Honey Lemon Cake (My Mom’s Mézes Kremes/Albinuta)

Honey lemon cake is an adapted version of the classic Hungarian cake called Mézes Kremes (which I believe is adapted from the famous Russian cake Medovick?).

Traditionally Mézes Kremes has a burnt honey sponge, which is more like a dough than a batter. It’s layered with an apricot filling and a cooked semolina flour cream. I’ve also seen it made with a cream of wheat filling.

Oftentimes, the cake is also topped with chocolate however, my very picky baker mother took it upon herself to make her own version. This cake is probably her second most popular cake and is by far my favorite and some of my family’s favorite as well.

I’ve partnered with my friends from Nature Nate’s Honey Co. for national honey month to show you how to make this incredible honey lemon cake. It’s the perfect summer-to-fall transition cake! 

Ingredient Notes & Substitutions: 

• Eggs: you’ll need just the egg yolks for this cake (so sad I know). I made a list of recipes to use up your egg whites below!
• Honey: my all-time favorite honey for everything, not just this cake, is Nature Nate’s 100 Pure, Raw & Unfiltered Honey. It gives the cake an incredible flavor and is the perfect consistency and texture for what we need. 
• Baking Soda: The baking soda aerates the hot honey and gives the cake its rise. There is a high amount used in this honey cake because honey is very acidic and heavy. Don’t substitute or reduce this.
• Oil: I used canola oil but you can also use sunflower oil or vegetable oil. I’m sure olive oil would be fine too since the cake has a stronger flavor.
• Flour: I use all-purpose flour and I HIGHLY recommend using a digital kitchen scale to measure all your ingredients, especially the flour. 
• Heavy Cream: I use heavy whipping cream for the diplomat cream but it can be swapped out for 16 ounces of Cool Whip (skip the powdered sugar, gelatin and water too).

Let’s Talk Details

This honey lemon cake has three main parts.

1. Honey Cake Layers – this is probably the most interesting cake batter you’ll ever encounter. It’s more of spreadable cookie dough texture than it is cake batter. The texture of the finished cake is also more biscuit like.
2. Apricot Jam Layer – I skimped out on you a bit here because I bought apricot jam instead of making it. Any apricot jam works fine, especially a homemade one.
3. Lemon Cream – By now you may know of my obsession with diplomat cream and lemon flavored desserts so yes, this is a glorious cloud of sweet lemon cream.

How to make honey cake layers

1. Whip egg yolks with sugar in the stand mixer.
2. Meanwhile, cook the honey until it bubbles and darkens a little in color.
3. Add the baking soda and whisk for a minute while it bubbles.
4. Pour honey and oil into the beating egg yolk mixture.
5. Add the flour to the batter and mix until it’s well combined. The batter should be thicker than normal cake batter but thinner than normal dough.
6. Cover it and refrigerate it for at least four hours. This allows the dough to thicken and the gluten to relax a little more.
7. Use a generous amount of flour to spread the dough out into the cake pans.
8. Bake until they’ve darkened a bit in color and the center puffs up. It will shrivel back up once it’s removed from the oven. 

Lemon Diplomat Cream

1. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until smooth. 
2. Melt the butter in a saucepan until it’s all fully melted. 
3. Temper the egg yolks with the melted butter by slowly pouring it into the bowl while whisking continuously.
4. Return the whole mixture to the pot and cook the whole thing, until it thickens and leaves streaks.
5. Quickly remove from the heat, pour back into the bowl and cover with plastic wrap to cool completely. Don’t refrigerate it or it sets too thick and leaves the cream chunky. 
6. Bloom gelatin in cold water, let it rest for a few minutes, then microwave for 5 seconds to melt it. 
7. Add a little custard to the warmed gelatin and mix until it’s smooth.
8. Whip the cream with the powdered sugar. 
9. Add the gelatin mixture and the lemon juice into all the custard, whisking until it’s smooth.
10. Gently fold in the whipped cream into the custard in 2-3 increments. 

Assemble The Cake

1. Spread a thin layer of apricot jam on top of the first layer of cake.
2. Spread a generous layer of lemon cream on top of the apricot jam.
3. Place another layer of cake on top of the lemon cream and repeat with the rest of the cake.
4. Top with honey, fruits, jam, etc.

What other cake pan sizes can I make this in

There’s about 21ish ounces of batter total. Some baking options are:

• 3.0 ounces in seven 6 inch pans, bake for 5-7 minutes. 
• 4.25 ounces in five 8 inch pans, bake for 8-10 minutes. 
• 5.25 ounces in four 8 inch pans, bake for 10-12 minutes. 
• 5.25 ounces in four 9 inch pans, bake for 8-10 minutes. 

What To Do With All The Egg Whites

The best part about egg whites is that you can place them in an airtight container and freeze them. I’ve frozen them for weeks/months and made Swiss meringue buttercream with it just fine.

You can certainly just make something simple like an egg white omelette but here are some other fun recipes you can use egg whites in.

• Egg White Cookies – these cookies are my favorite way to use up egg whites. 1 batch uses 2 but you can double or triple if serving a crowd or freeze the cookie dough.
• Chantilly Cake – uses a lot of egg whites in the cake.
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream – 1 batch uses four egg whites but you can make more or less and freeze the finished buttercream as well and just thaw when you need to decorate a cake!
• Pistachio Cake – uses a lot of egg whites in the cake and the frosting.
• Macarons – 1 batch uses 4 egg whites.

Serving & Storing

The cake is best served slightly chilled or cold so make sure it’s also stored in the refrigerator. Since the outside of the cake is not frosted, it’s best to cover the cake with a cake dome while it’s in the fridge or just wrap the outside (after it’s set) in plastic wrap or foil. 

Once it’s sliced, you can place it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days or freeze it for 2-3 months. If you’re freezing it, thaw it in the fridge overnight.

Thanks so much for reading today’s post , if you have any questions just comment down below, I’m happy to answer!

If you love this honey lemon cake too, I would love it if you left me a 5-star rating or a review below!

As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!

Love, B