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Honey Cake

submitted by sarahjane on Oct-4-05

average rating: 4.0 (from 1 votes)
(this recipe is good for dessert)
servings: (not specified)

Now that I'm a nice Jewish wife, I decided to try my hand at making honey cake, which is traditional at Rosh Hoshannah. My friend Cheryl at work warned me that honey cake is tricky - and indeed, when it came out of the oven I found that it had sunk in the middle. However, when I brought it to the family dinner it was a big hit among all the guests and I was very pleased - after all, they should know from honey cake! So I guess appearances don't always matter.

According to Claudia Roden, whose recipe this is, it should be made at least 3 days before you want to eat it, and it keeps a long time.

One last thing: this is a British recipe, which measures by weight, so you will need a scale.

2 eggs
200 g (7 oz) sugar
125 ml (4 fl oz) vegetable oil
250 g (9 oz) dark liquid honey
2 tbsp brandy
125 ml (4 fl oz) warm strong black coffee
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
grated zest of one orange
300 g (100 oz) all-purpose flour
50 g (2 oz) coarsely chopped walnuts
50 g (2 oz) chopped apricots

Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Line 2 loaf pans with parchment paper. Oil and flour.

Beat eggs with sugar until pale and creamy. Beat in oil, honey, brandy and coffee.

In another bowl, combine baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, orange zest, and flour. Stir in walnuts and apricots.

Add gradually to egg and honey mixture, until fully combined.

Pour batter into pans and bake about 1 hour, or until firm and brown on top and sides are pulling away from the pan.

steveandsarah, Oct-5-08 19:46:29:
rating:

This was delicious and worked despite my oven conking out half way through. It may have been a little stickier than it was supposed to be (or maybe not; it is _honey_ cake, after all), but I liked it that way.

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