Miodownik (Slavic layered honey cake)

Tags: Polish, cake, honey
Created: 2025/12/22
Edited: 2025/12/22
There are many different versions of this cake. Here's one, which I think is a bit closer to the Russian style. It plays up the buckwheat and sour cream flavours. It's not the heavily creamed Polish sort.
. Serves ?. 12 steps
150g sugar   melt over low heat, about 10 minutes Rest dough 10 minutes. Knead for a few minutes. Divide into 8 pieces. Roll each piece out to cover a disk of diameter 21cm; this is easiest between two sheets of parchment paper. Bake at 170°C in a convection oven for just over 5 minutes or until golden. Trim immediately to the circle, e.g. by cutting around the rim of a plate. Leave to cool. Keep the trimmings for decoration (and don't let your mother eat them). Layer the pastry circles with filling in between, and add jam to a middle layer. Wrap well and leave overnight. For decoration, whip some cream to coat the cake, then decorate the sides with crumbed trimmed pastry.
120g honey
85g butter
2 eggs lightly beat   stir in
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda   remove from heat, mix in quickly
350g flour sift   combine
filling
1/4 cup cherry jam
400g smietana   Heat in a double boiler, above the level of the water, for 90 minutes. Stir every 10 minutes. After 90 minutes, cool to room temperature.
110g sugar
90g butter softened   Mix well until combined.
Use a dark honey such as buckwheat or chestnut. Buckwheat honey smells powerfully of buckwheat… Use Polish Wroclawska flour. Smietana is an 18% fat sour cream, available in Polish shops, and sour cream is not a suitable substitute.
The pastry and filling should be left to mellow at least 1 full day, and up to 3 days.
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