My boyfriend and I lived in Prague for a year. One of the best desserts I have ever eaten is this cake, which is sold in the supermarkets (although it is very expensive and I never bought it) or in pretty much any cukrarna, which is basically a patisserie, for the equivalent of £1 per slice. It’s a miracle I didn’t turn into a honey-scented whale with the amount of temptation I was subjected to.

But anyway, it turned out, miraculously, that my boyfriend liked this honey cake too – don’t ask me to explain his reasoning when it comes to desserts – and he wanted me to make it. I would say us, but, well, me.

This is a recipe I found online and tweaked a bit. It may not be the neatest cake ever, but it was even better than bought, and that was pretty damn good in itself. On the minus side, it was pretty labour-intensive, and not terribly cheap to make. But if you are bored and want something different, try it out.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

2 eggs

120g golden caster sugar

3tbsp liquid honey

1tsp baking soda

100g butter, melted

250g plain flour

For the filling:

1 can condensed milk

3 eggs

2 tbsp honey

60g butter

125ml sour cream

For the topping: Crushed cookies (cinnamon ones are great) and 1tbsp honey

So pay attention. I’d make the dough first if I were you, cos that part takes ages. Combine the sugar and eggs, then add the honey and baking soda and mix it all up. Melt the butter and add that too, then add the flour in instalments – it should be really thick and not too sticky, so you can leave off adding flour or add more flour if needed. Use a bit of milk if you want to loosen it a bit, but it should be rollable.

I had no idea how many layers I’d need, so I just broke off layer-sized chunks. Ours were quite thick, but actually that worked fine for me, I think we had around 6 or 7. Anyway, break off decent-sized chunks and roll them out into vaguely round shapes, as big as you want your cake to be (or a little bigger) and about as thick as an american pancake (I just can’t do centimetres and inches, as thick as you want it, ok?)

This is where it gets time-consuming. Each one of these little buggers needs to be baked on a baking tray for 2-5 minutes at 180 degrees, until it is a nice pale gold colour, but not too long or it will go all dry and nasty. Just keep an eye on them, ours took closer to 5 minutes and they weren’t that golden, but definitely nice and cooked. If you tear a piece apart it should have a bready, cakey texture, quite dense and a little moist. Set them aside on a plate as you go and continue till the dough is gone or you realise you’re going to have a cake the size of canary wharf.

Once you’ve got your layers you can start work on the filling. This is much simpler. Dump all the stuff in a pan (beat the eggs first though, don’t just dump a whole egg in) and stir it on a medium heat until it thickens – it should come to the boil, but don’t let it go crazy. Once you’re done, let it cool a little.

When you get to this stage you’re laughing. Grab a layer, spread some filling, stick another layer on top and so on until you’re done. I made an effort to use all my filling and at least at first I would have preferred a little less, but when it cools and sits awhile the filling soaks in a little, and the taste and texture is way better. So don’t scoff it all at once, it approves on further acquaintance.

Oh, right, and I forgot the topping. We used a Czech cookie with cinnamon and hazelnuts, forget the name now, but they were fantastic. You could probably use a plain cookie and add a little cinnamon. It’s up to you. You only need enough to cover the top, so I’d say three or four cookies’ worth. Crush them, spread a little honey on the top, and sprinkle the crumbs liberally. Drizzle the rest of the honey because it makes you feel like a proper chef.

So there you go. Medovnik. It will look pretty rustic, but it tastes great. I trimmed the sides of mine to make it neater and, well, it still looked pretty rustic. Still, when in Prague, make Prague food. When not in Prague, make it anyway cos you sure can’t find it in England. Or Germany. Or America.