Medovik

Ingredients

• 100g runny honey
• 100g unsalted butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 500g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
• 600ml double cream, well chilled
• 600g full-fat sour cream, well chilled
• 150g icing sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

Before you cook

• Cut eight sheets of baking parchment and draw a 20cm circle on each one, then turn the sheets pencil-side down.
• Weigh the flour into a bowl and have it beside the stove.
• Set up a saucepan of simmering water with a heatproof bowl that sits over it without touching the water.

Steps

1. Put the honey, butter and sugar in the bowl over the simmering water and stir until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.
2. Pour in the beaten eggs in a thin stream while whisking hard, and keep whisking for two minutes so they thicken without setting.
3. Whisk in the bicarbonate of soda and the salt, and watch the mixture foam up pale and double in volume over the next two minutes.
4. Take the bowl off the heat and beat in the flour a third at a time until you have a soft, warm, slightly tacky dough.
5. Tip the dough onto a floured counter, divide it into eight equal pieces, and let them rest for fifteen minutes.
6. Heat the oven to 190C fan-off.
7. Roll one piece of dough directly onto a marked sheet of parchment, flouring the rolling pin, until it just covers the 20cm circle.
8. Trim around the circle with a knife or a plate, leaving the offcuts on the sheet to bake alongside.
9. Bake the layer for four to five minutes, until it is golden brown and no longer glossy.
10. Slide the parchment onto a rack and peel the layer free while it is still warm, as it will crack once cold.
11. Roll, trim and bake the remaining seven layers the same way, keeping all the offcuts.
12. Blitz the cooled offcuts to fine crumbs in a food processor and set them aside.
13. Whip the double cream with the icing sugar and vanilla to soft peaks.
14. Fold the sour cream into the whipped cream in three additions until the filling is thick and holds its shape.
15. Set one cake layer on a serving plate and spread it with a generous 1cm of cream.
16. Stack the remaining layers the same way, spreading cream between each one and finishing with cream on top.
17. Spread the last of the cream thinly around the sides of the cake.
18. Press the reserved crumbs all over the top and sides with your palm.
19. Refrigerate the cake for at least eight hours, and preferably overnight, so the layers drink in the cream and turn tender.
20. Cut it with a long knife dipped in hot water and wiped between slices.