Honey Cake

[Swisskaese]

The Jewish New Year is approaching and I am looking for a moist honey cake recipe. I have tried a number of recipes and they are all dry. I am very careful not to overcook them; I just haven't been able to find the same moist cake that I buy at my local bakery. I would like to make my own and give them as gifts.

Edited August 26, 2004 by Swisskaese (log)

[McDuff]

I have used the Moist and Majestic Honey Cake in Jewish Holiday Baking, but I cut back a little on the leavening as it tends to sink. I've made hundreds of individuals of that recipe, one tends to do that working at a Jewish country club.

[Wendy DeBord]

I don't know if this fits your needs, but the honey cake recipe posted with the exotic orange cake is a really really nice cake.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=48772

[confiseur]

I can only echo Wendy.......however you may want to increase the honey and reduce the sugar to give a more defined taste.

[Redsugar]

A bountifully flavoured (Rosh Hashanah) Holiday Honey Cake is found on pp. 164/5 of Carole Walter's superb collection, Great Cakes.

Edited August 27, 2004 by Redsugar (log)

[afoodnut]

This is a very moist traditional style honey cake for Rosh Hashana. Make it at least a day ahead, (you can make it a few days ahead), and wrap it well with plastic wrap; it mellows and the moisture seems to deepen as it rests. (This recipe is one of those from faded, stained, pinch of this, teacup of that, recipe notes from my mother and grandmother, not a measured, scientifically tested one, so remember to take it with that grain of salt...)

For 1 loaf pan:

2 eggs

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C honey

1/4 C very strong coffee (cooled)

Juice of 1 orange (1/4 C orange juice)

3 Tbsp oil

2 C flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon (You can use any combination of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg you like; I prefer just cinnamon.)

pinch salt

Mix eggs, sugar, honey, coffee, orange juice and oil. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients to liquid ingredients; beat until the batter is completely mixed and smooth.

Bake in a greased loaf pan, (line it with parchment or waxed paper to make removing the cake easier, or you can use a disposable aluminum foil loaf pan and cut the pan away) at 325º. Start checking for done-ness after an hour, but it can take longer; the cake is done when it's firm and non jiggly.

L'shana tovah.

Edited August 27, 2004 by afoodnut (log)

[andiesenji]

I have tried many varieties of honey cake and this is the one that I like best:

Marcy Goldman's honey cake

[Pam R]

Ummm... I know I'm late for last year and early for this year... but I stumbled across this thread while looking for something else.

2 VERY Important things for great honey cakes:

- use BUCKWHEAT honey. It has the best flavor for a cake.

- add copious quantities of alcohol - rye or rum are good.

I like a recipe that calls for strong tea vs. coffee

I suppose we can take this up again in a month or 2

[cakewalk]

The Jewish New Year is approaching ...

←

It is???!!!?!?!

Well now that I've calmed down , I second the Moist and Majestic Honey Cake. It does truly live up to its name.

[Eden]

So why is it that almost all honey cake recipes have coffee or cola or tea in them? what does this add?

Sometime a while back I was looking for a plain honey cake recipe (like FWED's recipe which Wendy linked to above) and couldn't find anything sans coffee...

[ada]

Several years ago (2001) I decided that is was time to bring some honey cakes to my synagogue for the holidays. I tried several different ones, and decided that Marcy Goldman's Moist and Majestic Honey Cake was the best.

Needless to say, this is going to be the fifth year that I will bake those cakes. Each year, I make more than the year before. Our congregants, friends and neighbors love it.

[helenjp]

They really do need a while to mature and absorb moisture...honey cake is always dry after baking. As for "how long" the optimum waiting period is, I'm not sure. Anybody?

[jackal10]

Help!

I am comitted to supplying honey cake to my brother for Monday.

Is the Moist and Majestic one by from a Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking by MArcy Goldman still the one to bake?

ANy additions, substitions (coffee for whiskey, for example)?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Still the classic for me is the often mentioned "Moist and Majestic Honey Cake" in Jewish Holiday Baking .. it's a "keeper"!

Then there is this new recipe: Beekeepers Honey Cake full of various spices, dried cranberries, and walnuts ...

Apricot Honey Cake which I have made and love as well ...

[ada]

The recipe with the whiskey is the one to bake. You can use 1/2 coffee if you like. You'll be thrilled with it.

[Gifted Gourmet]

The recipe with the whiskey is the one to bake. You can use 1/2 coffee if you like. You'll be thrilled with it.

←

A lot of honeycakes have whisky in them but you can use an orange juice instead .. as for the coffee? very popular in this deep, dark cake. Some have both .. what could that hurt?

[skyflyer3]

I don't know if this is the same honey cake that people are talking about in this thread, but I recently tried some Russian honey cake this week. It was in several thin layers, with a sour cream frosting. Very tasty. Anyone had something like it?

[Gifted Gourmet]

I don't know if this is the same honey cake that people are talking about in this thread, but I recently tried some Russian honey cake this week.  It was in several thin layers, with a sour cream frosting.  Very tasty.  Anyone had something like it?

←

Was this it?

The honeycake this thread refers to is more of a loaf cake, or even a bundt honeycake, with no filling.

[skyflyer3]

I don't know if this is the same honey cake that people are talking about in this thread, but I recently tried some Russian honey cake this week.  It was in several thin layers, with a sour cream frosting.  Very tasty.  Anyone had something like it?

←

Was this it?

The honeycake this thread refers to is more of a loaf cake, or even a bundt honeycake, with no filling.

←

That is it! Thank you for pulling that up, and sorry for the confusion on my part. Although, now I'm curious to try this honey loaf cake!

[Nyleve Baar]

I just made my annual Honey Chiffon Cake yesterday. It's big, moist, delicious and pretty foolproof. Very straightforward - not too heavy on the spices, no extraneous bits and pieces like nuts or raisins. The coffee, I think, helps to add complexity and balance the sweetness a bit. If you want, you can dust the cake wit icing sugar before serving.

Honey Chiffon Cake

4 eggs

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

1-1/2 cups honey

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 cup cold coffee

Preheat the oven to 350o F.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs with the sugar until very light and creamy - about 5 minutes. Add the vegetable oil and honey and continue beating for another few minutes, until well blended.

In another bowl, stir togehter the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Add this mixture to the egg mixture in 3 or 4 additions, alternately with the coffee. Beat batter just until smooth. Pour into an UNGREASED 10-inch tube pan.

Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 325o F and bake for another 60 to 75 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and invert the pan to cool. You can either hang it over the neck of a wine bottle or just invert it on it's own little feet, if the pan has feet. Let cool completely before removing from pan.

To remove from the pan, slide the blade of a knife around the sides of the cake to loosen. Twist the tube to get the middle loose too, then lift the center part of the pan out. Slide a knife around the bottom and carefully lift the cake off the tube.

Makes one very large cake.

[Pam R]

I've tried Marcy Goldman's recipe and it's very good. I just made 6 honey cakes - and will bake another batch tomorrow. I can't remember what exactly is in her recipe calls for, but (to 3 cups flour) I prefer to use 1/2 cup oj, 1/2 cup whiskey (or rye here in Canada) and a 1/2 cup of strong tea. And use 1 cup buckwheat honey!!! That's very important Some cinnamon, ginger, allspice, salt, baking powder (2 tsp) , baking soda (1 tsp) and 3 eggs and you have a cake.

Edited October 2, 2005 by Pam R (log)

[Swisskaese]

I finally made a successful Honey Cake. I made the Moist and Majestic and I was very happy with the results.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestion.

Edited October 6, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[bloviatrix]

I made the honey cake from the Susan Purdy book The Perfect Cake. I chose the recipe because it gave the measurements by weight instead of volume. It tastes good. But it's very dry. I don't know if it's the recipe or I over-baked it.

[jaynesb]

Based on all the comments for the Marcy Goldman version, I tried it and made 2 loaves.

I did have to cook them much longer than the recipe called for but I wasn't taking chances of having a raw inside.

They were really yummy and even the people who said that they usually don't like honey cake enjoyed these. (I guess they are used to the dried out versions from bakeries and packages.)

Shanah Tovah to all and thank you to everybody who recommended the recipe.

jayne

[Pam R]

2 VERY Important things for great honey cakes:

- use BUCKWHEAT honey.  It has the best flavor for a cake.

- add copious quantities of alcohol - rye or rum are good.

I like a recipe that calls for strong tea vs. coffee

Hrm.

So like I said, buckwheat honey is good, but regular old honey works well too.

I'm curious about what type of honey everybody uses.

I still like the combo of tea/rye and oj - but was experimenting last week and switched up my recipe. Regular honey, not buckwheat and no rye. I also added some diced apple and that worked really well. This was actually one of my best honey cakes ever.

So - what kind of honey people?