Marishka’s Honey Cakes owner Marina Skelton specialises in Russian honey cake—incredibly soft layers of honey cake made with local Gold Coast honey and sandwiched together with a beautiful light cream (caramel flavoured in this version). This cake not only looks stunning, but has the most incredible flavour and texture.
ABOUT MARINA: Marina (or Marishka as a Russian term of endearment) bakes traditional Russian desserts like honey cake from her licenced home kitchen on the Gold Coast. In Russia, Marina took a few courses ‘just for fun’ with some of the most highly-respected Russian pastry chefs, but never expected that these skills would become her passion—and her business—when she moved to Australia in 2019. Marina hopes to open a pastry studio in the future, where customers can pop in for dessert any time!
Caramel honey cake with Marina Skelton
Serves 10-12
Cooking time: Prepare dough day before, then approximately two hours to cook plus 6-8 hours to set.
WHAT YOU NEED
DoughÂ
50g honey
100g sugar
65g butter (softened)
65g eggs (approximately 1 large egg)
1.5 tsp baking soda
250g flour
CreamÂ
500g sour cream
350g caramel
Berries and meringues for decorations
Extra flour for rolling the dough
WHAT TO DO
Place a bowl with sugar, softened butter and honey onto a saucepan with water simmering inside, bain-marie style. Stir with a whisk until it’s all melted together.
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Add baking soda to eggs and mix together, then add it to the melted honey mixture, stirring constantly so the eggs don’t get cooked. Give it a minute or two and take it off a bain-marie to cool for a couple of minutes.
Sift flour into the bowl and mix it by hand or with a mixer.
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Cling wrap the dough and put it in the fridge for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Dust the counter with flour. Roll dough into a thin layer (3-5mm) and cut out 6-7 circles using an 18cm metal ring or a side plate.
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Bake each layer as well as the leftover dough at 175 degrees Celsius for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Allow all the layers to cool.
Put sour cream and caramel into the bowl and mix at high speed. Use straight away for assembling the cake.
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Assemble the cake by adding one spatula of a cream to each layer, spreading evenly. Use the remaining cream to cover the outside of the cake.
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Put the assembled cake in the fridge for 6-8 hours for stabilisation.
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Make crumbs out of the extra dough by hand or with a blender and use them to dust the cake. Add some meringues, berries and chocolates of your choice to decorate.
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Anna
12 May
Well done Marina!! So excited to see Russian Honey Cake featured in Australian magazine!