I first saw this cake made by a Russian health blogger and it looked soooo good that I wanted to try it out at least once. Everything with honey is just amazing. Of course, I tried to make the cake healthier than its original version and I think I succeeded.

After the baking, I searched for some information about the cake and where it originally came from.

“Medovik” in Russian is Медовик (мед meaning “honey”). Its ingredients are usually honey, sour cream/condensed milk and flour. It consists of layers with a cream filling, often covered with crumbs made form the leftover layers.

The cake was first cooked by a chef who wanted to impress Elizabeth Alexeievna (the wife of Alexander I) in the 19th century. However, Elizabeth hated honey and wasn’t impressed at all, actually she was mad at the chef for making the cake. After some years, the imperial kitchen got a new chef and he didn’t know about Elizabeth’s dislike of honey, so he made a new cake with sour cream and honey. While she was tasting the creation, she didn’t have any idea what ingredients were in, and she immediately fell in love. And that’s how Medovik got created and gained its popularity.

To be entirely honest, it wasn’t the easiest cake I’ve made since you’re baking your own layers and waiting a night to let the layers absorb the moisture from the cream but I think it was worth the wait.

Usually, the cake is bigger than mine since they make it with 5 to 10 layers and more cream but I wanted to make a smaller version just to try it out. So the ingredients list down below is for a Mini Medovik. If you want to make a bigger cake, just double the ingredients.

First, make the layers because they have to sit for 30 mins in the fridge. In the original recipe of the cake there is not a single trace of hazelnut flour, so you can perfectly skip it and just add a bit more of the buckwheat flour. I just added it because I had it and I wanted to use it for something, so I figured it would be a nice addition of taste to the layers of the cake. You can barely taste the hazelnutty flavour afterwards, so the only person who will know there is hazelnut flour in the cake will be you.

Honestly, I am not a fan of baking honey since most of its healthy properties just go away, but this is not a cake you make everyday, so it was worth the try. If you want to find more about one of the healthiest types of honey, make sure the check out my article about Manuka Honey.

Here is what else I used in the recipe:

Another thing I added from myself that is not part of the original recipe is the jam in the cream. I just love using ingredients that I have and I feel they’ll go in the bin if I don’t put them somewhere. So when I tasted the cream, it seemed that there was something sweet missing- and that’s when I remembered about the jam in my fridge, so I added a tablespoon of it.

I know that this is not the original recipe for Medovik, but I wanted to make a healthier version and this is the result. Frankly, it tastes just as good as every honey cake I’ve tried, so it it worth to give it a go 🙂

Here is a sweet video of the result:

Print Recipe

Healthy Russian Cake [Medovik]

This cake is a sweet escape from reality as it doesn't have any added refined sugar. The honey baked into the cake layers pairs perfectly with the simple sour cream frosting.

Cuisine

Healthy

Keyword

cake, food revolution, guilt-free desserts, health, healthbenefits, healthy recipes, no added sugar, recipe

Servings

servings

Ingredients

For the base

• 1 egg
• 50 grams hazelnut flour
• 50g grams honey
• 125 grams buckwheat flour
• 50 grams Ghee or unsalted butter
• 1/2 tsp xylitol
• 1 tsp baking soda/powder

For the cream

• 300 grams Ricotta cheese
• 120 grams Strained yogurt I used 2% strained yogurt
• 50 grams sugar-free jam (forest fruits) I used a jam for diabetic patients
• 3-4 tbsp xylitol or other zero-calorie sweetener

Cuisine Healthy Keyword cake, food revolution, guilt-free desserts, health, healthbenefits, healthy recipes, no added sugar, recipe Servings servings Ingredients For the base 1 egg 50 grams hazelnut flour 50g grams honey 125 grams buckwheat flour 50 grams Ghee or unsalted butter 1/2 tsp xylitol 1 tsp baking soda/powder For the cream 300 grams Ricotta cheese 120 grams Strained yogurt I used 2% strained yogurt 50 grams sugar-free jam (forest fruits) I used a jam for diabetic patients 3-4 tbsp xylitol or other zero-calorie sweetener

Instructions

The dough

1. In a small saucepan put the butter, honey, sweetener and egg.
2. Turn the heat on to low/medium and immediately start stirring like crazy.
3. Add the soda bicarbonate when the butter is has melted.
4. The mixture will go fluffy and double in size.
5. Take the pan off the stove.
6. Sift the flour into the mixture and slowly start making a dough.
7. Transfer the dough into a bowl and divide into 4 pieces.
8. Wrap them in cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 30mins while you make the cream.

The cream

1. Simply mix all the ingredients for the cream and let it chill in the fridge while you bake the layers of the cake.
2. Just make sure you taste the cream before you put it in the fridge and adjust its sweetness according to your personal preferences. I'd recommend not making it too sweet because the layers are already sweet enough.

Baking the layers

1. Get the dough balls out of the fridge.
2. On a well-floured surface, roll each piece out into a circle. You can sprinkle the top with a little flour too to keep dough from sticking to your rolling pin.
3. You don't have to make the layers perfectly round. When you roll out each piece, try to make them equal by cutting the layers in a perfect circle. Keep the scraps for later- we'll need them.
4. Bake each layer separately.
5. Turn the oven on 170C and start baking each layer for approximately 2-3 minutes or until golden.
6. Finally, bake the scraps separated evenly on a re-used sheet of parchment.
7. 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.

Assembling the cake

1. Spread about 1/4 of the cream on each layer. Don’t skimp on it since the cake needs to absorb some of the cream to become ultra soft
2. Dust the top and sides with your breadcrumbs
3. Refrigerate overnight. This cake needs time to absorb some of the cream and soften, so be patient. It’s worth the wait!

Recipe Notes

Each piece gives you: 188 kcal | 8.7g fats | 19g carbs | 8g proteins

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