Name: Medovik / Russian Honey Cake. recipe by Swapna Sunil at BetterButter
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 80 min
Yield: 8
Ingredients: 170 gm (1/2 cup) : Honey; 100 gm (1/2 cup) : Sugar; 115 gm (1/2 cup ) : Butter; 1 tsp : Baking Soda; 3.5 cups : All purpose flour; 3 nos : Large eggs; 1/4 tsp : Sea salt; 1 tsp : Vanilla extract; For filling : 3 cups : Sour cream; 1 can : Condensed milk

ABOUT Medovik / Russian Honey Cake. RECIPE

Medovik is a layer cake popular in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union.This most favourite Russian honey dessert is the seemingly complicated and time-consuming “Medovik” tort. It consists of layers of biscuit with a cream filling and is often covered with nuts. Of a soft texture, it has the taste of caramelized sugar. Honey was an important ingredient in Russian cuisine dating back to pagan times. It was a natural sweetener long before sugar was readily available. The honey biscuit, made with real honey, is first cooked on stovetop and then baked. Once cooled the soft biscuit is cut into thin layers and layered with the cooked condensed milk. Some recipes also include walnuts and dried fruits, like apricots or plums. But the authentic medovik recipe is believed to be made of just honey sponge cake and whipped creme fraische cream.

Instructions

Make cookie/cake dough : In a medium-sized saucepan, combine the sugar, honey and butter over medium heat. Once simmering, cook for 3 to 4 minutes (no specific temperature needed), it should get a faint shade darker and smell wonderful. Whisk in baking soda.
Remove from heat and set aside for 2 to 3 minutes. Lightly beat your eggs in a small bowl.Whisking the honey mixture vigorously, drizzle the thinnest stream of the eggs into the honey mixture. Do not stop mixing. Continue until all of the eggs are thoroughly whisked in.
Stir in the salt and vanilla and 3 cups of the flour with a spoon. The dough will be thick.
Stir in the last 1/2 cup of flour and knead into a dough.
Shape and bake the cookies/cakes: Lightly flour your counter and divide the warm dough into 8 even pieces.
Roll the first one between two sheets of parchment paper (no flouring needed) to a slightly-bigger-than-9-inch round. Remove top sheet of parchment paper. Very lightly dust the top with flour .
Place a 9 inch disc or plate over the rolled dough and using a pizza cutter cut into a round 9 inch disc and save the trimmings.
Repeat and shape remaining 7 dough balls in the same manner.
Line baking pans with parchment and assemble the discs over it.Do not over crowd .
I used two baking pans here. So two discs went in each pan and a total of four were baked at a time.And eight discs got done in two batches.
Bake the shaped discs in an preheated oven at 350°f for exactly 8 minutes.
Remove and cool them on wire rack.
Bake the trimmings separately for 8 minutes and cool them as well. Add the cooled trimmings to a zip lock and crush them using a rolling pin into a coarse powder. This goes a topping over the finished cake.
Fill and frost the cake: Whisk sour cream and sweetened condensed milk together in a large bowl. Once cookies are cool, place a dab of the sour cream mixture on your cake plate and place the first cookie on top of it to help adhere it.
Scoop 3/4 cup sour cream mixture onto the center of your first cookie layer. Spread it only a little from the center, leaving a good 1- to 2-inch margin.. Stack the second cookie on top and repeat until you have 8 layers.
Put the cake in the fridge for a couple hours.Later nudge the stack gently back into place and use a spoon and icing spatula to scoop the spilled-out filling back up the sides and onto the top of the cake. Don’t worry about it looking neat. Let it chill overnight.
Next day take your cake out and do one final frosting clean-up. Spread any newly puddled sour cream back up the sides and across the top.
Use a small spoon and sprinkle the top and sides of the cake with the crumbs we prepared earlier by bashing the baked trimmings..
For garnish : Dust it's top with powdered sugar or sprinkle chopped nuts or just serve as it is.
Cut and serve straight away. Stays good in refrigerator for up to 4 to 5 days.
Authentic ,Russian favorite bake The Medovnik is ready to dig in.
The recipe might sound intimidating but worth a try.

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