Medovik - Russian Honey Cake
First off, while I am not Russian in the slightest, I am an avid lover of honey, molasses, maple syrup, and most things stickily sweet (See Moravian Spice Birds). I also favor both cookies and pie over cake, so the fact that this cake is comprised of multiple cookies is a plus. Russian Honey Cake is … delicate. Its flavor is gentle; mildly tangy and mildly sweet. And its form gives way to a slightly haphazard layering that gives this cake an artistry that the traditional vanilla-with-chocolate-frosting simply does not have. While it is best made over a 24-36 hour period, it also keeps much longer than most cakes, and gets better with each day that it rests in the fridge. Without further ado, I give you Medovik.
what you need
1/2 cup local, fresh honey
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 – 4 cups flour
A healthy supply of parchment paper
> > > Filling
2 cups plain Greek yogurt
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2-4 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup honey
> > Backstory,
or “Why This Russian Cake Has A Snake On Top.”
Clubs. I have never been a big “club” person (referring both to rage-y modern-day college brothels and organized groups for social exchange around a shared interest). Yet here I am, 30 years old, a member of a club.
I am joined together with a group (alright, three) esteemed women who have all had to endure a modern hardship of the highest degree:
a snake… in the house.
In the year that would not end (2020), all three of us somehow ended up with one snake varietal or another in our living rooms (also, on the stairs, on the dining room table, pretty much everywhere a snake should never be). From garden snakes to black racers, snakes of all sizes (4 inches to 4 feet) penetrated the otherwise sanctimonious confines of our respective homes and left us each, in turn, sleepless, squirmy, and unable to cross the room without ALL the lights on for several weeks.
We held our inaugural Snake Sisters meeting in my little kitchen nook on the 12th day of October on a particularly gloomy Virginian day. In a brazenly delicious show of solidarity, and to represent the suffering we each been forced to endure, I set out to make a “snake cake,” which somehow became a Russian Honey Cake with a grahammed-up stencil snake on top.
Of course, you are free to use whatever stencil you want… it is my deepest hope that someday we will live in a world where snake cakes are no longer required to uplift the weary. And when that day comes, I will simply tell everyone that this cake opens the Chamber of Secrets if you speak to it in Parseltongue.
how to make it
Make cookies. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine sugar, honey, and butter over medium heat until it darkens and bubbles slightly (~ 5 minutes). Remove from heat and let cool slightly while beating the three eggs. This part is tricky. You need to incorporate the eggs into the honey mixture slowly, otherwise the eggs will scramble. One tiny pour at a time and continuous whisking will do the trick. Stir in flour, salt, and vanilla. This dough is going to be stiff… super stiff. You may need to add flour if the dough isn’t coming together enough to handle.
Once you can handle the dough, divide it into 8 hunks (yes, “hunks,” technical term). On a piece of parchment paper, roll out each hunk into an 8 or 9 inch round, flouring as you go. The round will be thin… super thin. Place an 8 or 9 inch plate on the dough and cut out the cookie with a sharp knife, saving the little fringe bits as well (you will need these for the topping). Bake each cookie until the edges begin to darken, ~7-8 minutes. After you bake each cookie, bake the fringe bits until crispy, ~5 minutes. Let the cookies cool completely. Note: you can make these cookies the day before if convenient.
Make filling. Beat the heavy whipping cream to medium peaks and sweeten slightly with sugar. Mix honey together with Greek yogurt, then fold in whipping cream.
Make cake. Prepare your cake plate with little wedges of parchment paper (wedges, not one whole piece). When the cake is complete, you can pull each wedge out from underneath the cake leaving a spotless cake plate for presentation. Place a dollop of filling in the center of all pieces of parchment and place a cookie on top. Working iteratively, place dollops of filling on the top of each cookie, spreading the filling out to 75% of each cookie before placing another cookie on top.
When all 8 cookies are in place, spread filling generously on the top, then whatever is left on the sides (you likely won’t cover all of the brown cookie on the sides. It’s okay. This cake looks good messy).
Decorate cake. Grind the cooked crispy bits from the sides of the cookies into a crumble. Sprinkle over cake in desired pattern or use a stencil (see notes below). If the filling begins to separate or becomes runny, simply place the cake in the fridge for an hour or so to harden up. I left the cake in the fridge overnight before decorating it. Ideally, it will sit in the fridge for several hours before consumption so the filling will have ample opportunity to soften the cookies.
Adjustments: Some recipes call for an all sour cream filling sweetened with condensed milk. Some recipes call for sour cream be mixed with whipping cream. To me, the idea of sweetening a honey cake with condensed milk doesn’t sit well, so honey it is. As for the cream, I favor whipped cream as a topping and, wherever possible (most places, it turns out), Greek yogurt as a substitute for sour cream or heavier cream products. 0% Greek yogurt has a clean, tangy flavor and is pure protein. Also, the condensed milk option gets messy quickly owing to the extra liquidity the condensed milk introduces. You are free to play with the filling.
