“Anyway it will be autumn tomorrow or the next day: I can smell it in the air—summer smoldering.”

— J. L. Carr, from A Month in the Country (Harvester Press, 1980)

Last week, I grabbed a box of the “last of the blues” from the farmer’s market without a solid plan on what to make with them. Four stalls down, I found an armful of anise hyssop, one of my favorite weird herbs. Just across the way, I found a beautiful creamed honey.

I wasn’t sure what I would make with my bounty, but the blueberries were so crisp and perfectly sweet that it seemed like a waste to cook them. The floral and licorice flavors of the anise hyssop always pairs nicely with cinnamon.
I decided I wanted to undertake a project that has been on my “must-try” list for a long time—medovik, or eastern European honey cake. I just recently made a rectangular honey cake, but this one is pretty much as different as can be.

It starts with burnt honey, taken just shy of fully being on fire, which adds a subtle smokiness to the cake.
The sponge itself is nearly biscuit-like, with a thin, almost rubbery texture fresh out of the oven.
In between the six layers of cake are six proportional layers of light, fluffy whipped sour cream laced through with more of the burnt honey.
After a night’s worth of beauty sleep in the fridge, the layers transform into the most luscious and soft cake of my dreams; the sour cream takes on a more intense honey flavor, and as a whole, everything blends together beautifully. It’s like magic.
It’s a rather impressive looking cake, but doesn’t require any fancy piping to make its impression. It keeps perfectly in the fridge (dare I say it might improve from day 2 to day 3?), which makes this a project absolutely worth trying.

Late summer, previously:
Blackberry and Bay Financiers
Caramel Corn Entremet
Plum Spice Olive Oil Cake
No-Bake Strawberry and Lemon Cream Tart
Vegan Coconut Cake (with a mound of summer produce)

Blueberry and Burnt Honey Medovik
lightly adapted from 20th Century Cafe via Pastry with Jenn
for the burnt honey:
150 grams honey
27 grams water

for the honey cake:
135 grams honey
2.5 tablespoons burnt honey (from above)
100 grams sugar
100 grams cold butter, cubed
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground anise
9 grams cold water
216 grams flour

for the frosting:
250 grams sour cream
remainder of burnt honey
30 grams powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
250 grams whipping cream, cold
pinch salt

directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Trace 3-4 9-by-18 cm rectangles onto parchment paper and fit the papers onto 1 or 2 sheet pans.
Make the burnt honey: put the honey into a saucepot and begin to simmer, foam, and darken.
Continue to stir continuously to avoid burning and avoid the foam from overtaking the sides of the pot.
Once the honey has begun to smoke, take it off the heat.
Very carefully, add the water and stand back (it will sputter and steam).
Whisk in enough hot water to make 1/2 cup burnt honey, then set aside.
Next, make the cake: combine honey, burnt honey, sugar, and butter in the top of a bain-marie.
Whisk the eggs together well.
Whisk baking soda, salt, anise, and cinnamon together.
Once the butter has melted, whisk the butter and honey mixture together until homogeneous.
While whisking continuously, add the eggs in and mix very well; continue to cook until hot to the touch again.
Whisk in the baking soda and spice mixture, which will foam up slightly.
Remove the batter from the bain-marie and sift the flour on top.
Whisk in the flour completely.
Using an ice cream scoop, portion out 2 scoops onto each traced rectangle and spread thinly with an offset spatula as close to exactly on the lines as possible.
Bake for 6.5 to 7 min, until the cake is puffed and springs back slightly when pressed.
Peel the baked layers from the sheet pans and let cool; repeat with remaining layers (I had a total of 6 neat ones + ~1.5 for crumbs)
For 1 of the layers, bake for an additional 3-5 minutes until crisp and dry.
Process the dry layer in a food processor until it is fine crumbs.
Make the frosting: whip the sour cream, salt, vanilla, burnt honey, and powdered sugar together until soft peaks form.
Whip the heavy cream to stiff peaks.
Very gently fold the sour cream into the whipped cream, being careful not to punch too much air out of it.
Assemble the cake by placing one of the layers on a plate, then top with a layer of the frosting.
Repeat until all the layers are done, then use the extra frosting to generously frost the sides.
Press the cake crumbs into the sides using a bench scraper.
For the top, decorate as desired (I first arranged the blueberries and then piped little blobs of frosting between them).
Put in the fridge and leave for at least 8 hours before eating.