Lemon Medovik Cake

Lemon Medovik is a classic honey cake made of 8 thin custard-dough layers, filled with sour cream and butter frosting and homemade lemon curd. The cake is 18-20 cm across, each layer bakes in just 7 minutes at 200 C, and the assembled cake needs a night in the fridge to set. I recommend setting aside enough time - the result is worth it, enjoy!

Lemon Medovik Cake

Honey cake made of 8 custard-dough layers with sour cream and butter frosting and lemon curd - a rich, fragrant, and very beautiful cake.

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Prep Time 2 hours hrs

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Chilling 12 hours hrs

Total Time 15 hours hrs

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

For the dough

• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 100 g butter
• 100 g honey
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt pinch
• 10 g lemon zest
• 450 g flour

For the lemon curd

• 2 eggs
• 125 g sugar
• 90 g butter
• 4 g cornstarch
• 90 ml lemon juice
• 10 g lemon zest
• salt pinch

For the frosting

• 600 g sour cream 20% strained
• 200 g butter 82%
• 150 g powdered sugar

Method

 

Lemon curd

1. Put the eggs and sugar in a saucepan and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Add the butter, lemon juice, zest and cornstarch.
2. Cook until thickened; once bubbles appear, keep it on the heat for another minute. Remove, strain through a sieve, cool, transfer to a piping bag and refrigerate.

Layers

1. Set up a double boiler. In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with a mixer until white and foamy, add the butter, honey, baking soda, lemon juice and zest. Place over the double boiler and, stirring occasionally, hold for 7-10 minutes.
2. Remove from the double boiler, add 200 g of flour and return over the double boiler for another 10 minutes, stirring, until the mixture turns caramel-colored, then remove.
3. Let the dough cool on the counter for 20 minutes, sift in the remaining 250 g of flour and knead the dough. It will be sticky - that's normal. Put the dough in a bag and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Divide the dough into 8 pieces (about 100-110 g each). Prepare 8 sheets of parchment and a plate or ring 18-20 cm in diameter for cutting.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 C. Roll out a thin sheet on parchment and bake for 7 minutes; right after baking, trim the layer to size, keeping the trimmings for the crumb coating. Repeat 8 times and cool the layers.

Frosting and assembly

1. Ahead of time, strain 700 g of 20% sour cream through cheesecloth and refrigerate for 4 hours - you'll get about 600 g of thick sour cream, discard the whey. Bring the sour cream and butter to room temperature.
2. Beat the butter with a mixer for 5 minutes until pale, add the powdered sugar in portions and beat for a couple more minutes. Add the sour cream and mix with a spatula or briefly with the mixer so the frosting stays fluffy.
3. Place a layer on the serving board, spread with the frosting and pipe curd in the center without spreading it over the whole surface. Assemble the whole cake this way, leaving the top layer plain and saving a bit of frosting.
4. Wrap the cake with acetate film or parchment and refrigerate overnight.
5. In the morning, remove the parchment, coat the sides and top with the remaining frosting and coat with the crumb made from the layer trimmings. Enjoy!
   

Tips

• Strain the sour cream through cheesecloth ahead of time: from 700 g of 20% sour cream, after 4 hours in the fridge you'll get 600 g of thick strained cream.
• The sour cream and butter for the frosting should be at room temperature, otherwise the frosting will split.
• Don't spread the curd all the way to the edges of the layer - keep it in the center so it doesn't leak out the sides.
• Don't throw away the layer trimmings: they make crumbs for coating the cake.
• The dough turns out sticky - that's normal, after 30 minutes in the fridge it rolls out well.