What would you say is the most important feature in a fresh apple? The shine of its skin? The snap when you bite in? Or the flavor that lingers?

Öland’s Skördefest harvest festival brings together 250,000 visitors each September to celebrate local food, art, and community. Farmers sell produce, restaurants serve traditional dishes like kroppkakor and lufsa, artists showcase their work, and the island honors its heritage with events such as the Golden Pumpkin award.

Enter medovik: a delicate, multi-layered honey cake with roots across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Once hailed as “Russia’s most famous dessert,” medovik is finding a new place on American holiday tables thanks to chefs and bakers who celebrate its deep honey flavor and elegant form. From San Francisco’s famed 20th Century Café to New York’s beloved Breads Bakery, this cake’s journey reveals how food traditions evolve, adapt, and sweeten new generations of celebration.