Honey Cake with Apricot Coulis

In a saucepan or small pot with a thick bottom, whisk together the sugar, honey, butter, and eggs. It does not matter what temperature they are. I take the eggs and butter straight from the refrigerator.

Place over low heat and stir constantly until the sugar crystals are completely dissolved.

Remove from the heat and add the baking soda. Mix well. The mixture should foam up strongly.

Weigh out 550 g of flour, sift it through a sieve into a large bowl, and set aside 50-60 g in a separate container.

Pour the egg-honey mixture from the saucepan into the bowl with the flour, mix well with a spoon, and knead by hand into a soft elastic dough. If there is not enough flour, add a little at a time from the reserved 50-60 g.

Place the finished dough in a plastic bag or wrap it in cling film and leave it at room temperature for 30-40 minutes until completely cooled. If you are in a hurry, you can put it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

While the dough is cooling, you can prepare 6-12 identical pieces of parchment (mine are about 30*30), on which we will roll out and bake the cake layers.

Turn the oven on to 180*C. While it is heating, use a rolling pin well dusted with flour to roll a circle from a small piece of dough on the parchment, 2-3 mm thick (I roll it out as thin as possible).

Using an 18-24 cm ring, trim and remove the uneven edges, prick the dough often with a fork, and send it to the preheated oven for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the finished cake layer from the oven, immediately take it off the baking sheet, and leave it to cool on a flat surface. Put the raw layer in its place, send it to the oven, and set the timer for 3-4 minutes.

In this way, bake 8-14 cake layers over the course of an hour, depending on the diameter. From this amount of dough, I got 9 cake layers 24 cm in diameter.

Place the apricot purée in a saucepan (preferably with a thick bottom and at least 18 cm in diameter) and heat to 30-45*C.

Mix the sugar with the pectin and, in a thin stream, stirring constantly, gradually add it to the warmed purée.

Without stopping stirring, bring the coulis to a boil and boil for 4-6 minutes.

Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature.

Pour the well-chilled sour cream and cream into the mixer bowl. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract.

Start beating at medium speed and you can immediately switch to maximum. This is if you are using a hand mixer. If you are beating the cream with a planetary mixer, start at the lowest speed and, as soon as the powdered sugar dissolves, switch to medium.

The cream whips quite quickly. As soon as the mixture begins to thicken noticeably (for me after 2-3 minutes), gradually, in a thin stream, add 1 packet of thickener. After that, beat for another 1-2 minutes.

Gently mix the finished cream with a silicone spatula (the cream will be more liquid at the bottom, which is completely normal — the thickener simply did not get there) and use immediately as intended.

Pour the apricot coulis into a disposable piping bag and make a small opening in it. The cream can also be applied with a piping bag (if assembling in a ring) or simply with a spatula.

Lightly grease the base with cream so that our cake does not run away by accident. Place the first cake layer on it, press down lightly, and spread generously with cream. Apply the coulis evenly. Adjust the thickness of the layer yourself. The more coulis you have, the thicker the layer should be. You can add coulis between layers. This is entirely up to you.

Repeat the process until the last cake layer. Then you can completely coat the cake with cream and put it in the refrigerator already fully assembled to soak. Or you can wrap it in acetate film, put on a ring, and hide it in the refrigerator for stabilization and soaking for 4-6 hours. After that, finish leveling and decorating the cake. That is how I do it.