This honey cake is so soft and fantastic. The honey baked into the cake layers pairs perfectly with the simple sour cream frosting.
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For my own safety, I’ve been delivering quarters of this goodness to various family members and I’ve received rave reviews across the board. It stays amazing in the fridge for a several days (the longest we’ve tested was 4 days), so this is also a great make-ahead cake. Woot!
It’s definitely a special occasion cake and will WOW your crowd, but it’s easier to make than typical Russian honey cakes that require a double boiler. This one’s not that sensitive, making it more attainable for everyone. Woot! Woot!
Honey Cake Layers Ingredients:
4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) honey
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten with a fork
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached, organic) *measured correctly
Sour Cream Frosting Ingredients:
32 oz sour cream
2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
For the topping:
1/2 lb Fresh Berries, optional
How to Make a Honey Cake:
1. Add 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup honey and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter to a medium sauce pan and melt them together over medium/low heat, whisking occasionally until sugar is melted (5-7 mins). Don’t put them over high heat or they may scorch to the bottom.
2. As soon as the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and while it’s still hot, add in your beaten eggs in a slow steady stream while whisking vigorously until all of your eggs are incorporated (whisk constantly so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs).
3. Whisk in the baking soda until no lumps remain, then fold in your 3 cups flour 1/2 cup at a time with a spatula until the dough reaches a clay consistency and doesn’t stick to your hands. Mine took exactly 3 cups flour (measured precisely, scraping off the top of the cup). Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly!
4. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and move on to the next step right away (these roll out best when the dough is still warm)
5. On a well-floured surface, roll each piece out into a thin 9″ circle (about 1/8″ thick). You can sprinkle the top with a little flour too to keep dough from sticking to your rolling pin.
Place a 9″ plate or base from a springform mold over your rolled dough and trace around it with a pizza cutter to get a perfect circle. Keep the scraps for later.
Transfer the dough to a large sheet of parchment paper and bake 2 at a time at 350˚F for 4-5 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before stacking. Repeat with remaining layers
6. Finally bake the scraps separated evenly on a re-used sheet of parchment.Once the scraps are baked, cooled and firm, you can crush them with a rolling pin or pulse them in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.
Tips for Success:
Roll out the next layers while the first ones are in the oven and total combined baking time shouldn’t take more than 25-ish minutes. Some of mine bubbled up a little on top which is fine since after it’s frosted, it won’t make a difference. I deflated any real whopping bubbles after they came out of the oven. Oh and I re-used my parchment paper (because I’m frugal that way).
If you don’t have a baking sheet large enough to place the parchment paper on, just bake directly on the rack (that’s what I did!)
How to make the frosting:
1. Beat 1 cup heavy cream until fluffy and stiff peaks form (1-2 min on high speed).
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together 32 oz sour cream with 2 cups powdered sugar. Fold the whipped cream into the sour cream and you have your frosting. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembling your Cake:
1. Spread about 1/3 cup frosting on each cake layer (the frosting will be loose, but don’t skimp on it since the cake needs to absorb some of the cream to become ultra soft. Press the cake layers down gently as you go to keep the layers from having air gaps. Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting
2. Dust the top and sides with your breadcrumbs, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. This cake needs time to absorb some of the cream and soften, so be patient. It’s worth the wait!
Here’s the Print-friendly for your recipe books:
8-Layer Honey Cake Recipe (Medovik)
Ingredients
Cake Layers Ingredients:
- 4 Tbsp honey, (1/4 cup)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 large eggs, room temperature, beaten with a fork
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, I used unbleached, organic
Sour Cream Frosting Ingredients:
- 32 oz sour cream
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
For the topping:
- 1/2 lb strawberries, optional
Instructions
How to Make The Cake Layers:
- Add 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup honey and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter to a medium sauce pan and melt them together over medium/low heat, whisking occasionally until sugar is melted (5-7 mins). Don't put them over high heat or they may scorch to the bottom.
- As soon as the sugar is dissolved, remove from heat and while it's still hot, add in your beaten eggs in a slow steady stream while whisking vigorously until all of your eggs are incorporated (whisk constantly so you don't end up with scrambled eggs).
- Whisk in the baking soda until no lumps remain, then fold in your 3 cups flour 1/2 cup at a time with a spatula until the dough reaches a clay consistency and doesn't stick to your hands. Mine took exactly 3 cups flour (measured precisely, scraping off the top of the cup).
- Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces and move on to the next step right away (these roll out best when the dough is still warm)
- On a well-floured surface, roll each piece out into a thin 9" circle (about 1/8" thick). You can sprinkle the top with a little flour too to keep dough from sticking to your rolling pin. Place a 9" plate or base from a springform mold over your rolled dough and trace around it with a pizza cutter to get a perfect circle. Keep the scraps for later. Transfer the dough to a large sheet of parchment paper and bake 2 at a time at 350˚F for 4-5 minutes or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before stacking. Repeat with remaining layers.
- Finally bake the scraps separated evenly on a re-used sheet of parchment. Once the scraps are baked, cooled and firm, you can crush them with a rolling pin or pulse them in a food processor until you have fine crumbs.
How to make the frosting:
- Beat 1 cup heavy cream until fluffy and stiff peaks form (1-2 min on high speed).
- In a separate bowl, whisk together 32 oz sour cream with 2 cups powdered sugar. Fold the whipped cream into the sour cream and you have your frosting. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembling your Cake:
- Spread about 1/3 cup frosting on each cake layer (the frosting will be loose, but don't skimp on it since the cake needs to absorb some of the cream to become ultra soft. Press the cake layers down gently as you go to keep the layers from having air gaps. Frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting.
- Dust the top and sides with your breadcrumbs, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. This cake needs time to absorb some of the cream and soften, so be patient. It's worth the wait!
Notes
If you don't have a baking sheet large enough to place the parchment paper on, just bake directly on the rack (that's what I did!)
Nutrition Per Serving
(And the Pinterest friendly). Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with your friends and family. Good things are meant to be shared 😉
Hello – have you ever tried this with GF Flour (or any alternative flours)? If so, which works best? Thank you in advance.
Hi D!I honestly don’t bake with gluten-free flour (I have only experimented with a handful of recipes) and from what I know, it is recommended to add gum-like xanthan gum to your gluten-free flour. Here is an article with some more tips. I hope this helps! Sorry, I can’t be more helpful with this recipe – I haven’t tested this one with GF flour.
Thank you for the helpful link. I will report back on the results!
I hope this helps someone, but I made a very similar recipe to this with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF Flour and it worked perfectly!!!!
Thank you so much for sharing that with us!
Cake is delish!!! I’ve baked it several times, your exact measurements worked perfect for me. I use the heavy marble roller and it’s so much easier to roll out and when my dough gets slightly hard I nuke the piece I’m on for couple seconds and it’s rollable again(same for spartak 🙂 ) as for the crumbs, I put it on a round 9” cake board, lift it, grab a handful of crumbs and pat it on the sides and sprinkle on the top(like your momma did in one recipe) it looks perfect! Just though I’d share as some comments on here mentioned some difficulty with these things. Love your recipes!!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Zhenia. Thank you for sharing that with us!
I made a double batch and everything went well except I literally had half of the frosting still left after using the 1/3 cup per layer method. And I had exactly 16 layers and made 1 cake. I don’t know what I was doing wrong. I used 4 – 16 oz sour creams and 4 cups of powdered sugar and 2 cups of heavy whipping cream.
I add a generous amount of frosting between layers and then over and around the cake when all of the layers are put together. While the cake rests, it absorbs much of the cream which softens the layers but yes it is a generous amount of frosting on each layer of cake.
Next time, just put more cream between the cake layers, simple 🙂
You do have to be VERY careful when moving your cake and placing it in the fridge, the layers can slide if you aren’t. Once it’s been in the fridge for a while, the cream “sets” so it’s safe to move it to the table and cut.
I used an online measure converter which converted 32oz to almost 2 litres, which is what I used. The cake layers absorbed all the liquid even though there was so much. 32oz is what the recipe said, almost 2 litres is what the converter said was 32oz. I’m a trucker and a novice at this kind of cooking. The cake turned out wonderfully, so much so my brother-in-law requested I made one for his 60th birthday party. There wasn’t a scrap of either one left.
Thank you for sharing that with us, Simon!
Just wanted to point out 32 fluid ounces is .94 litres, not 2 litres! May be helpful to people converting the measurements to metric
Hi Natasha! Do you think I could use 6” rounds to make the cake higher? Thanks!
Hi Stephanie, I think that would work.
I think 32oz of sour cream is not right. I used 16 oz sour cream, 1 cup icing sugar, and 250 ml whipping cream and it was plenty and also delicious!!
Hi Pat, I used the full 32 oz (two 16 oz tubs). It seems like a lot but the cake absorbs the liquid and becomes very soft with all the sour cream. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Hey Natasha! Can i make the cake ahead of time and frosting later? If eys, how do i store the cake layers?
Natalie, it’s fine to bake the layers few days ahead and store them at room temperature, loosely covered in the plastic bag away from the humidity.
Hey Natasha! Your recipe looks lovely and i’m going to make it, i don’t have sour cream at hand so can i substitute it with cream cheese?
Hi Juweria, I have not tried that with cream cheese so I can not advise.
quick tip
for rolling
i put the dough between
2 baking paper sheets
and i roll when they are still
warm and it is super super easy
and quick,
give it a try
Thank you for sharing that with us!
Despite my troubles making the cake yesterday, it turned out perfectly in the end.
It was made, at special request, for my brother-in-laws 60th birthday party. I finished it at around midday, we got around to eating at around 10 last night. That was long enough for the cake layers to soften.
My cake was one of several choices. There was nothing left of it and I was asked for the recipe by several party goers, and received many compliments. You can’t get any better than that 😀
I have naturally given all who asked instructions to find your blog.
That’s so great!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Hi Natasha
I used to bake Medovik long time ago, but lost my original recipe. Tried a couple recipes found online, but they were not the same Medovik i use to love.
Then i found your recipe. Wow! Simple and delicious! Baked it already 4 or 5 times.
My family and friends love it!
Thank you!
I love that!! I’m so happy you found one you really enjoy! Thank you Vera!
Hi! I made your medovik for a book club recently and everyone was so impressed and just loved it! I mentioned it on my blog.
I wanted to make sure you got the credit, and perhaps throw a couple of new readers your way. (I’m just starting my blog, so it would probably literally be a couple haha).
I included pics in the post if you’d like to see how it came out!
Hi Rebekah, I would love to see your photos of the cake. What is your blog name?
Oh sorry! It’s francophilepoet.wordpress.com.
Thank you! Can’t wait to take a peak!
Hello! I am really excited to make this cake, but I am worried about the whipped heavy cream starting to deflate and making the frosting slide off the cake. How long does the cake last before this starts to happen (or does it not do this because of the powdered sugar)?
Hi Sasha, I would store it in the fridge since the frosting is dairy-based, and it will hold up for 3-5 days. Also, I recommend keeping it covered in the refrigerator, so it does not absorb food smells.
After trying this cake at a Russian restaurant, I went trying to track down a recipe for it–this is what I ended up finding.
I sat on it for a while, just because the instructions were a little intimidating, but then my wife’s birthday came up, and knowing I’d found a recipe for this cake, that’s what she asked for.
What I made wasn’t perfect–I wasn’t diligent enough rolling out the dough, and so a couple layers stuck and stretched out of shape after I’d cut them out–but for the handful of friends we had over it was perfect. The layers soaked up the frosting and became soft without becoming soggy, and everyone enjoyed it–although they were also glad that I had gone to the trouble to make it and not them.
I’m definitely making this again. I don’t know when–I’m torn between the hours spent making it and the moments spent enjoying the fruits of my labor–but I pretty much have to make–and share–this again.
I’m so happy you were able to make that work! I’m sure she loved it and it was a great Surprise! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Hey Natasha! Can you please, please, please! Make a video tutorial on how to easily spread the crumbs around the sides of the cake. Mine NEVER end up looking as beautiful as your cakes ☹️
Hi Bridgette, For the bread crumbs, I used that little brush in the picture to flick the bread crumbs over the sides. You can also use the parchment paper underneath to flick the crumbs upwards onto the sides of the cake. That’s probably the toughest part of the whole cake is the crumbs, but thankfully they don’t have to look perfect.
This is my all time favorite cake! Its so delicious. I always make a circle but I was wondering if I roll it out into rectangles (for a wedding) would it still work?
Hi Olya, I think that would work fine if you baked them as equal sized rectangles.
I suppose id have to double the recipe in that case.?
It depends on how tall you want the cake to be – you could probably get away with 1 1/2 times but doubling would make it nice and tall 🙂
I finished the cake around 11:30 am do you think I can eat it by dinner time let’s say 7ish. Will it be good ? Or I have to let it sit overnight for best result ? Thank you in advance .
Hi Mariana, it might be ok but I would leave it at room temperature for few hours so the layers will soften more readily. Thank you for making it 😀
Hi Natasha, is there any chance you have the ingredients in grams please? I’m in the UK and we don’t have cup measures over here, I wouldn’t know what size cup? A tea cup? A mug? A coffee cup? I don’t have a clue! Any help would be gratefully appreciated as this cake looks amazing! Thanks, Kris😊
Hi Kris, we have been adding metric measurements to our more recent recipes and have started working through them to add metric, but it’s a slow process as it has to be done one recipe at a time. I went ahead and added the nutrition label to this cake and hope it helps you! It may also help to reference this post that I created on how we measure.
That’s absolutely brilliant Natasha, thank you so much!!! 😃
You’re welcome Kris!
I rarely bake and when I do, it’s usually from a box mix.. anyways, I decided to challenge myself and makes this after finding this recipe online and seeing all the good reviews. It was defintely was a process but it turned out amazing. It definitely took some time making this cake so make sure to do it when you have a few hours to spare (it probably took me longer just because I really don’t bake much so was slower at everything). I literally followed the directions step by step and everything turned out fine. As Natasha mentioned, definitely don’t skimp on the icing when spreading it on the separate layers. I did because I didn’t want to use all my icing up right away but there will be plenty of icing for the whole cake. My cake doesn’t look quite as perfect as yours but everyone loves it. Thanks Natasha!
You’re welcome Elizabeth! I’m happy to hear how much you enjoy the recipe. Thanks for sharing your excellent review with other readers!
I just finished baking the layers for this cake. There was no way I could get 8 layers that were 9 inches wide and 1/8 of an inch thick. My hubby divided the dough evenly (using a food scale) into 8 balls. I ended up having cereal bowl size layers. I am not sure what happened.
Hi Lisa, the cake will still work if you roll the layers out thicker and smaller. You will just have a taller cake. We roll them super thin but not to worry, it will work to roll them thicker 🙂
Hi Natasha!
Please, please make this recipe into a video.
Hi Lydia, thank you for the suggestion. I will add it to my list 😀
Hi there, Natasha! Thanks for posting this delicious honey cake recipe! Just wondering if the whole assembled, iced cake can be frozen and if so, for how long? Thanks a mill!
Hi Kat, I haven’t tested that but I imagine that may work. Here’s what one of our readers wrote “Hi,My mum, used to do this cake and she let this cake sit in freezer 7 days and then it is superdelicious. But most people I know is not strong enough to let it sit that long” I hope that helps.
Cheers, Natasha!
Appreciate the advice on the freezer-life of this cake loving the recipes you post, keep up this awesome food blog!
You’re welcome! I’m happy you found that helpful!
Hi Natasha, I make a similar cake called a Venetian wafer slice or a custard layer cake as my family calls it. The baked biscuit layers are similar in texture however it is sandwiched together with home made custard. I am definitely going to try this variation. Thank you.
Hi Olivia! That cake sounds delicious, I hope you enjoy this recipe just as much! Please let me know what you think!
I was wondering if you could bake the cake layers and then freeze them?
Hi Lisa, I haven’t tried freezing the layers but I think that could work. They do keep at room temperature really well for several days, covered loosely in a plastic bag.
Made with dochka, just now, zero heavy cream, zero corn starch, no butter in the fridge , icing wasnt thick, just beat for a long time, been here in Russia for four years and never made a medevik, wasnt afraid just no time, well, its womans day and my daughter did good rolling out the dough…Im sure it’ll be tasty…..spasibo bolshoe
Thanks for sharing your great tips with other readers Richard!