Today "So simple!" invites you to cook honey cake “Bee”- a delicate dessert with a delicious aroma of honey and an unforgettable taste of childhood!

Its 8 thin, tender, melt-in-your-mouth honey cakes, soaked in airy custard, will not leave lovers of sweets indifferent. Brew delicious tea, invite your friends and enjoy the most delicious honey cake!

Cake "Bee"

Ingredients for the crusts

• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. l. honey
• 250 g sugar
• 500–550 g flour
• 50 g butter
• 1 tsp. soda

Cream ingredients

• 500 ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp. l. flour
• 150–200 g sugar
• 100 g butter
• 1 packet vanilla sugar

Preparation

1. Mix eggs, sugar, butter, liquid honey in a saucepan.
   
   
2. Place the pan on low heat and stir the contents until the sugar is completely dissolved.
   
   
3. When the sugar dissolves, add soda. The mass will begin to foam and double in volume. Stir vigorously for another 30 seconds and then remove from heat.
4. Start stirring in the pre-sifted flour with a spoon. Gradually the mass will cool down and you can knead it with your hands. You should get a soft, not very stiff dough.
   
   
5. Divide the dough into 8 parts. Roll them into balls, cover with film and put in the refrigerator.
   
   
6. Meanwhile, prepare the custard.
7. In a small saucepan, combine flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, eggs and whisk everything into a homogeneous mixture. Add milk little by little and stir until smooth.
8. Place the pan on low heat. Continuously stir the milk mass to avoid the formation of flour lumps. As soon as the custard thickens and begins to boil, remove it from the stove.
   
   
9. Add soft butter to the hot custard mixture and stir until it is completely dissolved. Cover the cream with cling film and cool to room temperature.
   
   
10. Take one ball of dough out of the refrigerator. Roll out thin honey cakes on floured parchment paper. Transfer the cakes to a baking sheet directly with parchment paper and bake on it.
    
    
11. Bake the cakes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown.
12. Immediately after baking, while the cake is soft, place a mold of the required diameter on top (mine is 22 cm) and cut the cake along its edges. Don't throw away the trimmings. Grind them in a blender to sprinkle on the sides and top of the cake.
13. Grease the cooled cake layers, sides and top with cream. After this, generously sprinkle the cake with the remaining cakes crushed in a blender.
    
    
14. Take it away honey custard cake in the refrigerator for several hours to soak.
15. The cake is soft, tender and cuts like butter. Enjoy your tea!

How to make a bee for a cake

Honey cake "Bee"

For honey cakes:

Wheat flour 500 gr ( maybe a little more or less, depends on the quality and gluten of the flour)
- 2 eggs
- sugar 200 gr ( I used brown cane, but any will do)
- butter 80 g
- honey 115 gr (about 3 heaping tablespoons)
- soda 2 teaspoons without a slide

The quantity of products is given for 1 large cake

(Because I baked 2 cakes, but in the photographs the number of products is 2 times more)

Combine eggs with sugar

Then add honey, butter, soda

Mix everything well and put in a water bath: pour water into the pan, put it on the stove, when the water boils, place the container with the dough on top of the pan with water

Heat, stirring constantly, until the mass turns dark golden brown, the mass will double in size.

Then remove the mass from the stove, add flour (sift into the mass)

Knead the dough, it immediately turns out very sticky, but when it rests, it stops sticking to your hands, it is very convenient to roll it out

Cover the dough with film and leave to cool at room temperature (to speed up the process, you can put the dough in the refrigerator) - start rolling out the dough when it becomes slightly warm, not hot

Our dough rested, cooled and rested.

We begin to roll out the cakes - lightly sprinkle the table with flour, pinch off a piece of the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 5 mm, thinner if possible, the cakes will still rise during baking

Cut out the cakes (I use a plate of the required diameter for this)

(add the dough to the scraps of the cakes and roll them out again - for the next cake, or bake together with the cakes - to then use for sprinkling the sides of the cake)

Using a rolling pin, transfer the resulting cakes onto parchment paper greased with vegetable oil.

We bake the cakes at a temperature of 200°C. The cakes bake quickly, depending on the oven - 3-7 minutes. Place the baked cakes in a stack and cool at room temperature.

While the cakes are cooling, let's make the cream.

For cream:
(for 1 cake)

Sour cream (fat content 25-30%) 400 gr
- cream 33% 150 gr
- boiled condensed milk 1 can (380-400 g)
- honey 2 heaped tablespoons
For the cream that will cover the top of the cake, you also need gelatin - 1 pack of 11 g. + 50-70 grams of cream (or milk or water) to soak the gelatin
(gelatin is not needed for the cream inside the cake)

Combine sour cream, cream, boiled condensed milk and honey

Beat with a mixer until smooth.

All! The cream is ready!
Divide the cream into 2 parts. The smaller part is for the top of the cake.

Spread most of the cream over the cooled cakes.

And put the cake - the preparation in the refrigerator.

In the meantime, let's cook gelatin cream.

Pour 1 pack of gelatin with cold cream (water or milk)

Let it swell (with good microcrystalline gelatin this happens quickly - within 5-7 minutes)
This is the thick mass we got after swelling

Transfer the gelatin mass into a saucepan and set to heat on the stove

Stir constantly without bringing to a boil!
This is what melted gelatin should look like

Cool the gelatin slightly (not until it hardens! 2-3 minutes, no more!)

And carefully, with constant stirring, add it to the cream

Because The gelatin is still hot, then after adding it to the cream, the cream becomes quite liquid, don’t be alarmed, this is how it should be

“Bee” cake is a recipe from the group of classic honey cakes. Therefore, it is difficult to find a person who will remain indifferent to this cake. Honey products are incredibly tasty, and many people associate “Pchelka” with homemade cakes. And although “Bee” is very popular and is sold in all stores, and its photo is on all confectionery websites, the most delicious and healthy cake will always be the one you prepare at home.

What makes “Bee” different from the classic honey cake is its decoration. That is, this cake is, in fact, a festive honey cake. The cake is decorated in the form of a honeycomb on the surface and sides, and decorative bees are placed on top. There are many creative photos of such jewelry on the Internet. In our article you will find not only a recipe, but also easy ways to make such decorations.

Ingredients for making the dough:

• Eggs – 3
• Flour - 3 cups
• Butter – 100 g
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Salt – 0.5 tsp.
• Honey – 2 tbsp.
• Cognac (vodka) – 2 tbsp.

How to cook?

1. In a small saucepan over low heat, heat the butter, honey and sugar, stirring. This base will give the cake an incomparable honey taste.
2. Eggs need to be beaten with salt. Next comes one of the most crucial moments for the entire recipe: you need to pour this mixture directly into the container over the fire in a stream. The stream should be thin and the stirring constant, otherwise the protein will simply cook into the mass, and the cake recipe will disappoint you with the presence of protein streaks in the dough. Add cognac or vodka, as well as soda, to the same mixture.
3. The mixture needs to be stirred for a couple more minutes, during which time abundant foam will appear (this should not bother you) and the mass will double in volume. Now you can add flour, stirring it thoroughly, turning off the heat on the stove. Cover the saucepan with a lid and let it sit on the stove for another 5 minutes (with the burner off).
4. The dough is ready, as you can see, the recipe turned out to be not at all complicated. To check if you have the right dough, take a portion of it with a spoon: the dough should not be a lump, but be separated by elastic bands. If the dough is lumpy, this will affect the taste; they will taste like honey, but their density will not be the same as the recipe prescribes.
5. What makes a cake a cake is the layers. Therefore, we need to make several cake layers from the dough. Since we have a honey recipe, this dough needs to be rolled out especially carefully, as it tends to stick. Therefore, the surface for rolling must be generously sprinkled with flour. Transfer the dough with a large spoon to the surface and begin to knead it, sprinkling flour on top. Next, divide the large lump into 12-15 balls. If you look at the cross-sectional photo of the cake, you will see that this is exactly how many cake layers are used. Roll out the dough onto the cakes thinly, as if you were making pita bread. Roll out all the cakes at once and place them on top of each other so as not to stick together, sprinkling each with flour.
6. Let's start baking the cake. Place the first cake on a baking sheet for 2-3 minutes at a temperature of 180. The recipe here also has secrets: so as not to tear the dough while you carry it, wrap it on a rolling pin sprinkled with flour. And after placing it on a baking sheet, pierce it with a knife at a distance of 3-5cm over the entire surface (since honey cake dough tends to bubble).
7. We will even out the edges of the finished cakes. You can use a lid from a pot or frying pan for this. However, do not throw away the scraps: the cake can be decorated with them.

Ingredients for making cream:

• Sour cream – 1 l
• Sugar – 2 cups
• Vanilla - on the tip of a knife

All ingredients must be beaten with a mixer at low speed. Please note that the cream should be thick. Therefore, take full-fat sour cream or add a thickener to the cream (according to the instructions on the thickener package). The cake is smeared with cream on top and sides, all cake layers are coated. Now the cake is ready, but it can only be served after 5 hours.

Decorations for the Bee

The bee is a birthday cake that has recognizable decorations. First of all, these are honeycombs. They are not difficult to make and do not require a special recipe. It is only important to arm yourself with a means at hand, namely bubble wrap. You don’t even need to look at the photo to guess what should be done: after the Bee has stood in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, take it out and apply a film on top of the surface, hold it for about 15 minutes and remove it: it will leave a characteristic honeycomb imprint. There is another way to achieve a similar effect - using a dumpling maker. Then the honeycombs will turn out large.

Previously, decorations were limited to honeycombs and a sprinkle of crushed leftover cakes. But you can go further by making bee figurines with your own hands. The recipe is simple: melt dark chocolate and, using a pastry bag or even a regular file, squeeze it into thin strips onto foil (like a bee's body). After the blanks have stood in the freezer for half an hour, finish drawing with them white chocolate stripes on the body. But wings for bees are made from almond petals (ready-made) or almond slices.

In principle, the recipe for jewelry can be any other - look at photos of finished products on the Internet and use your imagination! Don’t forget to also take a photo of your beautiful and most importantly delicious Bee as a souvenir!

Video recipe for making “Bee” cake

Honey cake, loves any cream, butter, sour cream, condensed milk. But a special place among honey cakes is occupied by a wet cake, as many say. Covered with a gelatin layer that is not even noticeable, the cake can be decorated more festively and made original gift for a child's birthday.

Of course, there is nothing unusual in the making of the cakes themselves; the main distinctive features lie in the coating of the top layer and the decoration of the cake.

Bees at home

If you don’t know that this cake has a gelatin coating, then it’s almost impossible to discern it while eating. The cream is so light and pleasant. Gelatin will only go to the top layer, so the strong taste of the jelly is not felt.

Let's try to figure out how to prepare honeycombs with bees at home.

First, let's remember the ingredients you will need for the cake:

• Chicken eggs – 2 pcs.;
• Wheat flour – 3.5 cups;
• Granulated sugar – 1 cup;
• Honey - 3 tbsp. spoons;
• Butter – 7 tbsp. spoon;
• Soda – 1 teaspoon;
• Vinegar – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• Salt - on the tip of the knife;
• Sour cream 25% – 400 ml;
• Boiled condensed milk – 1 can;
• Cream 33-35% – 150 ml;
• Honey – 2 tbsp. spoons into cream;
• Gelatin – 1 pack;
• Milk – 2 tbsp. spoons.

As always, we start preparing this cake by preparing the dough.

It is almost normal, maybe a little weaker than that of standard honey cakes. But it rolls out quite easily if you rest a little after cooking. It all starts with beating eggs with sugar. It is necessary for the mass to double in volume. Then add honey and melted butter. Mix well. Add baking soda slaked with vinegar. You can also replace vinegar with lemon juice.

We beat everything very thoroughly and, of course, place it in a water bath.

It seems that not a single honey cake is complete without this wonderful structure. This is where you shouldn’t leave the stove, since the dough needs to be constantly stirred for 10 minutes.

After we have heated the initial dough piece, we need to remove it from the heat and start adding sifted flour in portions. Mix very well to finished test there were no lumps.

Now that all the flour has visited our dough, it needs to be divided into 8 parts and rolled into balls. Then flatten this bun with your palm and try to stretch it a little. As much as possible, level the mass by hand. I’ll immediately make a reservation that this should be done on baking parchment, lightly dusted with flour. Then we cover our cake with a second piece of parchment and roll it out to a thickness of 0.5 cm. We cut the cakes according to the template and slightly move the trimmings away from the main cake.

Next, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the cakes. Each layer will take no more than 5 minutes. Then take it out, turn it over, remove the parchment, and leave it to cool on the wire rack that came with the oven.

Immediately place the scraps in a separate bowl.

Do not stack the cakes one on top of the other, they may stick. Two layers fit well on a standard grill, slightly obliquely. When the third one comes up, the first one will have time to completely cool down and can be transferred to a dish.

When the entire base of the cake is ready, proceed to the cream.

It seems that for this cake it is the simplest, since you just need to combine all the ingredients and beat well with a mixer. That is, you just need to put cream, sour cream, boiled condensed milk and honey in a cup and beat with a mixer until smooth.

Then we divide this cream into a large part, for soaking the cakes, and a small part, for combining with gelatin. That is, the part that will be gelatinous should cover the entire cake - the sides and top.

We coat the whole cake and put it in the refrigerator while we prepare the gelatin mass. To decorate the cake, you need to dissolve a bag of gelatin in 2 tablespoons of milk and let it swell well. Modern instant gelatin will go through all stages in 5-7 minutes.

It's just like custard - it requires constant stirring.

Then cool for a couple of minutes and add to a smaller portion of the cream. It turns out to be a rather liquid mass, but don’t be afraid, when it hardens, it will be quite strong and hold the honeycomb shape well. Now cover the top and sides of the cake, carefully leveling with a spatula or the back of a knife. Next, we apply a film with pimples on the top part, and sprinkle the sides with crushed crumbs from the cake trimmings.

You need to press the film a little and put the cake back in the refrigerator. Let the gelatin harden. While this is happening, we make bees from the chocolate mass. There are two options for making them - one with white chocolate wings, and the second using almond shavings. By the way, I like it better with shavings, as the wings turn out smooth and beautiful. Such bees can not only decorate a cake for a simple tea party, but also become a nice birthday gift.

First, melt the dark chocolate in a water bath.

We bring it to the consistency of plasticine and sculpt the body of the bee, that is, the head connected to the body. This is very easy to do at home, since no one will notice any discrepancy in size and color. We lay out the blanks on the board and immediately insert the wings. We put all the not quite ready bees in the freezer and melt the white chocolate. But you need very little white, just to draw the eyes and stripes. When the white chocolate is ready, take the bee blanks out of the freezer and use a toothpick to draw eyes and stripes. And put it in the freezer again.

After 15 minutes, remove the bees from the freezer and move them to the refrigerator, next to their future home. Until tomorrow, you are completely free, like Piglet from the cartoon. The next day, remove the film and place the bees over the entire surface of the cake.

You can immediately drink tea or bring out a birthday honey cake with burning candles to the friendly applause of the guests. When the guests look at this beauty, they will not even believe that with the help of small improvised tools one can make such magnificence at home.

Homemade honey cake with original cut

Have you ever bought ready-made honey cake in modern supermarkets? Quite recently I purchased such a strip and was surprised at how interesting it was when cut. The honey cake is like a sponge, and resembles this particular piece of kitchen utensil. But only in appearance, the taste was excellent. I just didn’t have time to bake it myself, and that wasn’t the case, I took a strip cake on a visit to treat the kids, but I myself was a little flattered by the store-bought one.

After that, I searched for a recipe for this cake for a long time; I didn’t even know that it was so easy to bake at home. I didn’t decorate much, I used custard and crushed walnuts, since this recipe does not include scraps.

What's needed for the dough:

• Flour – 2 cups;
• Sugar – 1 glass;
• Chicken egg – 3 pcs.;
• Honey – 4 tbsp. spoons;
• Soda – 1 teaspoon;
• Vinegar or lemon juice – 1 tablespoon.

In cream:

• Flour – 1 tbsp. spoon;
• Sugar – 1 glass;
• Starch – 1 teaspoon;
• Milk – 1 glass;
• Sour cream – 200 gr.;
• Butter – 100 gr.

The dough turned out to be the simplest of those that I know using honey, but the cream, although custard, is somewhat complex.

For the dough, you need to mix all the ingredients except flour in a cup, including adding slaked soda and heat over medium heat for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Then remove the cup from the heat and add flour in portions, thoroughly mixing each new portion. Then divide into approximately 3 equal parts and bake each in a springform pan for about 8-10 minutes until golden brown. As with any honey cake, preheat the oven to 180 degrees and cover the pan with parchment.

You can immediately start preparing the cream, since you can also coat warm cakes.

For the cream, mix starch, flour and sugar and add a little milk. We rub everything very well, there should be no lumps. Next, pour in the remaining milk and place in a water bath or a regular burner. Cook, stirring continuously, and wait for the formation of a thick, beautiful cream. The mixture must be completely cooled; to speed it up, place it in a cup of ice water. Next, beat the butter in a separate bowl until fluffy and add the butter 1 spoon at a time into the creamy mass. Whisk immediately. The last step will be whipping the sour cream, which will also combine with the custard mass.

After this you can frost the cake.

It turns out very airy and beautiful. Coat each cake layer, cover the sides and top layer and sprinkle with crushed or crushed nuts.

You can drink tea or coffee with this cake immediately after cooking, but if you put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, it will become much richer. But sorry, it didn’t work out for me, so only a quarter survived in the refrigerator until the next day.

• Heat, constantly stirring the mixture of honey and soda in a saucepan until dark. Mix sugar and eggs with melted and cooled butter, beat thoroughly, add flour (a glass), mix with a mixer, add the rest of the flour and finally mix until a homogeneous dough is obtained, like for pancakes.
• Pour the dough into a mold, pre-line the bottom with parchment, cook at 180 degrees for about half an hour. Cut the baked cake lengthwise into several pieces. Beat boiled condensed milk, sour cream, honey and cream into a homogeneous mass, divide the resulting cream into two parts. When the cakes have cooled, coat them with cream, stack them and put them in the refrigerator.
• For the top of the cake, prepare cream with gelatin. Soak gelatin in cold cream, let it swell, heat, stirring until completely dissolved, let cool slightly, mix with the remaining part of the cream. Immediately pour over the top of the cake and even out the layer with a spatula. Using a film with bubbles, “draw” a honeycomb, gently pressing it into the cream. Sprinkle the sides of the cake with crumbs from the cut edges of the cakes, put it in the refrigerator for a third of an hour to allow the honeycomb to harden.
• To sculpt the bees, prepare a mass of dark and white chocolate melted in separate containers in a water bath, fill the pound with it, draw the body of the bees on parchment paper with dark chocolate, let it harden well, draw eyes and stripes on the body with white chocolate, make wings from almond petals. The decorated homemade “Bee” honey cake should be kept in the refrigerator.