Kids’ Kitchen: Honey Layer Cake

Home » Recipes » Cake Recipes » Kids’ Kitchen: Honey Layer Cake
| | |

For our recent Teddy Bear Picnic, there was one show-stopping feature on the table that already has readers begging for the recipe! Our Honey Layer Cake is a unique and delicious dessert to add to your kids’ kitchen repertoire.

A subtle and not-too-sweet honey layer cake, perfect for afternoon parties. This honey cake is simple enough that kids can make it, too!

Ella wanted to make a honey cake for the teddy bear picnic because of Winnie the Pooh’s influence. We looked online and discovered that many cultures have some sort of honey cake recipe, but the Russian layer cake version was especially exciting to her!

I read and compared a lot of recipes before we came up with this hybrid, so I won’t vouch for our honey cake being at all traditional or authentic. I knew we would want a slightly sweet cake with a soft texture and I knew we would want to drizzle some real honey overtop of the finished cake (like we did with caramel and our Cream Egg Cake) so I wanted to balance that sweetness with a more tart frosting – lending more towards the original creme fraiche topping instead of a more modern version with sweetened, condensed milk. From the descriptions I’ve read, Russian cakes can range from a sponge cake (like we made) to a crunchier, torte-style cake. (I’d love to hear from any readers who might be more knowledgable about this cake!)

Our recipe is for a soft, slightly sweet cake that doesn’t overpower and instead allows the delicious taste of honey to truly shine. The sour cream frosting gives a nice sweet-tart contrast to the honey drizzled over top and ensures the 13 layers of honey sponge are soft and not dry.
honey layer cake recipe

Depending on your comfort level, the entire recipe may not be completely kid-friendly, but there are definitely stages that any kitchen helpers can help with and the final product is very kid-friendly.

The dough starts off on the stove, melting the honey-sugar-butter mixture, and then whisking the hot mixture into three beaten eggs. I did this stage while Ella wiped down our work area and spread flour on it for us to roll out our dough.

After the stove stage, however, this cake is super easy and fun for kids. You simply stir in the flour, knead the dough, roll it out, cut it into shapes (large circles for a layer cake like this) and bake each layer for 3-5 minutes.

honey layer cake composite

How to Make a Russian Honey Cake

First, preheat your oven to 350F and line a baking tray with a silicone baking mat or parchment.

Assemble your ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup honey
  • 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons butter
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour

how to make a honey cake

Place the honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Stirring occasionally, melt the mixture until sugar is dissolved.

how to make a honey cake (1)

Pour the honey mixture into the beaten eggs and stir quickly until blended. Add the bakings soda to help break up any eggs that may have started cooking from the heat of the honey mixture.

(Now, when we made this cake, we added the eggs to the saucepan which I would not recommend. You need to whisk the eggs quickly and constantly to prevent them from cooking.)

how to make a honey cake (4)

Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix well.

how to make a honey cake (2)

Prepare a surface with flour and pour the dough onto the surface. Knead with a bit of flour just until the dough is no longer sticky. (You don’t want to over-knead the dough, which would lead to a tough cake.)

how to make a honey cake (3)

Cut the dough into several hand-sized pieces to start.

Roll the dough out to 1/2″ thickness and cut into desired shape. We used an overturned cake pan to cut out our cake rounds.

Place two rounds of dough on the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden, about 5 minutes.

Repeat with remaining dough. We got 13 layers out of our dough, but you may get more or less depending on the size of your layers.

how to make a honey cake (6)

For the frosting – you can substitute out another frosting recipe if you’d prefer, but we made a Sour Cream Frosting since we didn’t have Creme Fraiche at home:

  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (35%)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/4 cup liquid honey
  • Berries, for garnish

Whip the heavy whipping cream with a mixer for 4 minutes until light, frothy peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix together the sour cream and powdered sugar.

how to make a honey cake (5)

Fold the sour cream mixture into the whipping cream, being careful to stop when just incorporated – do not over beat.

how to make a honey cake (7)

Allow the cakes to cool slightly before layering them, adding a generous tablespoon or two of the frosting in between each cake layer.

how to make a honey cake (8)

Because our cake had so many layers, the decorative skewers helped keep it sturdy as the frosting set. If you would prefer to leave those out, try to allow the frosting to set every few layers – or make two separate cakes and layer them just before serving.

When ready to serve, drizzle honey over top of the whole cake and garnish with berries, cinnamon sticks, or some chocolate shavings.

honeylayer cake

Here is your free printable version of this Honey Layer Cake recipe:

Want to Save This Recipe?

Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Sugar, Spice and Glitter.

Kids’ Kitchen: Honey Layer Cake

Ingredients

Honey Cake Ingredients:

  • 4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) honey
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 3 large eggs, beaten with a fork
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached, organic)

Sour Cream Frosting Ingredients:

  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (35%)
  • 1/4 cup liquid honey

Instructions

  1. Place the honey, sugar and butter in a saucepan and place over medium heat. Stirring occasionally, melt the mixture until sugar is dissolved.
  2. Pour the honey mixture into the beaten eggs and stir quickly until blended. Add the bakings soda to help break up any eggs that may have started cooking from the heat of the honey mixture.
  3. Add the egg mixture to the flour and mix well.
  4. Prepare a surface with flour and pour the dough onto the surface. Knead with a bit of flour just until the dough is no longer sticky. (You don't want to over-knead the dough, which would lead to a tough cake.)
  5. Cut the dough into several hand-sized pieces to start.
  6. Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness and cut into desired shape.
  7. Place two rounds of dough on the prepared baking sheet and bake until golden, about 5 minutes.
  8. Repeat with remaining dough.
  9. Whip the heavy whipping cream with a mixer for 4 minutes until light, frothy peaks form. In a separate bowl, mix together the sour cream and powdered sugar.
  10. Fold the sour cream mixture into the whipping cream, being careful to stop when just incorporated - do not over beat.
  11. Allow the cakes to cool slightly before layering them, adding a generous tablespoon or two of the frosting in between each cake layer.
  12. When ready to serve, drizzle honey over top of the whole cake and garnish with berries, cinnamon sticks, or some chocolate shavings.

Pin this Recipe for Later

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Pinterest

how to make a honey cake (9)

What’s the most ambitious dessert you’ve ever made? Would you give this surprisingly easy honey layer cake recipe a try?

Be sure to check out some of our other dessert recipes, such as our Cream Egg Cake or 10-Minute S’mores Refrigerator Cake.

easter-kids-kitchen-cake

smores refrigerator cake

 

Similar Posts

One Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.