Traditional Lithuanian honey cake "Medutis"
Traditional honey cake "Medutis" is probably one of the most famous cakes in Lithuania. Therefore there are many recipes and preparation methods for this awesome cake. Some tend to bake thick, fluffy sponges, some very thin cookie disks. Some prepare the cream with whipping cream, others with sour cream. Sometimes this cake has 4-5 layers of cream, sometimes a whole 10. As many bakers, as many preparation methods there are. But I am of the opinion that the simpler the ingredients and the simpler the preparation, the more delicious any desserts will be. My own honey cake recipe comes from an old grandmother's recipe cookbook. From the old days when people actually were writing recipes by hand. As a result, I’m not really sure where she got this recipe from, but to me, it is one of the most real versions of Lithuanian honey cake.
Preparing the honey cake according to my recipe you won’t have to roll out the cookie disks (this is a true timesaver!), no gelatin and no special ingredients are required. Now a few simple but important tips on making the honey cake. Choose a whole milk sour cream, then the cream will have a richer flavor and will stiffen well. Also, don’t add too much of confectioner’s sugar in the cream, because cookie disks are sweet enough, so more acidic cream is better (trust me, I made it so many many times). But anyway, adjust the taste of the cream to your liking, some people like more sour, others sweeter. This is why, when I prepare the cream I always taste it and make sure I really like it.
Well, and the really easy and fun part is to bake honey cake cookie disks, because they don’t have to be rolled out. Spread the dough on a sheet of parchment paper and place in the oven. To make the cookie disks the same size, I really recommend to draw a circle of the plate or springform pan base. By the way, according to the recipe proportions you will make a 4 pound cake, so really big one. This time, I made mine using half of the ingredients, which resulted in about 10 thin cookie disks. If you decide to bake a small honey cake, use also half of the ingredients (you will not split 3 eggs in half, so use 2 small eggs or one very large one). Enjoy!!!
Preparing the honey cake according to my recipe you won’t have to roll out the cookie disks (this is a true timesaver!), no gelatin and no special ingredients are required. Now a few simple but important tips on making the honey cake. Choose a whole milk sour cream, then the cream will have a richer flavor and will stiffen well. Also, don’t add too much of confectioner’s sugar in the cream, because cookie disks are sweet enough, so more acidic cream is better (trust me, I made it so many many times). But anyway, adjust the taste of the cream to your liking, some people like more sour, others sweeter. This is why, when I prepare the cream I always taste it and make sure I really like it.
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Well, and the really easy and fun part is to bake honey cake cookie disks, because they don’t have to be rolled out. Spread the dough on a sheet of parchment paper and place in the oven. To make the cookie disks the same size, I really recommend to draw a circle of the plate or springform pan base. By the way, according to the recipe proportions you will make a 4 pound cake, so really big one. This time, I made mine using half of the ingredients, which resulted in about 10 thin cookie disks. If you decide to bake a small honey cake, use also half of the ingredients (you will not split 3 eggs in half, so use 2 small eggs or one very large one). Enjoy!!!
Ingredients
- all purpose flour: 400 g. (2 2/3 cup)
- honey: 250 ml (1 cup)
- eggs: 3
- granulated sugar: 6 tbsp
- sour cream: 3 tbsp.
- baking soda: 2 tsp.
- sour cream (whole milk): 1.5 l (6 1/4 cups)
- confectioner’s sugar: ~14-15 tbsp. (to taste)
- lemon juice: 1 (or 1-2 tsp. citric acid powder (to taste)
For cookie disks:
For cream:
- 1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F).
- 2. Cookie disks: Beat the eggs well with sugar.
- 3. Then in a separate bowl mix sour cream and baking soda, leave to foam and rise.
- 4. After that, add honey into the egg batter (if honey is not liquid – heat it in the microwave for a short time) and mix everything well. Then add sour cream, mix well again and finally slowly add sifted flour. The dough will have yogurt consistency.
- 5. Spread a very thin desired size circle on a parchment paper (about 2 tbsp. of the dough). Adjust the size of the cookie disk according to the size of the springform pan or plate on which you will place the cake.
- 6. Bake each cookie disk for about 5-7 minutes until browned. Once baked, leave to cool and then peel off from the parchment paper.
- 7. Cream: Mix all the ingredients for the cream in one bowl. Adjust the amount of sugar and lemon juice (or acid powder) to your taste (the cake tastes better when the cream is more acidic because the cookie disks are quite sweet). While the cookie disks are cooling down, leave the cream in the fridge.
- 8. When all the cookie disks are cooled, keep one of them for the crumbs (it is best to crumble it after it has cooled).
- 9. Assembling the cake: Place one cookie disk on a base of springform pan or plate, where you will layer the cream.
- 10. Spread the cream on the cookie disk, add another cookie disk, spread the cream again and in this way assemble the cake until the last layer is a cookie disk without cream (leave some cream to decorate the cake).
- 11. When you’re done, cover the top of the cake with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours or overnight.
- 12. Spread the cake with the remaining cream and sprinkle with the crumbs. Decorate as you like. Enjoy!
- 13. Note: I found one more recipe on YouTube that our family really loved. Attached it for you as well, if you would like to try it.
Recipe Directions
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Azariah Mathews
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