With multiple, thin honey layers and a tangy sour cream frosting, this cake is so tender it just melts in your mouth. It's a classic Russian recipe that has been loved for generations.
Medovik is, hands down, my favorite cake and is totally worth every ounce of effort that it takes to make it. My mom has been making this cake since before I was born. I loved watching her in the kitchen; I was always in awe of how she expertly made beautiful creations right before my very eyes. She made it looks so easy and effortless. As I watched her, it all seemed so magical and I couldn't wait until I made this cake myself.
I was probably about eleven or twelve when I felt confident enough to approach her and plead with her to let me have a try. Mom told me it was a really hard cake to make, really finicky and I wouldn't be able to do it. Well, she didn't forbid me from making it. The next time Mom wasn't home, I rolled up my sleeves and made this cake, from start to finish. When Mom came home, the Medovik was finished and standing proudly as if personifying my victory. (By the way, this is exactly the same thing that happened with Borsch and Napoleon Cake.) Ha ha! I was always a very determined girl:). Love you, Mom!
Instructions:
Making the Cake Layers:
Place the butter and sugar in a large nonstick pot.
If you don't have a nonstick pot, or your pot burns easily, you may wish to use a double boiler. (Just place a metal or glass bowl on top of a pot with about an inch or water in it and keep it simmering, but make sure the bottom on the bowl never touches the simmering water. Add more water if it evaporates.
Cook it just until the butter melts but is still barely warm, NOT HOT. Take it off the heat. Add the eggs, baking soda and honey and mix to combine.
This is important, if you add the eggs to hot butter, it will scramble.
Cook the mixture on medium low heat for about 7 minutes, longer if you're using a double boiler. The batter will puff up and turn a deep caramel color. 
Add the flour and mix quickly with a wooden spoon.
I always add less flour than I need and add more when I'm rolling out the cake layers. If you add too much flour, it will be really hard to roll out.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the cake layers.
Take approximately ¼ cup of batter and knead it on your work surface. If it's sticking to your hands and the counter, add more flour. Roll it out thinly into somewhat of a circle. Use the bottom of a cake pan or the bottom of a tart pan to cut around it with a paring knife to make a perfect circle. 
You can save all the scraps just the way you cut them and place them on a baking sheet and then bake. Later, you can crush them into crumbs and sprinkle the sides and top of the cake.
I usually just take the scraps and knead them into the batter as I roll out each new cake layer. It works great. 
I use 2 (9 inch) round tart pans to bake the cake layers. If you don't have a tart pan, use a rimmed baking sheet, sprinkled with flour or lined with parchment paper.
Sprinkle the bottom of the tart pan with flour and bake the cake layers for about 4 minutes each. 
Take them off the tart pan right away. As the cake layers cool, they will become pretty hard. Work quickly; you can roll out the cake layers and set them aside, waiting to be baked.
You want to roll them all out while the batter is still warm. As the batter cools, it becomes harder and harder to roll out.
You will end up with about 10-12 layers.
Making the Frosting:
Cream the softened cream cheese and condensed milk in a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or using a hand mixer until it's well combined. 
Add the sour cream and vanilla. 
In another chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar. Gently fold it into the rest of the frosting.
Assembling the Cake:
Dust off any excess flour from the cake layers.
Line your serving plate edges with aluminum foil. Place a dollop of frosting into the center of the plate, just to keep the cake from sliding around.
Top each cake layer with about ¼ cup of frosting and spread it around evenly. 
Repeat with all the cake layers. As you place the layers on top of each other, some of the frosting will ooze out of the sides. 
Spread it out evenly over the sides. 
Gently remove the aluminum foil.
Decorate with crushed cake layer crumbs.
I also make little bees to decorate the cake. Here's the tutorial on how to make the bees.
During the winter, here's a really beautiful way to decorate the cake.
Heat 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a small saucepan just until the sugar dissolves. Pour it into a shallow dish. Place about ⅓ - ½ cup of sugar in another shallow dish. Dip the rosemary and the red currants in the sugar syrup and dip it in the sugar. 
Place on a parchment paper to dry and then place it on the cake. Now you have a beautiful winter masterpiece.
Medovik - Honey Layer Cake
With multiple, thin honey layers and a tangy sour cream frosting, this cake is so tender it just melts in your mouth. It's a classic Russian recipe that has been loved for generations.
- Prep Time: 120 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Total Time: 540 minutes
- Yield: 1 cake (9 inch round) 1x
- Category: Dessert
Ingredients
Cake:
- ½ cup butter
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 ½ - 4 cups all purpose flour
Frosting:
- ½ package of cream cheese (4 oz total)
- ½ (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 16 oz sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
Sugared rosemary and currants: (Optional)
- Fresh rosemary
- Red currants or cranberries
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup plus ½ cup sugar
Instructions
Making the cake layers:
- Place the butter and sugar in a large nonstick pot. If you don't have a nonstick pot, or your pot burns easily, you may wish to use a double boiler. (Just place a metal or glass bowl on top of a pot with about an inch or water in it and keep it simmering, but make sure the bottom on the bowl never touches the simmering water. Add more water if it evaporates.
- Cook it just until the butter melts but is still barely warm, NOT HOT.
- Take it off the heat. Add the eggs, baking soda and honey and mix to combine.
- Cook the mixture on medium low heat for about 7 minutes, longer if you're using a double boiler. The batter will almost double in size and will turn a deep caramel color. Take it off the heat.
- Add the flour and mix quickly with a wooden spoon. I always add less flour than I need and add more when I'm rolling out the cake layers. If you add too much flour, it will be really hard to roll out.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out the cake layers.
- Take approximately ¼ cup of batter and knead it on your work surface. If it's sticking to your hands and the counter, add more flour. Roll it out thinly into somewhat of a circle.
- Use the bottom of a cake pan or the bottom of a tart pan to cut a perfect circle. You can save all the scraps just the way you cut them and place them on a baking sheet and then bake. Later, you can crush them into crumbs and sprinkle the sides and top of the cake. I usually just take the scraps and knead them into the batter as I roll out each new cake layer.
- I use 2 (9 incround tart pans to bake the cake layers. If you don't have a tart pan, use a rimmed baking sheet., sprinkled with flour or lined with parchment paper.
- 1Sprinkle the bottom of the tart pan with flour and bake the cake layers for about 4 minutes each.
- Take them off the tart pan right away. As the cake layers cool, they will become pretty hard.
- Working quickly, repeat with the rest of the cake batter. You can roll out the cake layers and set them aside, waiting to be baked. You want to roll them all out while the batter is still warm. As the batter cools, it becomes harder and harder to roll out. You should have approximately 10-12 cake layers.
Making the frosting:
- Cream the softened cream cheese and condensed milk in a standing mixer with a paddle attachment or using a hand mixer until it's well combined.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix to combine.
- In another chilled bowl, whip the heavy cream with the powdered sugar.
- Gently fold it into the rest of the frosting.
Assembling the Cake:
- Dust off any excess flour from the cake layers.
- Line your serving plate edges with aluminum foil.
- Place a dollop of frosting into the center of the plate, just to keep the cake from sliding around.
- Top each cake layer with about ¼ cup of frosting and spread it around evenly.
- Repeat with all the cake layers. As you place the layers on top of each other, some of the frosting will ooze out of the sides. Spread it out evenly over the sides.
- Grate some white chocolate on top of the cake and chopped nuts or crushed cake layer scraps over the sides of the cake.
- Gently remove the aluminum foil.
- Heat 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar in a small saucepan just until the sugar dissolves. Pour it into a shallow dish.
- Place about ⅓ - ½ cup of sugar in another shallow dish.
- Dip the rosemary and the red currants in the sugar syrup and dip it in the sugar.
- Place on a parchment paper to dry and then place it on the cake. Now you have a beautiful winter masterpiece.
Hello,I made this cake today, and my dough was so dry that I couldn't put it in one ball.i took your advice and use only 3cups of flour.so for me to finish rolling I had to add 1cup off water.what was wrong?. what flour brand do you use
Hi Alina,
Was your dough still warm when you were finished mixing in the flour? It's important to mix the dough very quickly so that it is still hot when you are adding the flour and warm when you are rolling it out, otherwise it gets really tough and hard to mix.
Can I use regular baking sheet ? Or does it have to be rimmed baking cake
You can use any baking sheet.
The recipe looks beautiful! Is it possible to make this cake (and frost it as well) on a Tuesday and then serve to guests in a Friday, or is this too many days for it to sit frosted? Trying to plan ahead....very excited about making this....
I personally prefer to frost the cake 1-2 days in advance max. You can bake the cake layers and make the frosting 2-3 days in advance and frost it 1-2 days in advance so that they cake tastes fresher when you serve it.
You said 1/2 a can of condensed milk.. What size can? I am making this this weekend & I want to use your recipe because all your other recipes have been amazing! Hope you reply soon!
There's only one size that I've ever seen sold. I believe it's about 14 oz in one can. However, the size doesn't really matter. It's a matter of taste, so add as much sweetened condensed milk as you like, so that the frosting is as sweet as you like. You can add a little less than one can or more than half a can.
I made the Medovik cake last week for a family get together on Saturday. It was delicious. So much so that I was asked to bake another one for this weekend. In fact I am attending another separate event also this week so will be making a third one too! Thank you Olga for introducing me to a delicious cake! X
Hello,
Iam making this cake now, and to caramelize its making me more then 30 minutes is that normal? When your Recipe says 7 minutes? Help?
Dear Olga, I baked as per your recepue and its lovely. Really tasty and beautiful cake
Hi Olga,
I just made this cake and it looks absolutely beautiful - thank you.
I followed your recipe step by step, but I only got five 9 inch cake layers. So my question to you is, when you say cups, do you mean measuring cups or regular cups? I understood it to be measuring cups but although I rolled my layers rather thin, I didn't get as many layers as you did.
Thank you once again and happy holidays to you and your loved ones!
Thank you for the great recipes, I love your honey cake I made it over 10 times , I have one problem some times when I bake the cake layers they come out of the oven flat and soft not like biscuits, but some time they come out perfect little puffed and hard more like a biscuit and that's when I have the best cake , I don't know why that is happening maybe you can help me out 😃
I'm so glad that you enjoy the cake. The thinner you roll out the cake layers, the more likely that they will bake up to be harder, Elsa. That is normal. I actually prefer to bake them as thin as possible, and the cake layers are pretty hard. They become very soft when you add the frosting, so it really doesn't matter what the texture of the cake layers are after you bake them. They will have the same texture and flavor after the cake is frosted and has a few hours for the frosting to penetrate into the cake layers and get soft.
Thanks for the reply my dear , I have one more question , when I put the mixture back on fire do I keep mixing it with a wask, or I just leave it to cook for 7 minutes on low heat ( I don't use a water bath )
If you don't use a double boiler, it's especially important to mix the batter frequently, so that it doesn't burn and cooks evenly.
Hi Olga,
I made this cake and it was delicious but the cake layers didn't get hard. Should I be adding more flour? Even with longer cooking time they just started to burn but not get any harder. Thanks !
The cake layers will not be hard while you are baking them and while they are still warm, Rachel. They will get harder as they cool. If they were still really soft after they were completely firm, then maybe you didn't roll them out thinly enough or maybe they did need more flour, although I've never experienced them not becoming harder as they cooled. I'm glad to hear that they cake was still tasty even with all the trouble that it gave you.
Hi Olga!
So I made this cake last night and ate it today and I have to say this is the BEST receipe for medovik cake. I made A LOT of other receipes for this cake and this is the BEST! My whole family agreed 😁 it was so soft and delicious, pretty much melts in your mouth!!!! Thank you very
Much!! I love your blog. YOU THE BEST
GOD BLESS YOU AND HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Thank you so much, Valentina! I'm so happy you enjoyed the Medovik. It's one of my absolute favorite cakes.
God bless you too and Merry Christmas.
Hi Olga,
I had a question. In the ingredients you mention to add sugar to make the dough but in the instructions you don't. I made the dough twice. First I added the sugar during the end of the 7 mins I heat up the dough and the dough turned out ok but not great. Then I tried adding the sugar with I melted the butter and the dough came out very crummy.
Adding the sugar is the first step in the recipe, Mary.
"1. Place the butter and sugar in a large nonstick pot.
2. Cook it just until the butter melts but is still barely warm, NOT HOT."
The cake dough should not be crummy, it should look like the picture - smooth and evenly mixed.
Adding the sugar is the first step in the recipe, Mary.
"1. Place the butter and sugar in a large nonstick pot.
2. Cook it just until the butter melts but is still barely warm, NOT HOT."
The cake dough should not be crummy, it should look like the picture - smooth and evenly mixed.
Hi, lovely cake, glad for sharing. Can you please guide me as I want ti make sure condensed milk used it' s dulce de leche. I have a can of condensed milk , can I use it or I need to boil it in order to obtain something creamy and mix it with heay cream and sour cream? Thank you
had my tertiary education in Russia and this torte was my favorite back then! thanks olga for the recipe, will hit the kitchen soon!
xxx
Thank you so much for this recipe! Judging by the pics, it looks like the one my gran used to make. Will definitely try to make it myself! xx
That's great, Christina. I hope you enjoy it.