Well, I've made babka that made people swoon but it is an almost cinnamon roll type thing with chocolate instead of cinnamon. I'm no help with the cake, however. Good luck!

I use to work with a girl from Russia and this is the cake she use to make for the pot lucks.

Fresh Apricot-Honey Sponge Cake (Russian Style)

INGREDIENTS

* 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for pan
* 3 tablespoons bread crumbs
* 10 fresh apricots, pitted and sliced
* 1/3 cup honey
* 3 large eggs, separated
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 cup white sugar
* 2 tablespoons milk
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 cup crushed walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease a 9-inch cake pan with butter, and dust with bread crumbs; set aside.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the sliced apricots, and drizzle with honey. Cover, and cook gently until the apricots have softened, then allow to cool to room temperature.
3. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites to soft peaks with an electric mixer. Slowly pour in sugar while continuing to beat to stiff peaks; set aside.
4. Beat the egg yolks on low speed for a few seconds until slightly thickened. Slowly pour in sugar while continuing to beat until thickened and light-colored. Beat in milk, then sift together flour with baking powder, and fold into yolks along with cooled apricot mixture, walnuts, and egg whites until combined.
5. Pour into prepared pan, and bake in the middle or bottom of the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Loosen the cake by running a knife around the edges of the pan. Invert cake onto a plate, then place another plate on the cake bottom, and flip right-side-up; cool completely before serving.
   I got the recipe from All Recipes.

Linda

Well, I'm German-Russian & my Mom made a heavy, dark cake with pumpkin. We called it, duh, "pumpkin cake". It had raisins, dried apricots, cinnamon, & was made with a sourdough starter (yeast raised). I "think" there was also some kind of booze in it. I hated anything flavored with alcoholic drinks & that included this cake she made so I don't have a recipe. :( The cake was a bit of a staple...usually one wrapped up in the garage all winter (we lived in Fresno & the garage was our extra refrigerator).

Maybe, try Googling "Russian pumpkin cake"?

Good luck! Most German-Russian stuff I loved...but not this cake. It was not frosted. It was dense; but not as heavy as what I think of when considering "fruit cake"...more bread-like & quite moist from the pumpkin.

/tricia

My first thought was medivynk - a delicious Ukranian honey cake served at Christmas at events like wedding showers. I've never made it but the recipe below sounds closest to the ones I've eaten, although I've seen it made in both a 9 X 13 pan and a 10 inch tube pan rather than loaf pans.

Here is a link that might be useful: honey cake

Being tangentally Russian, I also thought of honeycake. Here's a version from "The Enchanted Broccoli Forest" by Mollie Katzen.

Jewish New Year Honeycake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a medium sized loaf pan. Can also make in an 8 inch square cake pan.

1 cup light honey
1 large egg
3 TBLSP melted butter
1/2 cup cold black coffee (I've had British versions of this made with strong tea)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup unbleached white flour
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
A dash or two of: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice (1/8 tsp. if you have a measure for that)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Beat the honey at high speed with an electric mixer for about 5 mintues. It will become frothy, white and opaque. Add the egg, butter and coffee. Beat well.
Sift together the dry ingredints. Fold them along with half the nuts, into the first mixture. Spread into the prepared pan; sprinkle remaining nuts on top.
Bake 50-60 minute (until a probing knife comes out clean)

Traditional topping: 1 cup dried apricots and 1 cup drid prunes. Pour 2 cups boiling water over them and let them sit for about 3 hours. A fruit syrup will form. Spoon this mixture over each serving.

Or

2 cups sliced apples
2 TBLSP sweet butter
1 TBLSP lemon juice
dash cinnamon
1 TBLSP honey
Saute the apple slices in butter over low flame. Add the lemon and cinnamon and cook until the apples are soft. Remove from the heat and stir in the honey. Spoon onto honeycake.

Here's another recipe from that cookbook, but I have never made it.

Russian Coffeecake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease a 10 inch tube pan.

1 cup butter, softened
1 packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (room temp.) Lpink's note: can sub yogurt or sour cream for buttermilk
2 cups unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

Filling:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut
1/2 cut peach or apricot jam
1/2 cup sliced dried apricots
(I think you could improvise stuff you have on hand, like other dried fruits and types of nut)

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Stir in the vanilla.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, soda and salt.

Add the dry mixture and the buttermilk alternately to the butter mixture. Use a wooden spoon, and mix just enough to blend after each addition.

Place the chocolate chips and almonds in a blender jar. Whirl together at high speed for about 20-30 seconds (until pulverized but not mushy) Lpink: a food processor would be even easier. Combine with the coconut.

Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Gently spreading it until even. Spoon dollops of jam here and there onto batter (don't try to spread it, leave it in little blobs), and sprinkle on the apricots and about 2/3 of the chocolate nut mix.

Add the remaining batter, distributing it nicely. Sprinkle the top with the remaining chocolate-nut mix, and bake the cake for 50-60 minutes (until a paring knife comes out clean). Cool completely before removing from the pan.

Sounds like a pretty fancy cake!