Is there any popular cake typical for Czech cafés? Of course, it is! Its name is Medovník, a layered honey cake with caramel cream filling. The cake with a unique taste is incredibly moist, absolutely delicious, and tends to be the first sweet choice Czechs order with their coffee. Bake Medovnik at home according to this original Czech recipe. It is surprisingly easy to make!
➜ What is Medovnik
Medovník is a Czech cake made of thin layers of honey batter. After spreading caramel frosting on each layer of cake, the layers are then stacked. The honey cake is simply decorated with crushed dough crumbs mixed with ground walnuts.
Before you cut into the cake, you have to test your mettle: the cake needs a night's rest in the fridge to allow all the layers to blend beautifully.
Bake the Medovník cake either round and then cut it into wedges, or rectangular while you cut the slices out of it.
In the Czech Republic, we know Medovnik cake most often under the brand name Marlenka.
MY TIP: Try kolache, another Czech classic!
➜ Ingredients
Honey cake disks ingredients:
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Unsalted butter
- Honey
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
TIP: If you want a dark cake, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the batter.
Frosting:
- Condensed sweetened milk, in Czech Salko
- Unsalted butter; softened at room temperature – an important key for success!
Don't be confused by the similarity to the Russian honey cake; Czech Medovnik does not use any sour cream or heavy cream in the filling.
- Next, prepare shelled walnuts.
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
➜ Instructions with photos
STEP 1: Caramelize the condensed milk: The day before, boil the sweet condensed milk in water, and let it bubble on low heat, completely covered with water, for 2 hours. After cooking, leave it to cool, ideally overnight. Never open it warm, otherwise you risk getting burnt.
TIP: A famous dulce de leche cream is similarly prepared! If you want to save time, you can skip this step by buying already caramelized condensed milk.
STEP 2: Take the butter out of the fridge in time for it to soften nicely. If you forget or the butter is still stiff, let it soften briefly in the microwave (30 seconds should be enough). Beat the softened butter with the caramelized condensed milk until smooth. Use an electric hand mixer at a lower speed. Leave aside on the kitchen counter.
STEP 3: Make cake batter in a double boiler: Put about 1 inch of water in a pot and bring them to a boil. Place a smaller pot on top of the pot so that the bottom does not touch the boiling water. Once the smaller pot is warmed up, turn down the heat. Put the butter, honey, eggs, and sugar in the smaller pot. With an electric mixer on low speed or a hand whisk, beat until the butter melts and everything combines into a smooth honey mixture. This takes anything between 5 and 10 minutes.
STEP 4: Stir the flour and baking soda in a bowl and add the warm honey mixture. Mix by hand or briefly with an electric mixer until you have a semi-liquid batter.
STEP 5: Grease the baking sheet with a little fat and stick parchment paper on the greased surface. Place a 9 inches (22 cm) diameter plate on the paper and trace around it with a pencil.
STEP 6: Using a pastry scraper, spread the batter in a thin layer in the area of the marked circle. Spread the batter slightly beyond the marked line. You will later cut the cake layer according to the plate, crumble the edges and use them to decorate the cake.
Continue in this way five times, so you get five cake layers.
STEP 7: Bake each cake layer for 6 minutes in a preheated oven at 340°F (170°C). Allow to cool briefly and then carefully remove from the paper so that the pancake does not tear. Do not stack the pancakes, they would stick together!
STEP 8: Trim each of the cooled cake layers to the shape of the plate to get equal pieces. Crumble the cut edges and mix with the walnuts you have ground in the grinder.
TIP: If you have a food processor, use it to crumble the baked edges and chop the nuts.
STEP 9: Spread each sweet honey layer with caramel frosting and sit the next one on top. Continue until you have used all the layers. Finally, spread the sides and top with the rest of the cream and sprinkle the top of the cake, including the sides, with nut crumbs.
STEP 10: Place the assembled Medovnik honey cake in the refrigerator and let rest overnight. The cake is beautifully soft, firm, and perfect for slicing the next day.
➜ How to twist the Medovnik recipe
You may have noticed that the two layers on the cake cut are darker. This is because when I assembled the cake, I brushed the two cake layers (second and fourth) with strong coffee mixed with rum.
I needed about half a cup of coffee and five tablespoons of rum. I used a pastry brush to smear this enhanced coffee on the baked cake layer, which soaked up the coffee immediately.
➜ Useful tips
- The cake is about 3 inches (7 cm) high, I would say just right, it's not a flat cake.
- I used a plate with a diameter of 9 inches (22 cm) to cut a perfect circle for each layer. If you use a smaller one, you will have an extra cake layer and a taller cake, but again you may have a problem with the frosting, which will not be enough to cover the whole cake.
- If you have a lot of nut crumbs, feel free to lightly sprinkle them over the layers as well. This means spreading the cake with the frosting and sprinkling the crumbs on top. Each layer can take one or two tablespoons of crumbs.
Bake Medovnik as a delicious treat for a special occasion. Share a piece of cake with your friends and enjoy the woot effect!
➜ Frequently asked questions
Place the finished gingerbread in the refrigerator and let it rest overnight until the next day. This is just enough time for the flavors to blend, the cake to firm up, and the frosting to seep into all of its layers. Already by the next day, the honey cake will be easy to cut and taste luxurious.
Place the cake on a mat or cutting board and store it in the fridge. Cover with plastic wrap or foil to prevent Medovnik from drying out.
Czech honey cake will last about a week if you keep it cool in the fridge. So it's an ideal ahead cake if you want to save yourself time!
More delicious recipes:
- Fruit bread (Czech Biskupsky chlebicek)
- Easter lamb cake
- Apple strudel
Tried this recipe?
Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Medovnik Czech Honey Cake
Ingredients
Honey cake layers:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- 2 and ¼ stick unsalted butter (250 g)
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Caramel cream filling:
- 1 sweetened condensed milk (14 ounces / 400 g)
- 2 and ¼ stick unsalted butter (250 g) softened at room temperature
Misc.:
- ½ cup walnut shelled
Instructions
- Caramelize the condensed milk: The day before, boil the sweet condensed milk in water and let it bubble on low heat, completely covered with water, for 2 hours. After cooking, leave it to cool, ideally overnight. Never open it warm, otherwise, you risk getting burnt.
- Take the butter out of the fridge in time to soften nicely. If you forget or the butter is still stiff, let it soften briefly in the microwave (30 seconds should be enough). Beat the softened butter with the caramelized condensed milk until smooth. Use an electric hand mixer at a lower speed. Leave aside on the kitchen counter.
- Make cake batter in a double boiler: Put about 1 inch of water in a pot and bring them to a boil. Place a smaller pot on top of the pot so that the bottom does not touch the boiling water. Once the smaller pot is warmed up, turn down the heat. Put the butter, honey, eggs, and sugar in the smaller pot. With an electric mixer on low speed or a hand whisk, beat until the butter melts, and everything combines into a smooth honey mixture. This takes anything between 5 and 10 minutes.
- Stir the flour and baking soda in a bowl and add the warm honey mixture. Mix by hand or briefly with an electric mixer until you have a semi-liquid batter.
- Grease the baking sheet with a little fat and stick parchment paper on the greased surface. Place a 9 inches (22 cm) diameter plate on the paper and trace around it with a pencil.
- Using a pastry scraper, spread the batter in a thin layer in the area of the marked circle. Spread the batter slightly beyond the marked line. You will later cut the cake layer according to the plate, crumble the edges and use them to decorate the cake.
- Continue in this way five times, so you get five cake layers.
- Bake each cake layer for 6 minutes in a preheated oven at 340°F (170°C). Allow to cool briefly and then carefully remove from the paper so that the pancake does not tear. Do not stack the pancakes, they would stick together!
- Trim each of the cooled cake layers to the shape of the plate to get equal pieces. Crumble the cut edges and mix with the walnuts you have ground in the grinder.
- Spread each sweet honey layer with caramel frosting and sit the next one on top. Continue until you have used all the layers. Finally, spread the sides and top with the rest of the cream and sprinkle the top of the cake, including the sides, with nut crumbs.
- Place the assembled Medovnik honey cake in the refrigerator and let rest overnight. The cake is beautifully soft, firm, and perfect for slicing the next day.
Notes
- Makes 12 slices.
- The cake is about 3 inches (7 cm) high; I would say just right. It's not a flat cake!
- I used a plate with a diameter of 9 inches (22 cm) to cut a perfect circle for each layer. If you use a smaller one, you will have an extra cake layer and a taller cake, but again you may have a problem with the frosting, which will not be enough to cover the whole cake.
- If you have a lot of nut crumbs, feel free to sprinkle them over the layers as well lightly. This means spreading the cake with the frosting and sprinkling the crumbs on top. Each layer can take one or two tablespoons of crumbs.
- Let the honey cake rest overnight in the refrigerator before serving. Refrigerate covered with plastic wrap. Well stored as described it lasts about a week.
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Mary
The cake was easy to make, and your instructions where easy to follow and well done. My husband loves the taste and texture. I will definitely make this again. Thank you
Petra Kupská
Thank you, Mary, for your nice feedback! Glad to hear the honey cake was a success with your husband.
Pamela Kotval
I’m a fan of your recipes! I baked this cake for a family birthday. Everyone liked it! I used five 9” round cake pans with 3/4 cup batter each. Also used a 15 oz. can of Dulce de Leche for the filling.