Medovic/ Medovik | Russian Honey Cake

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Ramadan and Eid, all came and went. I have no words to say. The feeling of emptiness and numbness is real. The difference in the atmosphere when the devils are tied up during Ramadan and when they are free is totally to be felt. We had a very silent Eid. On Thursday night, we went over to a friend’s house to apply some henna and came back really late, so we hardly slept for an hour and a half. Then up and awake, to get ready to go the masjid for the Eid prayers, breakfast at my ammayi’s house and eventually we stayed there for lunch too. It was my cheat day after so long, but I made sure I didn’t go overboard, hehe… Ate whatever was in offering but very limited portions.

The second day, we started our Shawwal fasts. For those who don’t know, here are its benefits:

Abu Ayyoob (may Allaah be pleased with him) reported that the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “Whoever fasts Ramadaan and follows it with six days of Shawwaal, it will be as if he fasted for a lifetime.” (Narrated by Muslim, Abu Dawood, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nisaa’i and Ibn Maajah).

We always try to finish it behind Ramadan itself, since the body is used to the long hours of fasting by that time. There may be circumstances where we may not be able to do it immediately, but then the whole month is there to finish, and it isn’t tough to get through those six days, if possible. 🙂

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Coming to today’s recipe post… I have been wanting to post this for quite a long time. I had showed the pictures of this cake on my Instagram stories that I baked for our anniversary in April, and I had been receiving requests to post the recipe. I am very backward at posting recipes as soon as I bake them, but this time I didn’t want to delay it too much further. So here it is, without much delay…

The Medovic, or the Honey Cake, is a very popular variant of cake sold here. I guess it was first introduced by Spinneys here, though the best honey cake I have eaten is of the Katrina Cafe – mildly sweet, so melt in mouth! Now most of the tea shops sell this as well, but I am not a fan of them, since they taste so-so. The Medovic or Medovik is said to have been created in the Soviet Union and is as old as 200 years, created by a chef to impress a royalty. I can really believe that – this cake is a lot of work, but so worth the effort! A typical Medovic is said to have 8 to 9 layers of sponge cake with whipped sour cream in between and a coating of crushed leftover sponge plus nuts. Totally sin! 🙂

There are so many recipes online for the same, so I adapted my recipe from here and another blog, which link I have lost. 🙁 Most of the honey cake recipes I checked online had very limited usage of honey so I decide to follow the same. The first task is the make the dough for the disks, bail them thin, cut them into rounds and bake them till done. Before you go ahead with the frosting, allow them to cool completely. The cut remains are also baked and cooled, to be crushed and used for decorating the sides.

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The frosting is usually a mix of sour cream and whipped cream, which is lightly sweetened. The sour cream gives the lightness to the frosting and tastes amazing too! Even though I didn’t eat the cake, I ended up licking a little of the frosting and I would like to convert that into ice cream sometime! 😉 There are recipes that use dulche de leche as filling, but I am reserving that when I try a chocolate version, InShaAllah. 😉 Also it is not considered as an authentic filling.

Even though my Medovic looked gorgeous, it was slightly hard despite all the resting. I realized that if we overwork the dough, then it always helps to have a spritzing of sugar syrup over it so that it softens down as it settles. I haven’t done it, but would advise you all to do it, do have a really soft cake at hand. It needs around 2 hours of work from start to finish plus more than 4 hours of resting time, but then it’s worth the time, when you see it flying off the plate. 🙂

It is such a tall cake, so do make sure to make it when you have a lot of people to share it with, or risk yourself ending up eating majority of it! Hehe… I know it’s a photo intensive post, I normally don’t take too many pictures, but this one was really tempting to not click. 🙂 Off to the recipe…

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Update on June 25, 2018: I had a comment from someone who tried the recipe, that the frosting tasted more of the sour cream and wasn’t sweet at all. I suggest adjusting sweetness to your requirement, especially with the frosting. My family like mildly sweet cakes, so my cakes are low on sugar. Frosting gets less sweet as it sits, so do ensure to add more icing sugar upto your taste.

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4.89 from 9 votes

Medovic/ Medovik | Russian Honey Cake

Course Cake

Cuisine European

Prep Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 hours hours

Total Time 7 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Servings 8 -10

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 50 gm butter
• 2 tbsp milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3 cups all purpose flour + more for rolling
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
• FOR SUGAR SYRUP:
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• FOR FROSTING:
• 5 x 200 gm sour cream
• 250 ml pack whipping cream
• 1 cup icing sugar

Instructions

• Melt the butter, milk, honey and sugar in a bowl till it becomes a homogeneous mixture.Allow to cool slightly till it becomes lukewarm.
• Whip the eggs till fluffy in your stand mixer. With the mixer on, pour in the melted mixture and let it beat till combined.
• Add in the soda and beat for a minute, till no lumps.
• Replace the whisk attachment with a dough hook. Add 1 cup of flour and beat till combined.
• Add the next one cup and beat till combined.
• Now add the remaining flour, 1/4 cup at at a time, and knead in. At the end of adding all the flour, you will have a slightly sticky, soft dough. Do not add more flour, or else your dough will become hard.
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Divide into 10 equal balls. On a floured surface, roll into a thin disk. Using a 9 inch plate (I used a springfoam pan base), cut out into a circle. Reserve the sides.
• Transfer to the baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes. Repeat with all dough balls. Cool the disks on a rack.
• Finally spread all the cut sides and bake for 8 minutes. Cool.
• Meanwhile, prepare the sugar syrup by boiling the water and sugar together till just syrupy. Allow to cool.
• Put the baked sides and walnuts into a food processor and powder them till done. Set aside.
• For preparing the frosting, whip the cream till medium peaks. Fold in the sour cream and icing sugar. Refrigerate till use.
• To assemble, on a large plate, place one disk. Brush minimally with the syrup. Apply a thick layer of frosting - be very generous with it!
• Press down another disk, repeat the process till all disks are done.
• Slather the remaining frosting all over the cake, shaping up the sides.
• Press the powder with your hands on the sides and on the top of the cake, till everything is used up. Don't mind the mess, it will settle down once in the fridge.
• Allow the cake to settle in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours.
• Slice and enjoy!

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