One more Holiday treat. This is not something I will make often because I can’t stop eating them. They are delicious Brazilian cakes even though they are called bread.

Pão de Mel (honey bread) is a Brazilian holiday spicy cake filled with dulce de leche and covered in chocolate. They remind me of Petit Fours. When I saw this recipe on a book a friend gave to me, I had to try. I made very little changes to the recipe from My Rio de Janeiro: A Cookbook by Leticia Moreinos Schwartz. Mostly, I made into a one mixing bowl cake, added more spices and coconut oil! They were delicious! They are made to be shared! This recipe made 20 cakes and the leftover cake, I made 20 chocolate balls.

For the cake, I mixed by hand:
1/2 cup of honey
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of sugar
seeds from 1 vanilla bean
3/4 cup of coconut oil or vegetable oil
1/2 cup of condensed milk plus 2 tablespoons
1 cup of whole milk
mix until well combine
Add:
2 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon grated cloves
1/4 cup of ground walnuts
Preheat oven 350F
Mix well and bake on a sprayed and parchment paper lined 9×13 baking pan. Bake the cake for 35-40 minutes. Let it cool completely. I waited to the next day to cut into layers and then into rounds.

I used cookie cutters to make rounds
For the filling: 1 cup of dulce de leche. I used about 1 tablespoon on one side and then closed firmly.
For the glaze: I melted 2 pounds of semisweet baking chocolate chips with 2 teaspoon of coconut oil in a double boiler

The leftover filling and cake, I crumbled together and made into cake balls. Rolled them in the leftover melted chocolate and rolled them one more time in coconut flakes and chocolate! Enjoy