✔ Updated · 38 desserts grouped by type, with a most-popular table
Russian desserts lean on honey, farmer's cheese, sour cream, apples and berries, from towering layer cakes to simple tea-time treats. I could happily work my way through every one, so here are 38 traditional favorites, grouped by type.
The most famous Russian desserts are medovik (honey layer cake), Napoleon cake, ptichye moloko (bird's milk cake), syrniki (farmer's cheese pancakes), blini, sharlotka (apple cake), pryaniki (spiced honey cookies), zefir and pastila. For Easter, Russians make kulich and paskha. Many classics, like kartoshka and chocolate salami, are no-bake treats built on cookies, cocoa and condensed milk.
- Most famous cake: medovik, the layered honey cake.
- Easiest to make: syrniki, sharlotka and chocolate salami.
- Easter: kulich bread with paskha cheese dessert.
- Tea-time sweets: pryaniki, zefir, pastila and varenye.
Cakes and Tortes
Russian layer cakes are famous for thin layers soaked with sour cream, custard or condensed-milk cream, then left to rest overnight so they turn soft and sliceable.
1. Medovik (Honey Cake)
Eight or more thin honey-flavored sponge layers stacked with sweetened sour cream, rested overnight until tender and finished with honey-cake crumbs.
2. Tort Napoleon (Napoleon Cake)
Many crisp puff pastry layers filled with vanilla custard or pastry cream, covered in pastry crumbs. A fixture at Russian birthdays and New Year.
3. Ptichye Moloko (Bird's Milk Cake)
A thin sponge base topped with a tall, airy agar-set souffle and a layer of glossy chocolate glaze; created in a Moscow restaurant in 1978.
4. Praga Cake (Prague Cake)
A Soviet-era chocolate layer cake with cocoa sponge, rich chocolate buttercream, apricot jam and a dark chocolate glaze, named after Moscow's Praga restaurant.
5. Sharlotka (Apple Cake)
The everyday Russian apple cake: tart apple chunks folded into a simple, fluffy egg-and-sugar batter and baked in one pan.
6. Smetannik (Sour Cream Cake)
Soft sponge layers made with sour cream and filled with a lightly sweet sour cream frosting; a homey cousin of medovik.
7. Muraveynik (Anthill Cake)
A no-oven cake of crumbled cookie dough pieces bound with condensed-milk caramel and walnuts, shaped into a mound like an anthill.
8. Grafskie Razvaliny (Count's Ruins)
A tall, rustic pile of sour cream sponge or meringue pieces layered with cream and drizzled with chocolate.
9. Zebra Cake
A popular Soviet home cake made by spooning alternating vanilla and cocoa batter into the pan, which bakes into zebra-like stripes.
10. Kartoshka (Potato Cake)
Not potato at all: crushed cookies or cake crumbs mixed with butter, condensed milk and cocoa, shaped into potato-like ovals.
Holiday Desserts
Russian Orthodox Easter and Christmas have their own traditional sweets, and many families make them only once a year.
11. Kulich (Easter Bread)
A tall, rich yeast bread with raisins and candied fruit, topped with white icing and sprinkles and blessed at church before Easter.
12. Paskha (Easter Cheese Dessert)
A no-bake pyramid of sweetened tvorog (farmer's cheese), butter, cream and dried fruit, pressed in a mold and served with kulich.
13. Kutia (Sweet Wheat Berry Porridge)
Cooked wheat berries or rice with honey, poppy seeds, nuts and dried fruit, served on Orthodox Christmas Eve.
Pancakes and Fried Sweets
Pancakes, fritters and doughnuts are everyday Russian treats, usually served warm with sour cream, jam, honey or condensed milk.
14. Blini (Russian Crepes)
Thin yeasted or plain crepes served stacked or rolled around sweet tvorog, jam or condensed milk; the star of the Maslenitsa festival.
15. Syrniki (Farmer's Cheese Pancakes)
Small, thick pancakes made from tvorog, egg and a little flour, pan-fried golden and served with sour cream and berries.
16. Oladyi (Small Fluffy Pancakes)
Thick, puffy little pancakes made with kefir or yogurt, often with grated apple, served with sour cream or jam.
17. Ponchiki and Pyshki (Russian Doughnuts)
Hole-in-the-middle or round yeast doughnuts fried until golden and showered with powdered sugar; pyshki are a St. Petersburg classic.
18. Khvorost (Angel Wings)
Thin strips of dough twisted into bows, deep-fried until crisp and blistered, and dusted heavily with powdered sugar.
19. Chak-Chak
A Tatar celebration sweet of small fried dough pieces bound together in a mound with hot honey syrup.
Pastries and Cookies
These are tea-time bakes: yeasted buns, filled pastries and spiced cookies found in every Russian bakery.
20. Vatrushka (Cheese Buns)
Round, open-faced yeast buns with a sweet tvorog filling in the center, sometimes with raisins, baked until golden.
21. Sweet Pirozhki
Small baked or fried hand pies with sweet fillings like apple, cherry, apricot jam or sweet tvorog.
22. Sochniki
Half-moon shortcrust pastries folded over a sweet farmer's cheese filling, with the filling peeking out of the edge.
23. Sweet Pirog (Berry Pie)
A large open or lattice-topped Russian pie with a yeast or shortcrust base and fillings like lingonberry, cherry, apple or plum.
24. Pryaniki (Spiced Honey Cookies)
Dense honey-and-spice cookies with a sugar glaze; the famous Tula pryanik is a large stamped slab filled with jam.
25. Rogaliki (Crescent Cookies)
Rolled crescent cookies made with a sour cream or yeast dough and filled with jam, nuts or poppy seeds.
Candy and Confections
Many Russian confections date back centuries, while others became favorites during the Soviet era.
26. Pastila
A light, airy fruit confection from Kolomna and Belyov made from baked, whipped apple puree with egg whites, dried in thin layers.
27. Zefir (Russian Marshmallow)
Soft, meringue-like swirls made from fruit puree (usually apple), sugar, egg white and pectin or agar; sometimes dipped in chocolate.
28. Chocolate Salami (Shokoladnaya Kolbasa)
Crushed cookies and nuts mixed with cocoa, butter and sugar, rolled into a log, chilled and sliced to look like salami.
29. Iriski (Russian Toffee)
Chewy milk toffees made by slowly cooking condensed milk, butter and sugar until thick and caramel-colored.
30. Sunflower Halva
A crumbly, sweet slab made from ground roasted sunflower seeds and sugar; the most common halva in Russia.
31. Glazed Syrok
A small bar of sweetened tvorog coated in chocolate glaze and sold chilled; a beloved Soviet snack still found in every store.
Spoon Desserts and Puddings
Simple puddings, porridges and preserves round out the Russian dessert table, often served with tea.
32. Kissel
A thick fruit or berry drink-pudding thickened with potato starch, served warm or cold, from pourable to spoonable.
33. Guriev Kasha
A rich baked semolina porridge layered with caramelized milk skins, nuts, dried fruit and jam, named after a 19th-century count.
34. Tvorozhnaya Zapekanka (Farmer's Cheese Bake)
A baked farmer's cheese casserole with eggs, semolina and raisins, like a light crustless cheesecake; served with sour cream or jam.
35. Kogel-Mogel
Egg yolks whipped with sugar until thick and pale, eaten with a spoon. Use pasteurized eggs, since the yolks are not cooked.
36. Baked Apples (Pechenye Yabloki)
Whole apples cored and filled with honey, nuts and raisins or tvorog, baked until soft and served warm.
37. Plombir Ice Cream
Rich, high-fat vanilla ice cream famous from the Soviet era, sold in waffle cups and still a summer favorite.
38. Varenye (Fruit Preserves)
Whole-berry or fruit preserves in light syrup, served in small dishes with tea or spooned over blini and syrniki.
Most Popular Russian Desserts
If you only try a few, start with these. Times are approximate and don't include chilling or resting.
| Dessert | What it is | Difficulty | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syrniki | Farmer's cheese pancakes | Easy | 30 minutes |
| Blini | Thin Russian crepes | Easy | 40 minutes |
| Sharlotka | One-pan apple cake | Easy | 1 hour |
| Kartoshka | No-bake cookie-crumb truffles | Easy | 20 minutes + chilling |
| Chocolate salami | No-bake cocoa and cookie log | Easy | 20 minutes + chilling |
| Medovik | Honey layer cake | Medium | 2 hours + overnight rest |
| Napoleon | Puff pastry and custard cake | Medium | 2 hours + overnight rest |
| Ptichye moloko | Souffle cake with chocolate glaze | Advanced | 2 hours + setting |
Russian Desserts by Occasion
- Easter: kulich and paskha, served together after the Easter service.
- Orthodox Christmas Eve (January 6): kutia.
- Maslenitsa (Butter Week, before Lent): stacks of blini with sour cream, jam, honey and caviar.
- Birthdays and New Year: Napoleon, medovik, Praga and bird's milk cake.
- Everyday tea time: pryaniki, zefir, pastila, varenye, vatrushki and rogaliki.
Key Ingredients in Russian Desserts
A handful of ingredients show up again and again, and most are easy to find in the US:
- Tvorog: a fresh, tangy farmer's cheese. Use farmer's cheese, or drained small-curd cottage cheese pressed until dry. I wrap the cottage cheese in a clean dish towel and squeeze it over the sink.
- Smetana: a rich, slightly thinner sour cream. Full-fat sour cream works in cakes and as a topping.
- Sweetened condensed milk: the base of many Soviet-era creams, candies and no-bake cakes.
- Honey: used in medovik, pryaniki and chak-chak.
- Apples, sour cherries and berries: lingonberries, black currants and cranberries are traditional.
More Desserts From Around the World
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most popular dessert in Russia?
Medovik, a layered honey cake filled with sweetened sour cream, is often called the most popular Russian dessert. Napoleon cake and bird's milk cake are close rivals for celebrations, while syrniki, blini and sharlotka are the everyday favorites made in most home kitchens.
What is a traditional Russian dessert?
Traditional Russian desserts include medovik honey cake, Napoleon cake, blini, syrniki, sharlotka apple cake, pryaniki spice cookies, pastila, zefir, kissel and kulich Easter bread. They rely on honey, tvorog farmer's cheese, sour cream, apples, berries and, from the Soviet era, sweetened condensed milk.
What desserts do Russians eat at Easter?
Russian Orthodox Easter is celebrated with kulich, a tall sweet yeast bread with raisins and white icing, and paskha, a pressed pyramid of sweetened farmer's cheese, butter and dried fruit. Both are often blessed at church on Holy Saturday and eaten with dyed eggs.
What is bird's milk cake?
Bird's milk cake, or ptichye moloko, is a Russian cake with a thin sponge base, a tall, airy souffle set with agar, and a chocolate glaze. It was created at Moscow's Praga restaurant in 1978. The name comes from an old expression for something impossibly rare and delicious.
What is tvorog and what can I use instead?
Tvorog is a fresh, tangy curd cheese used in syrniki, vatrushki, paskha and zapekanka. In the US, I use farmer's cheese, or small-curd cottage cheese drained and pressed until dry. Ricotta works in a pinch but is wetter, so add a little extra flour or semolina.
