Medovnik (Honey Cake)

• 450 grams Flour
• 180 grams Icing Sugar
• 180 grams Unsalted Butter
• 1 Egg
• 1 ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
• 6 tablespoons Honey
• 4 tablespoons Cream
• 1 teaspoon Cocoa Powder

Beat the butter, sugar, egg, honey and cream over a low heat (or bain marie) for about 5 minutes.  In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda and cocoa powder.  Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes covered in cling film. It should be a nice soft dough consistency and you should be able to roll it out without it sticking.  If it’s too sticky then let it sit another 5-10 minutes or use a little bit of flour.
On greaseproof paper draw an 8 inch circle (or square) and roll out approximately 160 grams (one eighth) of the dough to fit the circle. It should be about 2-3 mm thick (i.e. thin!)  Roll out 8 of the circles and bake each one for 4-7 minutes at 180C.
Once they are baked, cool them on wire rack, leaving the paper on (until you come to put the cake together).  The cake layers can be baked beforehand and kept in the fridge for up to a week, or frozen for up to a month.
(If you have any dough left, bake the extra too and later grind it up with the nuts to coat the outside of the cake)

Filling and topping

• 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 200 grams of Unsalted Butter
• 70 grams roughly chopped walnuts
• 50 ml of Rum or coffee or both
• 1 ½ Tablespoons of Sugar
• 150 ml of Water

You can first boil the can of sweetened condensed milk for 3 hours, unopened, in a pan of water. This makes it tastier, but is not essential. If you do, do this the day before, and do not open the can until several hours later when it has cooled sufficiently. 

To make the filling, blend the sweetened condensed milk with the butter until creamy.

Separately, mix the rum/coffee, sugar and water in a bowl and set aside.

Putting the cake together
Cut the edges off the 8 cake layers, so that they have a nice cleanly round shape (or square, if you used a square shape...) and don't have hard edges. The bits you've cut off can be ground into crumbs and used to spread over the cake at the end.
Put the first cake layer on a plate, and brush the rum/coffee mixture all over the top of it, then cover with the buttercream and sprinkle with a few chopped nuts.  Proceed like this, brushing both sides of the second and subsequent cake layers with the rum/coffee mixture, placing the layer on top of the last one, and spreading buttercream and nuts over it.
When you've put the last layer of cake on, cover the whole cake with the remaining buttercream and then with the cake crumbs and nuts.  Chill the whole cake in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but overnight is better - the longer you leave it, the more the cream soaks in and it becomes better. The cake can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.

Honey and walnut cookies (can be dairy free)

adapted from a recipe at bakingbites.com

It is ok if quantities are a bit approximate, as long as proportions are roughly the same.

1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable/sunflower oil (I think melted butter would do, too)
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract (or just use vanilla sugar)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a large baking sheet.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
In a separate small bowl, whisk together the oil (or butter), honey and vanilla extract (if applicable). Pour this into the flour mixture and stir. Add the walnuts and stir briefly so that the walnuts are well distributed in the cookie dough.
Using your fingers, shape the dough into 12 balls (approx 1-inch diameter) and place onto the baking sheet, well apart because they will spread. Flatten the top of the balls slightly.

Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned around the edges.
Cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a rack.

Eat within a few days otherwise they will go a bit chewy.

Walnut shortbread

Recipe from Delia online

2 oz (50 g) walnut pieces
4 oz (110 g) salted butter, at room temperature
2 oz (50 g) caster sugar
6 oz (175 g) plain flour, sifted, plus a little extra for dusting
2 oz (50 g) rice flour
a little icing sugar for dusting


The first thing you need to do is grind the walnuts, which you can do very carefully using the 'pulse' switch on a food processor (if this is overdone, the nuts go pasty and oily). Otherwise, a hand-held nut grinder will do the job.

To make the shortbread, place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream them together until pale and fluffy. Then mix the sifted flour and rice flour together and gradually work this into the creamed mixture, a tablespoonful at a time. Next, add the ground walnuts and use your hands to form the mixture into a smooth dough. Leave the dough to rest in a plastic food bag in the fridge for 30 minutes, then roll it out on a lightly floured work surface to a round approximately 8 inches (20 cm) in diameter.

Now, using the 1¾ inch (4.5 cm) cutter, cut out approximately 20 rounds, re-rolling the trimmings. Place them on the lightly greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Cool them for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. When completely cool, dust them with icing sugar and store in an airtight container.

Gluten free parsnip apple and orange pecan cake

Recipe from the Open University.


For the cake:
175g butter
200g light soft brown sugar
100g golden syrup
3 eggs
250g gluten free self raising flour
2 tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
250g parsnips
125g eating apples
50g pecan nuts (or walnuts)
1 orange, zest and juice



For the Maple mascarpone frosting
250g mascarpone cheese
2 tbsp maple syrup
3-4 tbsp milk

Heat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

Grease and line two 20cm sandwich tins.


Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup together in a large pan over low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
Place the mascarpone in a bowl and leave for 15 minutes to warm to room temperature. Add the maple syrup and beat together until well incorporated. Add enough milk so that you achieve a thick, yet spreadable consistency. Place one cake layer on a serving plate and place spoonfuls of the frosting over the surface. Use a knife to spread the frosting out into an even layer, right to the edges of the cake. Top with the second cake layer and dust the top lightly with icing sugar.
Serve in generous slices. Even better the next day...


Meanwhile, peel the parsnips and coarsely grate them along with the apple (you can leave the skin on but remove the core). Roughly chop the pecans and finely grate the zest from the orange. Using a large spatula, whisk the eggs into the melted sugar mixture, then stir in the flour, baking powder and mixed spice. Add the parsnip, apple, pecans and orange zest. Squeeze in the juice from the zested orange and mix well. Divide the batter between the tins (they will be quite full) and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and the tops spring back when pressed lightly. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.