Honey Cake Recipe
If you read my previous recipe for Coconut Curry Tomato Soup, you will know that each week at my house, we choose a theme and consume different kinds of foods based on that theme. This week’s theme is Freezer Fun (Hopefully, you just read that in your best Ira Glass impression).
We have set ourselves the task of eating all of those stored-up frozen leftovers that we promised we would eat one day. Even though I know the question on all of your minds has been, “What, oh what, is in Matt's freezer?,” I will spare you the play-by-play of reheated bean stew.
Instead, I will share a recipe I found that officially uses the strangest ingredients to make the most wonderful of foods. I know it says cake, but instead of cake read "delicious breakfast bread."
That’s right, eat cake for breakfast. Make this on Sunday, and you will be able to rest easy knowing you are saving yourself four bucks a day on pastries from the coffee shop down the street.
This is best made in a bundt pan or three loaf pans, but don’t sweat it if you don’t have them, and just use whatever you have. Feel free to halve the recipe if three loaves of honey cake seems like a bit much. If you are making this for a party, it is super pretty with a little bit of sifted powdered sugar on top.
Honey Cake
Adapted from Marcy Goldman’s A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup honey
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup warm coffee or strong tea
- ½ cup fresh orange juice
- ¼ cup rye or whiskey (optional, but highly recommended
- ½ cup slivered or sliced almonds (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well (this just means a hole to the bottom of the bowl) in the center, and add oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, orange juice and rye or whiskey. (Tip: Measure your oil before the honey, then it will be easier to get all of the honey out.)
Using a strong wire whisk or an electric mixer on slow speed, stir together well to make a thick, well-blended batter. Be sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom.
Spoon batter into prepared pan(s). Sprinkle top of cake(s) evenly with almonds, if you want them. Place cake pan(s) on a baking sheet, or two stacked together if you have them. This helps the cakes bake properly, with the bottom baking faster than the cake’s interior and top.
Bake until cake tests done, by the foolproof method of sticking a toothpick or chopstick into it and making sure it comes out clean rather than goopy. Cooking times are as follows: Bundt cake pans will take 60 to 75 minutes; loaf cakes about 45 to 55 minutes; and sheet-style cakes about 40 to 45 minutes.
Let stand for 15 minutes before removing from pan, then enjoy!
