + ABOUT 30 MINUTES ON THE SECOND

This cake is eight paper-thin cake layers with a creamy, slightly tangy filling and coating. It mostly tastes like dreamy frosted graham
crackers. The honey, if you’re nervous, is barely notable if you use a mild one but will be more present with a strong one. The filling is
just a little sweet and has no sourness to it; after absorbing into the cake layers, it tastes so much like a mild cream cheese frosting,
good luck convincing people it is anything else.

Planning ahead: You must start this cake a day early because you’re going to want the better part of the day for the filling to soften
the cookies into glorious thin cake layers, just like an icebox cake. You can start even earlier than that, too. Our cake looked amazing
in the fridge for 5 whole days before, um, it was “gone” so you can assemble this a few days before you need it. Or, you can make the
cookie layers a week or longer in advance and store the in a container at room temperature, as you would other cookies. Just make
sure you get them filled and frosted a day before you want to slice in.

C O O K I E L AY E R S

1/2 cup (170 grams) honey

1/2 cup (100 grams) sugar
1/2 cup (115 grams) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups (455 grams) all-purpose flour, divided

FROSTING AND FILLING

32 ounces (just shy of 4 cups or 900 grams) sour cream

1 14-ounce can (400 grams) sweetened condensed milk

The day before, get ready: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Get 2 baking sheets (or even better, round pizza pans) down, more if you
have them. Tear off 6 sheets of parchment paper large enough to have a 9-inch circle on it.

Make cookie/cake dough: In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar, honey and butter over medium heat. Once simmering,
cook for 3 to 4 minutes (no specific temperature needed), it should get a faint shade darker and smell wonderful. Whisk in baking
soda.
Remove from heat and set aside for 2 to 3 minutes. It’s not going to significantly cool off, just settle a little. Lightly beat your eggs
in a spouted measuring cup (for easiest pouring) or small bowl. Take a deep breath. Whisking the honey mixture vigorously in the
pot the whole time, drizzle the thinnest stream (think: 1/2 teaspoon at a time, that slowly) of the eggs into the honey mixture. Do
not stop mixing. Continue until all of the eggs are thoroughly whisked in.

Stir in the salt and vanilla and 3 cups (390 grams) of the flour with a spoon. The dough is going to be thick like a bread but you’ve
got this. Stir in the last 1/2 cup of flour 1/4 cup at a time; you’ll get a bonus arm workout.

Shape and bake the cookies/cakes: [Plus, a bunch more layer tips at the end.] Lightly flour your counter and divide the still-warm
dough into 8 even pieces. Roll the first one between two sheets of parchment paper (no flouring needed) to a slightly-bigger-than-
9-inch round. Remove top sheet of parchment paper. Very lightly dust the top with flour if you’re going to put something on it
(such as the bottom of a 9-inch cake pan or the rim of a 9-inch bowl) to trim the shape to an even 9-inch circle. Save the
trimmings — put them aside on one of the sheets of parchment paper, it’s fine if they overlap a little. Dock the circle all over with a
fork. Slide your 9-inch round onto a baking sheet and bake for 6 to 7 minutes; it should feel firmish and get slightly darker at the
edges. Slide the cookie onto a cooling rack. Go ahead and reuse the parchment for another layer.

Meanwhile, while the first layer is baking, roll out your second piece so it’s ready to go into the oven as soon as the first comes
out. If you’re making good time, get the third ready too and continue to bake them two at a time. Keep adding the unbaked cookie
trimmings onto one piece of parchment paper. Repeat this process as you bake each round and you’ll have all 8 baked before you
know it.

Finally, take that last sheet of parchment with all of the cookie scraps on it and slide it onto a baking sheet and bake it, checking
in at 4 minutes, because the thinnest scraps will want to burn quickly. By 5 minutes, all should be baked until pale golden. Let cool
completely and save until you’re ready to decorate the cake tomorrow.

Fill and frost the cake: Whisk sour cream and sweetened condensed milk together in a large bowl. Once cookies are cool, place a
dab of the sour cream mixture on your cake plate and place the first cookie on top of it to help adhere it.

Cut or tear one of your used pieces of parchment paper into strips and tuck them all around the underside of the cake to protect
your cake plate. Trust me, if you do not do this, you will regret it.

Scoop 3/4 cup sour cream mixture onto the center of your first cookie layer. Spread it only a little from the center, leaving a good
1- to 2-inch margin of unfrosted cookie. Stack the second cookie on top and repeat until you have 8 layers.

This will quickly become a huge mess. The sour cream is going to spill out and down the sides anyway (hear hear for those paper
strips) and you’re going to start yelling at me/drafting an angry comment in your head. It’s also going to want to slide around and
not stay neatly stacked. It’s totally okay because the filling will thicken as it absorbs into the cookies. Put the cake in the fridge for
a couple hours (1 to 3) and when you come back to it, nudge the stack gently back into place and use a spoon and icing spatula
to scoop the spilled-out filling back up the sides and onto the top of the cake. Don’t worry about it looking neat. Let it chill
overnight.

The next day, finish the cake: Grind your baked, reserved cookie scraps in a blender or food processor, or bash them into crumbs
in a bag with a rolling pin.

Take your cake out and do one final frosting clean-up. Spread any newly puddled sour cream back up the sides and across the
top. If you’d like to make a decoration on top of your cake, take one of those used pieces of parchment paper (see how much Deb
hates wasting parchment) and cut a stencil with it. Place it gently on top of the cake.

Use a small spoon to sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the crumbs. In the coolest trick I saw on a cooking video, use a
pastry brush (or extremely clean paintbrush, I won’t tell) to gently brush the crumbs off the stencil and across the cake in a thin
layer. It sounds crazy but it works — on the sides too. Remove the stencil and parchment paper strips and look at that clean
serving plate! (Bravo, you.)

You can serve the cake right away, or keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days. When slicing, I found that a knife dipped in hot water
made picture-perfect cuts.
A bunch of extra dough and cake layer tips:

· The dough is a bit stiff, but it will stretch to the size you need with pressure. If you’re finding it to be a huge pain, that the dough
clearly wants to go to 8 inches but not 9, just go ahead and make the cake 8 inches round. It will be just as good of a cake; the
layers might need a single extra minute to bake.

· Ovens will vary, especially for such thin cookies, so keep an eye on the first round as of the 6-minute mark, checking in each
minute after as it can brown very quickly, and then you’ll know how much time you need for the remaining ones.

· This dough is easiest to roll/softest when it’s still a little warm; if yours has cooled quickly, I found that you could put each piece
in the microwave for 5 to 7 seconds (only!) to get it a touch warmer again, without prematurely baking the cookie.

· Go ahead and save all of those used pieces of parchment paper for the next step and beyond. We’re going to use them again.

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FIRST PUBLISHED OCTOBER 7, 2016 ON SMITTENKITCHEN.COM |

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