Thursday, January 13, 2011

Russian Honey Cake - Medovyi Pirog


After a year of searching through the world wide web, I have successfully found it! What, you may ask. This recipe of course! Here is the background story. One day, my colleague bought this unusual looking cake to work. I had a piece and fell in love. It was so different and yet so tasty. I asked her for the recipe but as she had not made it she could not give it to me. I quickly logged onto the net and started searching for a Russian Honey Cake as I was told that was its name and it was famous in this part of the world. Well, my search revealed only two results and I was not sure if the outcome would be the same. Fast forward to a year later, and I ate the cake again. This time however, my search revealed a lot of results and I even got a recipe with pictures! Yay! I quickly went home and made the cake and got the exact same taste as I remembered. The simple ingredients morph into a fantastic taste and this is a great cake to serve to company.


This cake takes some to make, but it is very easy. you need to make the dough which takes like 5 minutes. Cool it and roll it out. Cut into shapes and bake. What you need to make sure is to stand near the oven like a hawk and keep an eye on these babies. They bake so quickly that you wont have time for anything else. I lost two precious layers to my negligence :( I halved the original recipe and still got a good cake to serve 5 - 6 people.

Recipe Source - Food.com

Ingredients - Makes approx. 15 layers of 8 inch each.

For the Cake Layers
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1 Tbsp Liquid Honey
100 Gms (1/2 Cup/8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter
2 Cups All Purpose Flour

For the Filling and Topping
750 Gms Sour Cream
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Honey
1/2 Cup Shredded Sweetened Coconut (Optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Beat eggs well with sugar; add baking soda and liquid honey (warm).
3. Melt the margarine/butter in a pot over low flame; and add the above mixture (margarine should not be too hot).
4. Keeping the heat on low, add the flour a little at a time. Keep mixing until the mass is without lumps. (the mixture will be very thick and very hard to stir). Remove from heat and cool.


5. Take a big piece of dough, roll into a ball and dip the dough in flour. Place on parchment paper and roll into a very thin layer. (1-2mm). Using a round cutter (I used my saucepan lids-use something of minimum 8 inches in diameter) cut a circle as round as possible. 


7. To start, roll out at least 4 circles and place on separate parchment sheets. Place each circle in the oven and bake 180°C for 2-4 minutes (You can do two at a time or one by one) or until golden brown in colour; repeat with remaining dough and allow to cool before assembling. (Watch the cakes very carefully as they are done quickly and burn easily).


Make the Filling
Beat the sour cream, sugar and honey until the sugar dissolves-the mixture will still be fairly liquid.

Assemble The Cake
1.Take two cake layers (Use the most imperfect ones) and grind to make cake crumbs in the food processor. Keep aside.
2. Place one cake layer on a flat plate and add a generous layer of cream. Repeat till all the cake layers are finished. Coat the entire cake with the remaining cream.


3. Cover completely with the cake crumbs. Top with sweetened coconut if using.


4. Place in fridge and allow to set at least 6 hours before eating.

Happy Eating!!

2 comments:

  1. That looks amazing! :O I love all of those layers-you did an amazing job! :D

    ReplyDelete

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