Russian Honey Cake is a gravity-defying layered cake with notes of honey and caramel. It is decadent, beautiful and absolutely delicious.

Honey cake is made up of crispy and thin cake layers that are separated by a thick cream cheese frosting. The end result is an eye-catching dessert that is sure to impress.
Honey cake hails straight from Russia. Medovik, which translates to “honey” in Russian, is a popular dessert that is reserved for only the most special of occasions.
Are you obsessed with honey cake? Try your hand at making another Momsdish favorite — Honey Sponge Cake.
Tips for Making the Best Russian Honey Cake
- Make the Layers in Advance: This cake is awesome because you can make the layers a week in advance. Just make sure to cover them tightly with plastic wrap and store them in a plastic bag until you are ready to assemble.
- Cream: Bring your butter and cream cheese to room temperature and keep your heavy cream very cold. This makes the whipping process much easier, while also creating an awesome texture.
- Don’t Overmix Cream: Once you add the heavy cream to your cream cheese and butter, pay extra mind to not overmixing your frosting. Overmixing cream cheese frosting can lead to a runny texture that will not spread well on your honey layer.
- Give it Time to Set: After you assemble your cake, allow it to set it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. This will not only help with the cake’s overall stability, it will also make it much more moist.
- Tailor the Cream to Your Taste Buds: If you want to skip out on the cream cheese or butter, feel free. If you remove the butter, compensate by adding more cream cheese and vice versa.

Making Honey Cake From Scratch
- Start a steam bath. In a glass bowl, add your honey, butter and sugar. Place the bowl on top of your steam bath and stir until combined and melted.
- In a separate bowl, beat eggs and baking soda together. Slowly add the egg mixture to your honey, butter and sugar mixture, stirring continuously.
- Once ingredients are fully incorporated, cook for an additional 30 to 40 minutes over the steam bath until the color becomes a rich caramel brown. Remove from the steam bath and add the vanilla extract and flour.
- Preheat the oven and flour your working surface generously. Separate your dough into even sized balls. With a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a thin layer. To make your life easier, roll the dough out directly onto your baking sheet.
- Bake each cake layer until golden brown (about 7-8 minutes). To make your layer a perfect circle, take the dough out and cut a perfect circle by using a plate as a stencil. Save your scraps for decorating.
- Allow your cake layers to completely cool before you begin assembling.









- Whip your cream together.
- Assemble your cake by frosting each layer with equal amounts of cream.
- Decorate the outside as you please! I like to food process the cake scraps into a crumbly topping that I spread on the top and sides of the cake for a pretty effect. Allow the cake to set in the fridge overnight. Pull it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to serve.




How do you Store Honey Cake?
- Refrigerate: Keep your cake in a sealed cake container. This cake tends to absorb the smells of the fridge, so you want to make sure it’s stored airtight!
- Freezing: You can make this cake in advance and freeze it for up to a month. Fresh cake is always supreme, but this definitely is a viable option. Pull out the cake from the freezer and allow it to thaw overnight.
A Few More Russian Cakes
- Dulce De Leche Cake -This is the king of caramel cakes. Sweetened condensed milk makes this treat so luscious.
- Sharlotka Cake – This easy apple cake brings me right back to my childhood.
- Spartak Cake – Thin, chocolate cake layers are separated by a thick cream in this Eastern European classic.
- Chocolate Honey Cake – Irish creme liqueur makes this cake extra-moist. Little speckles of chocolate are scattered throughout each layer, giving this cake an awesome texture.
Recipe
Russian Honey Cake is a gravity-defying layered cake with notes of honey and caramel. It is decadent, beautiful and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients
- 70 g Butter
- 2 tbsp Honey
- 1 cup Sugar
- 3 Eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 cup Flour
Cream
- 200 g Butter
- 8 oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)
- 16 oz Heavy Whipping Cream
- 12 oz Cooked Condensed Milk
Instructions
Cake Layers
- This cake dough is made on a steam bath. Preheat water using a bowl on top of the boiling water, make sure the bowl does't melt. Place butter, honey and sugar, and let it stand there until it's all melted.
- In a separate bowl, beat eggs with baking soda until they have one consistency. Slowly add egg mixture to the batter, continue mixing the whole time while adding.
- Cook for about 30-40 minutes, until the color changes. Take it off the steam bath, add vanilla extract and let it sit for 10 minutes. Add flour to the dough; it may still be sticky after adding the flour. Preheat the oven to 350 °F and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Flour the surface generously. Because the dough is sticky, this will help you work easier with it. Optionally, weigh each piece of dough, to maintain the size. Roll out the dough into a round shape, large enough to be cut out later. Relocate the dough layer to the baking sheet by rolling it onto a roller, then unrolling it back out onto the baking sheet.
- Bake each layer of cake for 5-7 minutes, until golden brown. During the process of baking, roll out another layer to speed up the process. When it's done, remove it from the oven and cut out each circle by placing a plate over the top. This is the key trick to making all sides perfect. You'll need the cut off pieces for decoration, later.
- Do not immediately stack the layers on top of each other, as they will lose its even shape. Rather, make sure they first cool off on a flat surface. Repeat until you are done.
Finalizing Cake
- Whip butter together with cream cheese and condensed milk. Once they are well mixed together, add whipping cream. Whip until the cream is very thick.
- Divide all cream evenly between each layer of the cake. Form the cake by stacking the layers of the cake.
- Shred the leftover cake pieces in a blender and use it to decorate the sides of the cake. Let the cake sit in the fridge overnight. Before serving, let it sit out of the fridge for some time, as it will add more moisture to its taste.
Nutrition Facts
Russian Honey Cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories 562
Calories from Fat 360
% Daily Value*
Fat 40g62%
Saturated Fat 24g120%
Cholesterol 162mg54%
Sodium 410mg17%
Potassium 107mg3%
Carbohydrates 45g15%
Fiber 1g4%
Sugar 20g22%
Protein 7g14%
Vitamin A 1431IU29%
Vitamin C 1mg1%
Calcium 59mg6%
Iron 2mg11%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
My son and I made this cake for an assignment for his Global Studies class at school. It was amazing! We gobbled it up and my mom requested it to be served at our Mother's Day celebration. Thanks so much!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the cake, thank you for taking the time to share your feedback, Elise.
Hi Natalya,
I just had a question, I’ve been following your directions and I come up with usually 8 layers. My layers when baked come out a bit thick (they don’t look like your pictures) and they have air bubbles. Do you have any suggestions? Should I try to make make more layers? Is that maybe my problem? Thank you in advance!
Hey Martha, My goal is always to roll out the dough as thin as possible. If you feel like you could have rolled it out thinner, it would be a good idea. It's totally fine to have more layers.
Hello Natalya,
Firstly , the original cream for Medovik consists of sour cream whipped with sugar, and couple of spoons of lemon juice can be added to add special taste. Soft cream cheese, whipped fresh cream, condescend milk that are mentioned above are not used in the original recipe for Medovik. Also, it’s not a Russian cake only , it is a very popular desert in the cuisine of all post Soviet Union countries.
Thank you for sharing your feedback!
We just had this cake for tea. Hands down the best honey cake ever!! Thank you so much, its light, fluffy and moist! Absolute delight, a highlight of the birthday 😊 I wish I could upload the picture too, it looks gorgeous decorated with fresh berries and icing sugar
I'm so glad you enjoyed the cake! Thank you very much for taking the time to comment your feedback.
hii
thanks for giving this information this is quite relavent.
You're welcome 🙂 I'm glad it was helpful!
I will try this recipe for my husband's birthday, I have a russian heritage and my hubby loves the honey cake. I have never tried the cream cheese and dulce de leche frosting, I used to do only soured cream with some lemon and sugar so very intrigued how's this one going to turn out. One slight comment though, your metrics are a bit confusing, you have cups and oz and g, would be lovely if everything was in g and mls, or only cups.
Thanks for the gorgeous recipe!
Hey Agne, Thank you for sharing your suggestions. I hope you love the cake! 🙂
Hi Natalya,
I’m excited to try this, how many layers should this recipe make? How big the circle should be? I’m worried how thin I should roll out each layer...
Hey Nica, I make mine 9 inches wide and we usually get about 12 layers. Hope you absolutely love it!
thanks for sharing your thoughts with us it was very helpful nd continue to sharing such post with us.
Glad to hear this!
So I was wondering if I should use cake flour or regular flour? Do you have the gram measurements for flour?
Hey Anna, we use cups for measurements, you can google to see conversion. Also, regular all purpose flour works great.
Hi Natalya, the problem with cups is that not all have the same measurments. The american cups are not the same as the uk ones... that's why grams are more accurate
Thank you
Hey, you can use our coversion calculator or google for conversion. A large majority of our users use US conversions but we definitely did add a conversion calculator. Enjoy the recipe
Hi Natalya,
I'm planning to follow your recipe this weekend for my honey:-). If I make the layers in advance, do we need to keep the layers in fridge or can it be stored in room temp?
Thanks,
Shabna
Hey, you can keep the layers in an airtight container at room temperature. Enjoy!
Made this cake and it was delicious♡ My favorite was the frosting!
A great tip is to mix the baking soda with flour and incorporate it in like the directions say after the egg, sugar and honey mixture sets for 10 minutes. That way the baking soda doesn't get activated until later when the layers get baked. That way you will get light amd airy cake cookies.
Hi Maria, those are great tips. Thanks for sharing!
Hi! I realised too late that I didn't adjust the temperature to a fan oven. All my layers are very dry and crispy, deep brown all the way through. I'm making this cake for tomorrow. Do you think there's any way I can save them? Maybe make extra frosting and make the layers thicker so that the layers become more moist? They don't taste burnt.
Hey Paulina, they should be dry and crispy. They absorb cream and become moist. I think the cake should still come out great if they weren't burned.
I made it as per the recipe and tried some today, it's delicious 🙂 so I think it's all good although I think the layers were slightly overdone (mine were like biscuits, when I cut them to shape the spares broke/crushed into lots of small pieces instead of just coming off whole like on your photo). Thank you for your quick reply!
I would suggest either lowering temperature or reducing bake time. It sounds like the oven might be hotter than normal.
Hi! I ended up using just sweetened condensed milk on accident instead of the cooked! Is mine going to taste alright??
Hey Kayla, in the cream? I think it will taste great but it will not have that caramel flavor to the cake.
Planning for baking for Christmas..........beginner baker but taking up the challenge can I omit the heavy whipping cream in the frosting?
Hey Aleena, if you follow all the spets closely you will have an amazing outcome. I would suggest not changing anything unless you find a mother cream recipe you prefer.
How long does it keep for because of the cream ?
If you keep it in a sealed container refrigerated, for at least a week.
hey is it ok if i add some lemon juice in to make it a bit citrus-y? thanks:)
Hey Adina, you can add a little but have to be careful because lemon juice in a cream can cause it to curdle.
How thick should each layer be?
Hey Anna, I personally roll them out as thin as I possibly can.
Hello,
How many layers of dough does it yield?
Hey Mira, I typically get 12-14 layers. Enjoy
❤️
Thank you for this recipe. I enjoyed attempting this cake. My finished cake had total 4 layers to frost and the cake part is a soft cookie dough texture. Is that the right texture or am I mistaken in thinking it was meant to be crispy? I only baked the cake dough for 5 mins each so maybe I should have baked longer.
It should be slightly crispy because keeping it softer could cause it to fall apart. The layers soften as they sit with cream.
Hi. What is a steam bath? Is this the same as using a double boiler?
Yes, using the double boiler.
Also another question: when you say "Cook for about 30-40 minutes, until the color changes. " since there is egg in it, do i need to whisk it the whole 30-40 minutes while its cooking?
Hey Amanda, you don't need to do it the entire time but the majority of the time. Youn don't want the edges to burn or curl up.
My daughter is from Russia, so for her 21st birthday last week I made your recipe for honey cake. Everyone said it was the BEST cake they have ever had. My son wants it for his birthday and my daughter wants it for her wedding! The recipe was easy to understand and follow. The only thing I may have not done right is the condensed milk. It says cooked, but I didn't know what that meant. It still turned out lovey.
Hey JeanAnne, thank you for sharing. I am so happy to hear that your family enjoyed it. Cooked condensed milk is dulce de leche, it has a caramel flavor.
This is a really incredible recipe! Such an amazing cake. Thank you for all of the thoughtful tips and tricks - it made it easier than I would have guessed to make!
Hey Cyd, I am so happy to hear that you enjoy the recipe and found all the tips useful. Thanks for sharing your feedback.
Love how easy it is to follow the recipe! The step by step photos are so helpful! Taste amazing!
Thank you Ashley. When it comes to cakes, we really need to go all out on the photos.
What a beautiful cake! I love the layers & the hint of honey!
Hey Kristyn, thank you for a sweet compliment.
Made this cake. Super yummy!
Anna, I am so happy to hear this. Thank you!
Is this the same recipe as before? The cream looks different. I am taking about honey cake with jam and candy bees 🐝 on top.
Hey Liya, the cake and cream is the same. We just removed the bees. 🙂
Hi, I recently made a honey cake with a batter, not a dough. After baking the dough and cooking, would it be ok to freeze until needing it? Also, what is the traditional icing for a honey cake? I’ve seen variations of sour cream, whipped cream and now cream cheese etc?
I would recommend laking layers and freezing them rather than dough. Dough hardens as it cools down, I am worried it will be hard to work with if you freeze it. The cream is not traditional, the traditional honey cake has sourcream with sugar.
Hi Natalya, have spent this afternoon making your honey cake and it looks amazing. Your recipe was so easy to follow and we can't wait to try it tomorrow. Thank you so much. Fiona x
Hi, thanks for your feedback. I would love to know what you think of the cake once you try it 🙂 Enjoy!
Hi Natalya! I wanted to find out if the frosting is really sweet in this cake.
I am getting tired of my frosting so wanted to try yours. I usually whip heavy cream, some sugar and add some good quality sour cream. I really want to use this filling next time.
Thanks.
Your guys video wa awesome! Thanks for sharing such a personal story.
I mean its a cake so it will be sweet lol...It not overly sweet but you can control it by adding less or more of dulce de leche.
Thank you, Natalya! All of your recipes are a big hit! Everything always turns out perfect?
Oh my!! you are too sweet.
Natalya thank you very much for the recipe. I made it for my dads birthday and it was a huge hit .
I love it!!! Thanks for sharing with me.