Layered Honey-cake (ryzhik)

A popular layered Russian honey cake with frosting made out of sugar and sour cream.

For the dough:

2 eggs

3/4 cup white sugar

100 g butter

2.5 cups of plain flour

2 table spoons of honey

1 level tea spoon bi-carbonate soda

For the frosting:

500 g sour cream

1 cup sugar

Strawberry and chocolate for decoration

Mix eggs, sugar and softened butter in a small pan. Add soda and honey. Heat the mixture (stirring constantly) on a low heat until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat, add 2 cups of flour and mix well.

Use a bain-marie (water bath) to heat the dough. Keep the small pan in the water bath for 1 minute, then take it out and mix the dough well to ensure that the dough does not stick to the bottom and the walls of the pan. Repeat this 5 times to heat the dough through thoroughly. Then, cover the small pan with a lid and a tea towel. Put the pan aside for 1 hour to rest. Then add half a cup of flour and mix thoroughly.

Lightly dust a sheet of baking paper with flour. Take a heaped table spoon of the dough and roll out the dough into a very thin circle. Use a dinner plate (around 23 cm in diameter) to cut off the edges. Put any left over dough back into the pan. Repeat this 7-8 times until you finish the dough. Bake the layers two at a time for 10 mins at 180 degrees Celsius until they are golden.

Let the cooked layers cool for 1 hour.

Add the sugar to the sour cream and mix well. Spread the frosting on each layer stacking them one on top of the other. Decorate the top layer with grated chocolate and garnish with strawberries.

Let the cake stand for a couple of hours for the frosting to settle.

Once set, serve the cake with tea or coffee. Enjoy!