Kyiv Cake or Kiev Cake: Why the Spelling Matters

People search for this cake in two ways. Some type Kyiv cake. Others type Kiev cake, often because that is how it was written on every menu, recipe and box they saw before about 2019. Both are looking for the same thing, and our product page uses both so that nobody misses it.

But the two spellings are not equivalent, and the difference is worth understanding, especially if you are ordering for somebody from Kyiv.

Where the two spellings come from

Kiev is a transliteration of the Russian name of the city, Киев. Kyiv is a transliteration of the Ukrainian name, Київ, using the official Ukrainian system of romanisation.

For most of the twentieth century, English took its spellings of Ukrainian places from Russian, because that was the language of the Soviet state and of most of the maps, documents and diplomats that reached the West. So the city was Kiev in English, and so was the cake, the chicken dish and everything else named after it.

Ukraine adopted Kyiv as the official Latin spelling after independence. For a long time English simply carried on with the old form.

What changed

In 2018 the Ukrainian government launched a campaign, under the name KyivNotKiev, asking international organisations, airports and media to use the Ukrainian spelling. Over the following year most major English language news organisations made the change, and so did many governments and airlines.

Since 2022 the shift has become close to universal in Britain. Several supermarkets relabelled their chicken kievs, newspapers that had held out changed, and for a great many people the Russian spelling now reads as a political statement rather than a neutral one.

That is why we call the cake Kyiv cake. The older spelling is still on the page because people search for it, and somebody typing Kiev cake is not being careless. They are usually typing the name they grew up with.

The cake under either name

In Ukrainian it is Kyivskyi tort, the Kyiv torte. It was created in Kyiv in the 1950s, at the city's confectionery factory, and for decades it was the cake you brought back from Kyiv: a round box, often carried on the train on somebody's knees, opened at the other end of the journey for the whole family.

The usual story of its invention is that a batch of egg whites was left out overnight by mistake, and the confectioners, rather than throw them away, baked them into meringue layers with nuts and sandwiched them with cream. Like most stories of happy accidents, it is told more often than it is proved.

What is certain is the structure. Two crisp layers of meringue baked with nuts, traditionally hazelnuts or cashews, set against buttercream and a light chocolate note. The meringue is baked low and long until it is dry and crunchy, and it stays crunchy, which makes the cake quite unlike anything soft and creamy.

How to write it, if you are writing it

If you are ordering the cake with a message in chocolate, or writing a card, Kyiv is the spelling to use. If the cake is for somebody from Kyiv, it is the spelling they will notice. In Ukrainian the city is Київ and the cake Київський торт, and a Ukrainian speaker will usually say the name of the cake simply as Kyivskyi.

In conversation, plenty of people of every background still say Kiev out of habit, the same way people still say Bombay or Peking. It is rarely meant as anything. But in writing, and especially on something given as a present, the choice is read, and the current spelling is the kind one.

What it tastes like

Crunch first, then cream, then nut. The meringue cracks rather than chews. The buttercream is rich and the chocolate is there as an accent rather than the main flavour. It is sweet, sweeter than a medovik, and it is a cake for small slices.

It is also, quite clearly, a celebration cake. It was made for birthdays, anniversaries and the end of term, and it looks it.

Kyiv Cake (18 cm)Kyiv cake, also spelled Kiev cake. Hazelnut meringue layers, buttercream and chocolate, 18 cm.£84Order this

Why it needs more notice

The meringue is the slow part. It has to be baked at a low temperature for a long time and then left to dry completely, because any moisture left in it turns chewy once it meets the cream. Rushing it produces a soft, sticky cake that is not a Kyiv cake.

So we ask for sixty hours notice rather than the forty eight that most of our cakes need. If the date is close, please check the calendar at checkout, which shows what is still possible.

An allergy note

The Kyiv cake contains nuts. It also contains gluten, eggs, milk and soya, according to its allergen list. It is not a cake to order for a table with a nut allergy, and if that is the situation, the honey cake or the Napoleon are the usual alternatives.

Honey Cakefrom £76Napoleon Cake (18cm)£86

Common questions

Is it Kyiv cake or Kiev cake?

The same cake. Kyiv is the Ukrainian spelling of the city, and the one now standard in English. Kiev is the older spelling, taken from Russian.

Where does the Kyiv cake come from?

From Kyiv, where it was created at the city's confectionery factory in the 1950s.

Does Kyiv cake contain nuts?

Yes. The meringue layers are baked with hazelnuts. It also contains gluten, eggs, milk and soya.

Why does a Kyiv cake need sixty hours notice?

The nut meringue layers have to be baked slowly and dried completely before the cake is assembled.

How many does it serve?

Ours is 18 cm and serves six to eight. It is rich, so smaller slices go further.

Ordering in London

The Kyiv cake is £84, made to order in our Belgravia kitchen and delivered across London and Surrey. Sixty hours notice, a £50 minimum order, and delivery from £12 in central London, with other postcodes priced on the delivery page.