MARLENKA (HONEY CAKE)
Medovnik is a delightful honey cake made with six layers of honey biscuits, alternating with a luscious mascarpone and sour cream filling, and enriched with rum-soaked prunes
Pastry Dough
110g Butter, unsalted
150g Sugar, white
2 Eggs, whole & at room temperature
85g Honey
10g Baking soda
450 g Flour, all-purpose plus more for dusting
Cream Filling
230g Mascarpone cheese, softened
220g Heavy whipping cream
120-150g Condensed milk
250g Sour cream
Plus
Rum-soaked dried prunes
Walnut halves, for the decoration, optional
Start with preparing cream that needs to chill in the fridge. In a bowl mix together 230g mascarpone cheese, 220g heavy cream and 120g condensed milk. Start whisking slowly and once the mascarpone “softens” and incorporates nicely with other ingredients, start whisking faster. Watch your cream carefully during the whisking and do not over whisk. Once your cream thickened, manually and gently stir in 250g of sour cream. Set side
2. To make a honey biscuit, start with melting 110g butter in a medium-size saucepan or cooking pot over a low heat. Once the butter is almost melted add 150g sugar. Keep stirring and mixing (always over low heat) until sugar has dissolved. Next, stir in 85g honey and 10g baking soda and mix until nicely incorporated. Turn off the heat, stir in 2 whole eggs and mix fast until fully incorporated (eggs must be at room temperature – not cold, otherwise they will scramble). Once eggs are mixed in, turn the heat back on (very low) and keep whisking or mixing (using a wooden spatula or whisk) permanently for 2-3 minutes until the whole mixture is frothy and pale in color
3. Take the mixture of the heat and add in 450g plain flour in three additions. After each addition, mix the flour with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated and smooth. After the third addition, it might be tough to mix with a wooden spoon so I usually start with kneading the dough with my hands. You can add up to 500g of flour if your dough is too sticky. You must get a nice elastic dough that you’re able to roll out with a rolling pin and that’s not sticking to your hands or to work desk
4. Divide your warm dough into six, equal-size pieces and roll each piece out into the shape of your baking pan (I usually use a square 8×8 inch baking pan but you can use round-shape as well). Bake each rolled out dough separately on your baking pan lined with a parchment paper (that you can reuse) for 3.5 – 4 minutes at 350°Fahrenheit. You know that the biscuit is baked when it turns golden brown on the top and toasty brown on the bottom. The biscuit will be very soft when you take it out of the oven but it will harden after a couple of minutes as it cools. Bake all offcuts separately after you’re done with baking 6 individual biscuits
5. Let your honey biscuits cool down before assembling them into a cake. To assemble, alternate layers of the biscuit with the prepared cream and rum-soaked prunes chopped into small pieces. The last layer of the cake is a cream topped with ground offs-cuts of the honey biscuits. Decorate sliced cake with walnut halves