Russian medovik (медовик), a.k.a. “honey cake”. Thin layers of a honey-flavored biscuit dough, layered with a rich cream made from smetana (high-fat sour cream). Intermediate-level recipe.
Contents
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 c flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 1 c sugar
- 2 tbsp smetana
Filling
- 800 g smetana
- 1 c sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In large bowl, sift 3 c flour and 1 tsp baking soda.
- In small saucepan, melt 2 tbsp butter with 2 tbsp honey.
- Meanwhile, beat 2 eggs with 1 c sugar until smooth; add 2 tbsp smetana and mix until homogeneous.
- While continuing to mix (with whisk or electric mixer), slowly add honey/butter mixture to eggs. Mix well until combined.
- Add wet ingredients to dry; fold in thoroughly to make a soft, sticky dough.
- On well-floured work surface, shape dough into a log and cut into 7 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a flattened ball, wrap or cover in plastic wrap, and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Roll out chilled dough pieces into very thin layers (slightly more than 9″ in diameter). (Because the dough will be so very thin, you’ll want to do the final bits of rolling-out on layers of parchment paper.) Stack the parchments with the rolled-out dough layers on each other, cover with plastic wrap, and chill in refrigerator for another 30 minutes.
- Using a sharp knife and the outside edge of a 9-inch round pan, cut clean circles into rolled-out dough layers. (Don’t discard the scraps; leave them on the same parchment.) Using a fork, prick holes in the dough circles. Return dough to refrigerator to chill while the oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400 °F. (Make sure to preheat well, as this dough must bake very quickly.) One by one, take each parchment with each dough layer out of the refrigerator and bake it until golden brown in color (in my oven this took 6 minutes; be sure to keep a close eye on the layers as they bake, as even one minute makes a significant difference here).
- After each layer has baked, cool it on a rack. (The layers will cool very quickly.)
- Once all layers are baked and cooled, separate the baked scraps from the cake circles. Process the cooled scraps in a food processor (with the blade attachment) until they’re fine crumbs. Set aside.
- To make the filling, combine ingredients in food processor and process until very smooth.
- Using a cake ring, assemble cake. (Use about 80% of the frosting between the layers.) Push down on each layer to spread out frosting underneath it (some should squeeze up through the holes in the cake layer). Spread a thin layer of frosting on top of the uppermost layer.
- Chill cake for several hours or overnight. Remove cake ring, then apply remaining frosting. Apply crumbs to top and sides of cake.
