Semolina Flatbread

As you may already know my all-time favorite is yeasted dough. Though I love bread and especially baking bread by myself, I mostly use it for sweet things e.g. buns, brioche or challah. My friendship with yeasted dough began with cinnamon raisin buns which are - honestly - the love of my life. Eating them warm when they're still fresh from the oven makes me weak. I could literally eat them all day long. 

This time I came up with an non-sweet recipe with yeast dough: arabic semolina flatbread. Coming from a country with an extreme arabic and jewish influence, flatbread has always been sort of a must-have on our table. No matter if plain or spicey, thick or thin, crispy or soft, chewy or oily, it is usually eaten with everything, either with meat or rice and vegetables. And soaking a piece of flatbread in a left-over salad dressing or sauce is just culinary heaven! Seriously, who needs meat when there's flatbread and salad dressing?

This recipe for semolina flatbread is very easy, no dough braiding, no swirling, no complicated forming. But the result is stunning. An extremely soft and fluffy inside and some toasted sesame seeds on top. The semolina goes just great in flatbread, as it gives a slightly cakey consistency to the bread and a nice yellow color. 

Semolina flatbread

20gm fresh yeast (or 2 tsp dry active yeast)
175ml warm water
250gm semolina
250gm white flour
1.5 tsp salt
125ml olive oil
1 egg (for brushing)
3 Tabsp sesame seeds (for sprinkling)

Crumble the fresh yeast into the warm water, stir a little bit and let sit for a few minutes until the mixture starts to become light and bubbly. In a large glass bowl, sift together semolina, flour and salt. Add the bubbly yeast mixture and olive oil, gently mix using a wooden spatula or spoon. If the dough seems to be dry, add a little bit more water, if it seems too wet, add some sieved flour. Now remove the dough from the glass bowl and start kneading it on a slightly floured surface for about 2 - 3 minutes until it becomes very soft and elastic. Put it back in the glass bowl, cover with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and leave it at a very warm place for about 60 - 90 minutes until the dough has doubled in size. Meanwhile line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Remove from the glass bowl and knead again for about 1 minute. Devide the dough in two parts. Place each part on a lined baking sheet and roll it out using a rolling pin or simply your hands. The dough should be 2 - 3 cm high/thick (about 1 inch). (It doesn't have to look perfectly even, the more natural and messy it looks, the better it will taste...) Leave the two baking sheets at a very warm place again for about 30 minutes until the dough has slightly risen. Preheat your oven to 200 C. Beat the egg and brush the top of the risen dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake for about 30 minutes until nicely golden. Serve warm or cooled, both versions are delicious!

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

Coming from a family of many different races and ethnicities I grew up learning a lot about the Kazakh, Greek, Russian, Armenian, German, Korean, Jewish and Ukrainian cuisine, to mention only a few. Korean glass noodle salad, Russian black bread, Armenian kefir and Kazakh syrup sweets - as a child, I had all of this together (Goodness, I'll never forget the good old days...) If you are also of a mixed family background you'll probably know what I'm talking about. But anyway, I'm straying from the subject, let's get back to the main story I wanted to talk about: yeasted apple pancakes. As a child, I ate a lot of pancakes. No matter if those were Russian or German or Greek pancakes, no matter if they were made with buttermilk, yeast or whole wheat flour, no matter if I added honey or jam or cream cheese on top - I've tried endlessly many different kinds of pancakes. And, honestly, I still haven't fallen out of love with pancakes. They're always great, no matter what. That's why I wanted to share an amazingly delicious pancake recipe with you which uses yeast for the batter, apple slices for the top and which is perfect for a warm, fruity and sweet breakfast meal. Trust me. These. Are. Simply. Good.

Yeasted Apple Pancakes

250gm flour (I was using regular white flour, use whole wheat flour if you prefer to live on the healthy side of life)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tabsp sugar
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
250gm warm milk
3 Tabsp melted butter or margarine
3 eggs
2 apples, in thick slices
some butter for frying

In a large glass bowl, combine flour, salt and cinnamon and mix well. Slightly press in the top of the flour mixture using your fingers to make sort of a pit or deepening, in which you have to place the crumbled yeast, sugar, melted butter and milk. Gently stir, just until a bit combined and let sit for a few minutes until the yeast mixture on top of the dry mixture starts to get light and foamy. Add eggs and start beating the batter using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel or a plastic wrap and let sit at a very warm place for about 40 - 60 minutes until the batter has risen a little bit. Now make the pancakes: melt some butter in a frying pan at medium heat, drop about 2 - 3 tablespoons of batter in the pan and place one apple slice on top of the pancake. Fry on both sides at medium heat for about 3 minutes until golden brown. Continue until batter and apple slices are used up. 

Serve while still warm adding some liquid honey or maple syrup on top of the pancakes.

 

Sweetened Condensed Milk Cupcakes

Look at them, aren't they just lovely? Kind of childish and girly. They remind me of a kids party with a lot of baked stuff, colorful jellies and many sweets. But no. No kids. And no party. It was just me and some friends having mokka with some sweetnened condensed milk cupcakes. Originally, the recipe that I was using was meant to be for a pound cake.  Fabulous but so easy. The batter was very soft but at the same time very fluffy and spongy and went excellent together with the rich and heavy frosting. I'm definitely going to use this recipe again, probably trying a simple sweetened condensed milk pound cake next time.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Cupcakes
makes about 10 regular size cupcakes
cupcake recipe (slightly changed) taken from J's Kitchen

cupcakes
100gm soft butter or margarine
40gm sugar
2 eggs
120gm flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
200gm (1/2 can) sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Line 10 regular size muffin moulds with paper cups or line a 20 x 20-cm cake pan with baking paper. In a large bowl cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat in. Add sweetened condensed milk and beat well until incorporated. In another bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt, sieve over wet mixture and beat in quickly just until everything is combined. Pour into prepared muffin cups or baking pan. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes (or for about 40 minutes if you bake a cake) until nicely browned. Take out of the oven, remove from the pan and let cool completely.

frosting
250gm curd cheese or cream cheese
2 tsp corn starch
1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl beat together the ingredients for the frosting using a hand mixer on high speed until everything is well incorporated and the mixture is very fluffy. Frost the cupcakes.

Optional: Decorate with some jelly fruits if you want. Enjoy :)

Oatmeal Plum Streusel Breakfast Cake

When I know that in my kitchen there is some kind of fresh streusel cake that I plan to eat for breakfast I, actually, can never wait until breakfast. In some cases I can even predict that a cake like this will never see tomorrow. Because it's is so good. It's a perfect mixture between cooked oatmeal and a fruit salat combined in a cake with streusels on top. Not too sweet. Not too heavy. But too yummy. 

And another good thing about this cake is that you can add to it whatever you wish. You could add some spices like ground ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon to make the cake more cozy. Or you might even want to replace the plums with any fruits you like, depending on the season, like cherries, apricots or figs. It's up to you.

Oatmeal Plum Streusel Breakfast Cake

batter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp salt
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk or water
2 cups flour (if you want the extremely healthy version of a breakfast cake, use whole wheat or whole spelt flour. I was using regular white spelt flour.)
2 cups oats
2 tsp baking powder
+ about 2 cups plums, in thin slices (I added frozen plum slices to the batter, but I think fresh plums would be perfectly fine too)

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line a approximately 8 x 12 inch - baking pan with baking paper. Whisk together sugar, eggs and salt. Whisk in oil and milk. Add the dry ingredients and whisk well until you have a thick and moist mixture. Gently fold in about two thirds of the plums. Pour the batter in the lined pan and smooth the top. Arrange the remaining plums on the top. Now prepare the streusel mixture...

streusel
60gm sugar
60gm very soft or melted butter
100 - 150gm white flour (it depends on what consistency you want the streusels to have, I wanted them to be very crumbly, not soft, so I added much more flour)

Combine the ingredients for the streusels and make the mixture very crumbly using either a hand mixer on low speed or your fingers or a fork. Arrange the streusel mixture on top of the cake. Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for about 55 - 65 minutes until done and nicely browned. Let cool for a few minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool completely.

Cheese filled Sesame Strudel

I like yeasted dough so much. Every single day I have to eat something made with yeast, no matter if it's something sweet, e.g. cinnamon rolls or something savory, like fresh bread or buns. The taste and the consistency of a baked yeast dough is simply my favorite. 

This is why I'm here to share with you one of the best savory strudel recipes on this planet. The inside contains a lot of cheese and many herbs (almost any herbs or spices can be used) while the top of the strudel is brushed with fresh olive oil and a lot of sesame seeds. This strudel is perfect either for breakfast, for lunch or for dinner, and it can be served as a side dish with meat or as a main course with a simple salad and a spicey dip.

Cheese filled Sesame Strudel

dough
500gm white flour
20gm fresh yeast, in crumbles or small pieces
2 tsp salt
300ml warm water
3 Tabsp olive oil
1 egg
2 Tabsp sugar

Combine the crumbled yeast, sugar and water in a glass bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes until the mixture is very foamy and light. In a very large glass bowl sift together flour and salt. Add the egg, oil and the yeast mixture. Mix well using a wooden spoon or spatula slowly adding the flour from the sides of the bowl. Place the dough on a floured surface and knead for about 2 - 3 minutes until you have a very soft and elastic dough. Place in the glass bowl again and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 - 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.

filling
200gm Greek white and crumbly cheese (or use any other cheese you like, fresh mozarella will be perfect as well)
1 cup cottage cheese or farmer's cheese
2 Tabsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 Tabsp coriander leaves, chopped
1 Tabsp chili sauce (I was using ajika / aджика / aџьыка, which is a very hot and spicey Caucasian red paste)
1 tsp salt
a pinch of pepper
1 tsp majoram, dried

+ about 2-3 Tabsp olive oil for brushing
some sesame seeds (about 2 tsp)
some coarse salt (about 1/2 tsp)
some black cumin seeds (about 1 tsp)
some ground dried rosemary (about 1 tsp)

Mix the Greek cheese using a fork until very crumbly. Add the cottage cheese, parsley, coriander leaves, chili sauce and as much salt, pepper and herbs as desired, mix well. 

Now fill the yeast dough: Roll out the dough very thinly in a square shape, arrange the filling mixture on top. Roll the dough in and form a strudel. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper and place the strudel on it. Brush the strudel with some lukewarm water (about 2 Tabsp) to make sure that the top of the strudel won't become dry but stays moist and wet. Let rise again at a very warm place for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 175 C. Brush the completely risen strudel with olive oil and sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, salt, black cumin seeds and rosemary. Place in the oven and bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until nicely browned.

 

Simple Semolina Muffins

Who doesn't love some sweet yellow muffins with a cup of strong hot coffee for breakfast? It's definitely one of the simplest and easiest recipes that I've ever tried and they're good for almost everything, a sweet breakfast, a cosy afternoon coffee, a small gift for a friend, just anything. You can frost them or dust them with some icing sugar or dip them in a chocolate ganache or eat them just like that when they're fresh from out of the oven.

Simple Semolina Muffins
makes 12 regular size muffins or one medium size round cake

1 cup yellow semolina
1 cup milk or buttermilk
1 cup sugar 
1 cup flour 
10 Tabsp vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder

(optional: about 1 cup of raisins, chopped nuts, fresh berries, dried apricots, softened poppy seeds, seasonal fruits cut in small pieces, ...)

Line 12 muffin moulds with paper cups or line a medium size round baking pan with baking paper. Combine semolina with milk in a large bowl and let sit for at least 1 hour. 

Preheat oven to 180C. Whisk the semolina milk mixture and beat in the oil. In another bowl beat the eggs together with sugar until light and bubbly for about 3 minutes. Add to the semolina mixture and whisk well. Sieve over flour and baking powder and quickly beat in. (Add 1 cup of an ingredient you like mentioned above.) Fill the batter in the 12 muffin cups and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until done. If you use this recipe for a cake it might take another 10 minutes in the oven.

 

Moist and Rich Lemon Sour Cream Cake

Let's just say: This cake is an excellent mixture between creamy and fruity. 

If you have been following the recipe posts on my blog (I know you have! right??!!) you have probably noticed that I don't care much about low-fat products. I've never enjoyed them and I rarely use them. Instead, I think that a healthy amount of fat in your food makes the meals even more delicious. So if it says in the recipe 'sour cream' definitely use real sour cream, if it says 'whipping cream 40%' use real whipping cream 40%, if it says 'butter' use real butter. Have you ever tried to make one dessert with low-fat buttermilk (1% fat) and another with usual heavy cream (50% - 60% fat) and then compared the taste of both with each other? Then you know, obviously, that you cannot make a nice dessert or a sweet cake without using fat. Impossible.

That's why this mouth-watering cake contains full-fat sour cream in the frosting and a looot of fresh vegetable oil in the cake layers. 

Bake it. 

Frost it. 

Decorate it. 

Enjoy a piece. 

And then another. 

Never worry about calories. 

If you have a really healthy lifestyle with a lot of exercising, you can enjoy as much baked stuff as you desire without falling sick or becoming overweight.

So here comes the recipe . . .

Lemon Sour Cream Cake

cake layers

3 eggs

zest of 2 large lemons 

16 Tabsp sugar

16 Tabsp vegetable oil

5 Tabsp cold water

16 Tabsp white flour

15gm baking powder

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line the bottom of two regular round baking pans with baking paper. Beat the eggs, sugar and lemon zest using a hand mixer on high speed until very light and foamy. Add oil and water, beat in quickly. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and sieve it over the wet mixture. Beat in quickly just until incorporated. Fill in the two lined baking pans and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes until nicely golden. Remove from the pans and let cool completely.

lemon glaze

juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

1 tsp sugar

Whisk together lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Brush the top of each cooled cake layer with the sweetened lemon juice. Let soak for a few minutes.

frosting

1000gm full-fat sour cream / crème fraîche

250gm white sugar

1 Tabsp corn starch

grated chocolate (optional)

Combine sour cream, sugar and corn starch in a large bowl and beat using a hand mixer on high speed until the mixture becomes very creamy and fluffy for about 2 - 3 minutes. Frost the two cake layers. (Sprinkle some grated chocolate on top, if desired.) Let cool and soak completely for a few hours or overnight. Enjoy :)

Jewish Honey-Drizzled Syrup Cake

A soft buttery batter soaked in sweet honey syrup. What else do you need to be happy? Well, maybe a cup of strong hot mokka. 

Jewish Semolina Syrup Cake
recipe adapted from Big Girls Small Kitchen (slightly changed recipe)

batter
120gm soft butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
zest of 2 lemons
1/2 cup milk
2 cups yellow semolina
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
a pinch of nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 175C. Line a  medium size round pan or a 20 x 30-cm baking pan with baking paper. Combine butter and sugar, cream using a hand mixer on high speed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add milk and lemon zest and beat on high speed just until incorporated.
Sift together semolina, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sieve over the wet mixture and mix well. Fill the batter in the prepared pan and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

honey syrup
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water

While the cake is baking, prepare the syrup. Combine the ingredients for the honey syrup in a sauce pan. Place on high heat and bring to a boil. Let simmer for about 5 minutes, then remove from heat. 
When the cake is done, take it out of the oven and slowly pour the hot honey syrup all over the cake using a spoon. Let soak and cool completely overnight.
Optional: Sprinkle with almonds if you like.

New York Cheesecake With Raspberry Topping

There are probably at least hundreds or thousands of recipes for NY Cheesecake. But this is the best one. Trust me. A nice buttery crust, a moist and heavy cheese filling and a very fruity and sweet raspberry topping. Honestly, I could have eaten the whole cake all by myself. 

New York Cheesecake with Raspberry Topping

crust
200gm ground biscuits or cookies or whatever you like
120gm butter, melted

Line a normal size round baking pan with baking paper and grease the sides.
Combine ground biscuits and the melted butter, mix well and press the mixture on the bottom of the pan. Place in the fridge while preparing the cream cheese mixture.

cheesecake
1kg curd cheese or cream cheese (or ricotta for the Italian version of the cheesecake)
1 cup sugar
3 Tabsp flour
4 eggs
100ml heavy cream
zest of 1-2 lemons (depends on how lemony and fruity you want your cheesecake to be)

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Beat curd cheese using a hand mixer until very smooth. Sieve over sugar and flour, beat until well combined. Quickly beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add cream and lemon zest and beat again just until everything is well incorporated and you have a smooth and heavy mixture.
Take the baking pan with the crust on the bottom out of the fridge. Pour the cheese mixture in and smooth the top.
Place the cake into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes at 180C. Then reduce the temperature to 150C and continue to bake for about 60 - 70 minutes until done.
The sides of the cake should be nicely browned but the middle part or the inside should still be a little bit wobbly and creamy.
Take out of the oven and let cool completely, then remove from the baking pan.

raspberry topping
1/3 cup orange juice
1 Tabsp corn starch
1 Tabsp sugar
1 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen and thawed)

Place orange juice, sugar and corn starch in a small sauce pan and whisk well to avoid lumps of the corn starch. Heat the mixture on high heat while continously stiring for about 3 minutes until slightly thickened. Remove from heat and carefully fold in the raspberries. Arrange on top of the cooled cheesecake. Keep the cake in fridge until completely cooled.
Enjoy :)

Viennese Apfelstrudel

After two posts about baking with apples I honestly still don't have enough of them. You can create soo many delicious things using apples, they seem to be kind of a miracle in my kitchen. There are things like apple jam, apple buns, apple muffins, apple pancakes, apple cakes, apple tarts and no matter where you put the apples in, everything turns out delicious. That's why I'm going to show you another amazing apple recipe. I'm not Austrian and I've never been to Vienna but the traditional viennese Apfelstrudel is what I fell in love with.

Viennese Apfelstrudel

dough
250gm white flour
2gm salt
1 egg
100gm lukewarm water
20gm oil

some melted butter for brushing
some sliced almonds for sprinkling

filling
1kg apples, in pieces or chunks
140gm sugar
10gm cinnamon
170gm raisins
50gm melted butter

Combine the ingredients for the dough using your hands and knead until the dough becomes very elastic and soft. Add a bit more oil if the dough sticks to your fingers.
Place in a bowl and let sit for about 30 minutes.

Combine the ingredients for the filling and mix well.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Roll out the dough in a rectangular shape on a floured surface. The dough should be very thin. Place a clean towel on the rolled out dough and roll it in very carefully making sure not to tear the dough.Flip over the rolled in towel and roll it out in the opposite direction so that the dough is now on top of the towel and not unterneath.
Arrange the filling evenly on top of the dough leaving the sides without filling.
Fold in the sides of the dough. Slowly roll in the dough with the filling using the towel.
Place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with some melted butter and sprinkle some sliced almonds on top.
Bake for about 30 - 40 minutes until golden brown. 
Enjoy :)

Torta Di Mele

Does this cake need any introduction? To be honest, no. It's an Italian recipe which has no complicated baking procedure, no special ingredients, just some fresh apples and a simple batter. The result is stunning. This is one of the fluffiest and softest cakes I've ever baked, so, believe me, it's absolutely worth trying!

Torta Di Mele

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/4 cup white flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 Tabsp cream (or milk)
+ 3 - 4 apples, thinly sliced
+ some sliced almonds for sprinkling, if desired

Preheat oven to 175C. Line a round tart pan with baking paper. Whisk together sugar, butter, eggs and lemon zest until well combined. Sieve over flour together with baking powder and whisk it in until there are no lumps left. Add cream and whisk in as well. 

The batter should be pretty liquid but very smooth.

Pour into prepared pan and spread evenly. Arrange apples on top, sprinkle almonds onto the sliced apples. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes until golden brown. Let cool completely.

And enjoy.

Panettone

Well, let's call this a kind of failed panettone... Honestly, the texture was soft, fluffy and buttery and the taste was lightly sweet, just like it should be, but the look could be improved a bit. I really don't know why the yeasted dough rose too much or why the top of the breads was uneven and a bit overbrowned. But come on, It was my first time baking panettone and I don't have that much experience with yeasted doughs, so don't jugde me :) Nevertheless I hope that you like the pictures and give this recipe a try!

Panettone
makes two panettone breads

450ml warm milk
42gm fresh yeast, in crumbles
120gm sugar
100gm candied orange or lemon peel
150gm raisins
700 - 800gm white flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
3 egg yolks
200gm melted butter

Combine yeast and sugar with half of the milk, stir (using a wooden spoon) until sugar dissolves and let sit for about 5 minutes until brown and bubbly. 
Prepare the dough in a large glass bowl: Sieve together flour and salt. Add orange peel, raisins, nutmeg and mix well. Pour over the yeast mixture, melted butter and the remaining milk. Stir slowly until well incorporated. Start kneading the dough on a floured surface and add more flour if needed. Knead for about 4 - 5 minutes until soft but still a bit sticky. Place back into the glass bowl and let rise at a very warm place for about 1 hour.
Butter two round pans (if possible, use panettone pans, I was using two soufflé pans).
After the dough has doubled in size, take out of the glass bowl and knead again for about a few minutes. Form 2 dough balls and place into buttered pans. Let rise again at a warm place for about 1 - 1.5 hours.
Preheat oven to 150C. Bake the panettone bread for about 45 minutes.
Let cool completely, then remove from pans and dust with a lot of icing sugar.
Enjoy :)

Challah

Now it's official. I've finally baked Challah bread for the first time. 

When it comes to baking special or such traditional things I'm always a master of procrastination. But now I've tried it and the bread turned out great having this certain fluffy but still very soft texture which I adore. Working with a yeasted and braided dough is not as complicated as I thought it would be and the lightly sweet taste plus the soft texture make this bread well worth trying. It's now definitely my number one on my favorite-bread-list.

But enough blah-blah, here are some pictures ...

Challah 
(makes 1 very large or 2 medium size breads)

dough
42gm fresh yeast
400ml warm water
1000gm white flour
1.5 tsp salt
6 Tabsp melted and warmed honey
3 eggs, lightly beaten
120gm melted butter

glaze
1 egg
2 Tabsp whipping cream

Combine about 100ml of water with yeast and melted honey in a glass bowl, stir well until yeast dissolves and let sit for about 10 minutes. The mixture should start to become bubbly and creamy.

Sift flour and salt together in a very large glass bowl.

Add the yeast mixture, melted butter, eggs and the remaining water. Slowly stir with a wooden spoon until everything is very smooth and well combined without any lumps.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead on an even surface for about 5 minutes until the dough becomes very elastic. 

Place into the glass bowl again and let rise for about 1 hour until doubled in size.

After the dough has risen for about 1 hour, take out of the bowl and knead again for about 5 minutes.

Form a large roll or devide the dough into 3 parts and make a braid (or whatever you want your challah to look like).

Line a baking sheet with baking paper and place the challah onto the baking sheet. 

Preheat oven to 175C. 
Before placing the challah into the oven, whisk together the ingredients for the glaze and brush the dough with the egg-cream mixture evenly.

Bake for about 50 - 60 minutes.

Let cool completely. 

Enjoy.

Honey Layer Cake

Some weeks ago, my grandpa brought me a huge jar of liquid honey that he got somewhere. The first thing that my mom said was "Please bake a honey layer cake! I want one!" I admit that my first thought about so much honey was the same. If you try this cake you will understand why. It has the incredible ability to take away all bad moods and rainy days within the first two seconds of chewing. No person on this planet has the strenght to refuse to eat a second piece of this cake. Or even a third one, in some cases...

And though I was using a lot of honey there's still so much left, fortunately. I keep looking for another delicious honey cake recipe checking out some baking blogs. So, there's definitely going to be another honey cake post soon. Wait for it!

Honey Layer Cake

layers
4 eggs
300gm sugar
a pinch of salt
8 Tabsp liquid honey
3 tsp baking powder
200gm melted butter or margarine
24 Tabsp white flour

Prepare the batter for the 4 layers. Preheat oven to 175C. Line 4 round baking pans with baking paper. (Or use 2 pans and bake the layers in 2 steps, preparing 2 layers each time.)
Beat eggs, sugar and salt on high speed using a mixer until very light and bubbly, for about 4 minutes.
Quickly beat in the melted butter or margarine until incorporated.
Combine honey and baking powder in a saucepan on medium heat while continously stiring. The baking powder lumps should disappear and the honey should become very watery. Keep stiring until the mixture starts to rise and becomes very bubbly. As soon as it has doubled in amount, remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Then pour the honey mixture into the egg-butter-mixture and beat in just until well combined. 
Sieve over white flour and beat in as well. The batter should be really smooth and soft without any lumps.
Pour into prepared pans and bake for about 25 - 30 minutes until done. Let cool completely.

frosting
500gm curd cheese (I was using low-fat)
400gm сметана or sour cream
4 - 5 tsp powdered sugar (depending on how sweet you want your frosting to be)

Prepare the frosting. Combine the ingredients for the frosting and beat well until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is smooth and fluffy. 
Take the cooled honey layers and frost until the complete frosting mixture is used up.

topping
50gm dark chocolate
3 tsp whipping cream
about 50gm sliced and toasted almonds

Prepare the ganache. Melt chocolate and cream in a small saucepan while stiring. Remove from heat when the chocolate has melted completely.
Pour the ganache mixture into an icing bag and decorate the top of the frosted cake as desired. 
Sprinkle sliced almonds onto the sides of the frosted cake.
Enjoy :)