Caramel & honey cake

This time we would like to share a recipe for a CARAMEL & HONEY CAKE with the orange curd and a banana layer.

For the dough:

• 390 g flour | 13.75 oz
• 155 g sugar | 5.45 oz
• 110 g butter | 3.90 oz
• 90 g eggs | 3.15 oz
• 63 g honey | 2.20 oz
• 9 g baking soda | 0.30 oz
• 2.5 g lemon acid | 0.10 oz

For the custard:

• 360 g cream cheese | 12.70 oz
• 50 g powdered sugar | 1.75 oz
• 300 g orange curd | 10.60 oz
• 150 g sour cream (25-30% fat) | 5.30 oz
• 1 banana | 1.00 item

For the orange curd:

• 180 g freshly squeezed orange juice | 6.35 oz
• 180 g sugar | 6.35 oz
• zest of 1 orange | 1.00 item
• 240 g eggs | 8.45 oz
• 120 g butter | 4.25 oz

1. To cook the cake layers, you need to melt the sugar first. Put it in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and place over a medium heat; as soon as the sugar starts melting, reduce the heat and continue heating. When it becomes golden at the edges, tilt the stewpan in different directions, so that the unmelted sugar pours into the melted one. The main thing is not to rush and not to stir the sugar with a spoon!
2. When all the sugar is smooth and caramelized, remove the saucepan from the heat, and add the liquid honey to it. When the honey has been added and mixed until smooth, gently pour in hot butter. It is necessary to heat it so that the caramel doesn’t harden from the contact with the cold butter. Stir the caramel until smooth, and pour into a bowl; let it cool to 70C (158F), stirring occasionally. It takes about 10 minutes.
3. Pour approximately 1/3 of the flour and all the eggs into the caramel; mix them, and add the baking soda and the lemon acid, actively kneading the dough. After that, you can pour out the remaining flour, mixing everything until smooth. Roll the dough into a ball and leave it to cool to the room temperature.
4. When the dough has cooled, divide it into 9 pieces and form the balls; roll each ball very thinly into a circle on the floured parchment. The dough must be rolled out to such a size that then a circle with a diameter of 18-20 cm (7 to 8 inch) can be cut out of it. Prick the dough with a fork, and bake each cake at 160C (320F) for about 5 minutes. Hot cakes are very flexible, so it is necessary to cut out the even circles of the required diameter. You can make the crumb from the scraps for decorating the cake.

Well, the cake layers are ready! Just a little more, and you will taste an amazing cake!

For the orange curd, mix the sugar, the juice, the zest and the eggs in a heatproof bowl, and place that mix in a water bath. The mixture must be stirred continuously (but don’t do it very intensely, otherwise it will never reach the desired temperature). When the temperature reaches 84C (183F), and the curd becomes very thick, remove it from the water bath, then cool slightly and add the butter, stirring well until smooth. Then whisk everything with a blender to get a smooth curd, and cool it in the fridge. It takes a long time to cook the curd, so be patient.

When the curd cools, mix it with the cream cheese and the powdered sugar until smooth; then add the sour cream and stir again. If you are as much a banana lover as I am, then cut one ripe banana very finely (you can even grind it with a fork to a puree), and add about 4-5 tablespoons of the custard to it.

Banana custard is enough for about 2 layers. It’s up to you to decide, what they will be in a row. Assemble the cake: smear each layer with the custard, and sprinkle the cake with the scraps.