Honey Cake is the sweet treat many Jews eat on Rosh Hashanah, AKA Jewish New Year, as a symbol of hope for a sweet year to come. This honey cake recipe is deliciously moist with an alluringly crisp edge.
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One day when my niece was about three years old, she declared, “I’m going to make a honey cake!”
I don’t think she had ever heard of honey cakes. But she does love honey. And I love her! So I started searching for honey cake recipes the minute I got home.
Why Do We Eat Honey CAkes duringRosh Hashanah?
The holiday celebrates the dawn of the new year according to the Hebrew calendar. It is one of the two High Holy days in Judaism (Yom Kippur is the other) and therefore one of the most important holidays.
Honey cakes are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah because honey symbolizes our hopes for sweetness in the year to come. It is also customary to eat apple slices dipped in honey on the holiday.
What does Shana Tova mean?
During Rosh Hashanah, you’ll often hear the greeting “Shana Tova umetukah!” Or simply “Shana Tova!”
It’s the Jewish version of “happy new year,” translating more specifically to mean “have a good, sweet year!”
What makes this the best honey cake recipe?
The biggest complaint people have about most Jewish honey cakes is that they are dry and lack flavor. I wanted something super moist and rich.
I searched for recipes for honey cakes that are nice and moist and found one on Smitten Kitchen. It was a recipe by Marcy Goldman’s from her cookbook A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.
If anyone knows her way around a Jewish dessert, it is Marcy Goldman. Smitten Kitchen calls Marcy’s honey cake “Crazy moist and soft and plush with a little crisp edge about the corners.”
This Honeycake recipe tastes wonderfully moist with a lovely crunchy edge. Plus it will fill your home with a delightfully sweet fragrance.
The first thing you want in a Rosh Hashana honey cake is for it to be sweet. After all, that’s the whole point, right? A sweet cake to usher in a sweet new year. This cake is sweet, and it is also:
Moist
Tender
Not too dense
Full of the flavor of honey
Crisp around the edges
Honey, of course, gives the cake its signature honey flavor and makes it plenty sweet. But this cake has other flavorful ingredients, too. Coffee and orange juice give it bitterness and tang to counter the sweetness of the honey. It really is the perfect honey cake recipe.
What ingredients do you need?
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Baking soda
Cooking oil (or soft butter)
Honey (you can use any honey you like. I love a good wildflower honey or orange blossom honey!)
Orange juice (for extra orange flavor, you can add orange zest, too!)
Marcy’s version (and Deb’s) includes cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. But I’m not crazy about a spice cake. I just want a cake that tastes like honey.
It may sound crazy, but I left all of those spices out. The result was perfect.
How do you make this easy honey cake?
You only need one bowl and a wooden spoon to mix this cake. You could, however, use a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer if you prefer. Just be careful not to overbeat it after adding the flour, as this can make a cake rubbery.
Preheat the oven and spray the baking pan(s).
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients—the oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, and orange juice—and mix thoroughly. You can also mix everything in the bowl of an electric mixer and use the whisk attachment on medium-high speed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and bake in the preheated oven. You know it is done when the cake is golden brown, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Remember those crisp edges I mentioned earlier? Before baking, I drizzle a bit of honey over the batter. It caramelizes in the oven, giving the bottom and edges of the cake extra crispiness.
The honey glaze also adds the deep, rounded flavor of caramelized honey. If you’re lucky you’ll even get a few bits of burnt honey, which is extra delicious.
My niece was delighted and proud of herself for coming up with the idea. My mother, who doesn’t even like honey cake, took home an extra-large hunk. [Breaking news: Mom called as I was writing this post, and said, “I just ate a third of the cake you sent me home with, and it is the most delicious honey cake I’ve ever had. I can’t stop eating it.”
This recipe makes a lot (us Jewish ladies worry that someone will go hungry, so we always make extra, especially for special occasions like the high holidays). You can use three 9-by-5-inch loaf pans or one 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or three 9-inch round pan, or make 36 standard cupcakes.
Alternatively, you can use a mini Bundt pan with 6 cups as well as a few different sizes of small loaf pans.
Whatever size baking pans you use, be careful not to overfill them. Each pan should only be filled about halfway.
If you are using several small pans, you can place them all on a baking sheet to make them easy to get in and out of the oven.
Smaller portions will bake faster so be sure to adjust the baking time and check early and often.
You can also bake the cake in a convection oven, but you’ll want to reduce the cooking time by about 25 percent.
If you just want less cake, you can reduce the full recipe by 1/3 or even 2/3. See my recipe notes for details on how to cut down the quantity.
The recipe uses cooking oil for its fat, which makes it kosher parve (no meat or dairy). You can substitute unsalted butter if you like.
The recipe calls for strong brewed coffee or tea. The bitterness of coffee or tea balances the sweetness of the honey. But you can substitute milk or water in the same quantity. Note that if you use milk, the recipe will not be parve.
Feel free to add a diced apple or two, sliced almonds sprinkled over the top, a tablespoon of orange zest, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or 1/4 cup of whiskey to the batter or substitute almond extract for the vanilla extract.
The texture of this cake improves when it sits for a bit. I think it is best the day after it is made. Make it ahead and let the finished cake sit, uncovered, at room temperature.
This morning I learned inadvertently that this cake, paired with a cup of coffee, makes a great breakfast. If you’re a sweets-for-breakfast person, you might want to try this Japanese Souffle Pancakes recipe, too!
If you’re looking for more cake ideas, try this Orange Sponge Cake, which is perfect for Passover, or this indulgent Chocolate Cake. Or try these amazing Instant Pot Brownies!
Round out your rosh hashanah menu
If you’re looking for more holiday recipes, I like to serve my famous Brisket with Dried Fruit and Spices for just about every Jewish holiday, including Rosh Hashanah. Roasted Beet Salad with Harrisa Dressing is a great side.
Honey Cookies, Chocolate Babka,Hamentashen, andLemon Coconut Macaroons are also perfect finishes for Jewish holiday meals.
More Jewish holiday recipes you’ll love
If you love this honey cake recipe, check out these other Jewish holiday recipes!
Honey Cake
Honey Cookies
Lemon Coconut Macaroons
Jewish Beef Brisket
Meat-Filled Borekas or Pastelicos
Passover Orange Sponge Cake
Passover Potato, Tomato, and Olive Stew
Hamentashen
Kreplach with Beef Filling
Sufganiyot or Jelly Donuts for Hanukkah
Potato Latkes for Hanukkah
Classic Chopped Liver
Vegetarian Chopped Liver
Check out all of my Jewish Recipes!
Yield: Serves 24
Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake
No spices, no distraction, just a simple, moist, delicious honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, or any time of year. Adapted from Marcy Goldman’s A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking. This recipe makes a lot of cake. You can use either three 9-by-5-inch loaf pans, one 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or any equivalent-sized pans.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Total Time1 hour15 minutes
Ingredients
3½ cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
1 cup (237 ml) vegetable oil
1 cup (237 ml) honey, divided
1½ cups (300 grams) sugar
½ cup (110 grams) brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (237 ml) brewed coffee or strong tea
½ cup (119 ml) orange juice
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F and generously grease the baking pan(s) with nonstick cooking spray, baking spray, or butter. (Use either three 9-by-5-inch loaf pans, one 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or any equivalent-sized pans.)
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the oil, 3/4 cup of the honey, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, and orange juice. Mix thoroughly, until all ingredients are combined and no lumps remain.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s), filling each about halfway.
Drizzle the remaining 1/4 cup of honey over the batter.
Bake in the preheated oven until the cake is set all the way through and feels springy to the touch (30 to 60 minutes, depending on the size of your baking dishes). A tester inserted into the center should come out clean.
Let cool 15 minutes before removing from the baking dish. Slide a knife around the edges to help loosen the cake, if necessary.
Notes
1. This recipe makes three 9-by-5-inch loaf pans or one 9-by-13-inch baking pan, or 36 standard cupcakes.
2. Be careful not to overfill the pans—each pan should only be filled about halfway.
3. Smaller portions will bake faster so be sure to adjust the cooking times and check early and often.
4. You can cut this recipe down. To make one 9-by-5-inch loaf or 12 cupcakes, use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1/3 cup honey (save about 1 1/2 tablespoons for drizzling over the batter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 large egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/3 cup coffee or tea, and 2 1/2 tablespoons orange juice.
5. To make 2 9-by-5-inch loaves or 24 cupcakes, use 2 1/4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 2/3 cup vegetable oil, 2/3 cup honey (save about 3 tablespoons for drizzling over the batter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla, 2/3 cup coffee or tea, and 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon orange juice.
Honey cakes are traditionally eaten on Rosh Hashanah because honey symbolizes our hopes for sweetness in the year to come. It is also customary to eat apple slices dipped in honey on the holiday.
Baking soda is used in small amount in making bread and cake. It helps to make these soft and spongy. An aqueous solution of baking soda turns red litmus blue.
How do I store the Honeycake? or in a fridge, away from strongly scented ingredients. For the longest freshness we recommend refrigerating, preferably in an air-tight container.
The extra yolks add the density and moisture you'd find in a bakery cake! Milk: Add MILK, not water, when your box mix calls for liquid. The milk adds density, fat and, most importantly, extra flavor to your mix.
Apples dipped in honey (eaten on the first night) Round challah (egg bread) dipped in honey and sprinkled with raisins. Try our delicious challah recipe. A new seasonal fruit (on the second night).
Overall, changing the number of eggs in your cake recipe can alter the properties of your cake. Too few eggs will yield a cake that is overly compact and doesn't hold together will. Too many eggs can leave you with a spongy or rubbery mess.
When it is mixed with water, the sodium hydrogen carbonate reacts with tartaric acid and carbon dioxide gas is formed as a result of this reaction. This released carbon dioxide gas is trapped in the wet dough and bubbles out slowly making the cake soft and spongy.
However, if you add too many eggs to your cake batter, then your end result could be spongy, rubbery, or dense. Like flour, eggs build structure in a cake, so they make a cake batter more bonded and dense.
Keep your cakes cool or at room temperature. Heat will cause frosting to melt and slide and it dries out the sponge. In summer, or if your kitchen is very warm, it is better to refrigerate your cakes and then allow to come up to room temperature if you plan to serve them at a later time.
So the honey cake does not dry out so much while it is stored. The cake should be stored in an airtight container and should be fine for up to 1 week. However it must be kept in a cool place as if you keep moist cakes in a warm environment then it can encourage mould to develop. The cake also freezes well.
Russian Honey Cake is a thin layer cake made with raw honey and a sour cream frosting. This honey cake recipe can be made round or rectangular for a party size! My Ukrainian husband loves this Medovik Cake Recipe and this dessert is covered in the simplest cake decoration (leftover cake crumbs!)
Foam cakes have little to no fat, and usually have a larger proportion of egg. This gives them their lighter, airy texture (think angel food and sponge cake). Butter cakes on the other hand contain butter, margarine, or vegetable shortening, giving you the dense, moist cakes we know and love.
Vegetable oil contributes moistness far more reliably, a result of the fact that oil remains liquid at room temperature while butter solidifies. Liquid contributes to the sensation of moistness, and therefore cakes made with oil often present as moister than their butter-based counterparts.
Judaism has its dietary restrictions, such as prohibited pork and shellfish. Meat and dairy can't be served at the same meal. All food must be Kosher, which is a process based upon the Torah. Rosh Hashana has some beautiful symbolism around food consumption.
Pomegranates. The second night of Rosh Hashanah (some cultures only celebrate one night) is the time to enjoy the “new fruit,” the seasonal produce you haven't had yet that year.
It's believed that centuries ago, the apple was chosen as the fruit that was to be dipped into the honey on Rosh Hashanah due to the symbolic nature of the fruit.
Think: fluffy challah, saucy brisket, and ultra-moist apple cake. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is a time to reflect on the past year—and look forward to the coming one. The holiday's celebratory meal can include favorites like yeasty challah, matzo ball soup, and apples dipped in honey.
Some maintain that this leafy green is the original symbolic food for Rosh Hashanah and that beets are a more recent development. If you'd like to feature beets on your holiday menu try roasted sweet potatoes and beets or Moroccan sweet beet salad.
Its rabbinical customs include attending synagogue services and reciting special liturgy about teshuva, as well as enjoying festive meals. Eating symbolic foods is now a tradition, such as apples dipped in honey, hoping to evoke a sweet new year.
The Hebrew word for beet is “selek,” similar to “remove.” It is eaten to express the hope that our enemies will depart. Spinach is traditionally served as it symbolizes renewal. Some maintain that this leafy green is the original symbolic food for Rosh Hashanah.
Whisk first: To absolutely ensure my eggs incorporate slowly, I whisk all my eggs together and then slowly drizzle it into the running mixer. I've found this very gradual approach really helps to create a nice emulsion. You'll find the mixture will be thick, creamy and not curdled.
Fat, in the form of solid shortening, margarine, or butter; or in the liquid form of oil contributes tenderness, moistness, and a smooth mouthfeel to baked goods. Fats enhance the flavors of other ingredients as well as contributing its own flavor, as in the case of butter.
A dry cake is usually the result of one of the following pitfalls: using the wrong ingredients, making mistakes while mixing the batter, or baking the cake too long or at too high a temperature. Once you understand how to avoid the common cake-baking blunders, you'll bake a moist cake every time.
Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.
Usually it takes anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes of beating eggs and sugar using an electric mixer to reach ribbon stage. But don't rely on time. Instead, use some key visual clues to recognize when you've succeeded: Texture: The mixture should have thickened significantly, becoming almost foam-like.
Milk in cake recipes, generally makes the texture lighter and stronger (thanks to the protein and lactic acid),. Adding the right amount keeps the cake from being dense. Milk (and other liquids) actually activates other ingredients in the cake batter like leaveners (baking soda, baking powder).
Eggs: 3 whole eggs provide structure, moisture, and richness. 2 extra egg whites keep the cake light and airy. I don't recommend using 4 whole eggs; stick to the 3 egg & 2 egg white combination. Here are recipes using leftover egg yolks.
Refrigeration dries sponge cakes out. It's that simple. Even if you refrigerate a cake in a perfectly sealed container and only for a short amount of time, it will dry out.
Ideally, make an iced cake the day to keep it fresh. Refrigerated: Your cakes will last longer in the fridge, but for an event you won't want to push it longer than about 3 days. Make sure you wrap them carefully, and take them out for an hour to return to room temperature before you serve.
A cake generally needs to be served within 3-4 days from it being baked, or it's just not very fresh. Remember if you need to bake the cake earlier, you can always bake the cake layers, freeze them, then defrost them a couple of days before you'll serve it so you'll have time to decorate it.
The most common reason why cakes sink in the middle is that they're underbaked. What is this? If a cake isn't fully baked through, the center doesn't have a chance to set and it will sink. This creates a doughy, dense texture in the center of your cake layer.
What Does Honey do in Baking? Honey is a 'humectant'. This means that it retains moisture- great news for baking as it helps keep biscuits and cake moist. Honey compared with traditional refined sugar, also means you gain a richer colour and fuller flavour.
It's that time of the year and Dracula is here with his Cherry Chocolate Cake, or Black Forest Cake. This chocolate cake is filled with layers of cherry filling and whipped cream and frosted with a delicious chocolate buttercream.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sunset Sunday night, and in symbolic hope for a sweet year to come, many American Jews will eat a slice of honey cake. But while honey cake is sentimental, it's not always beloved.
The honey here symbolizes the hope for a happy and prosperous new year. In the Midrash (the biblical commentary on the Scriptures), honey is a metaphor for the sweetness and wisdom of the Torah.
What Does Honey do in Baking? Honey is a 'humectant'. This means that it retains moisture- great news for baking as it helps keep biscuits and cake moist. Honey compared with traditional refined sugar, also means you gain a richer colour and fuller flavour.
In time, the cake cutting ceremony began. The symbolism is that the hand of the groom is placed over that of the bride's, to show his support and as a promise to take care of her and their future. The couple was encouraged to cut from the bottom tier, as a reminder of the relationship's longevity.
13 Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. 14 Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.
Instead, the bees basically act as carriers of the nectar that turns into honey later, which makes it kosher in the end. If the bees actually produced honey like a non-kosher camel produces non-kosher milk, honey wouldn't be considered kosher.
This meaning was popularized in 2015 when the artist DNCE released a song called “Cake By The Ocean.” This hit single hinted at “summertime fun” with scandalous, catchy lyrics like, “I keep on hopin' we'll eat cake by the ocean." Now, a 🎂 is a tongue-in-cheek way to talk about a hookup at the beach. “I want 🎂!
The definition of honeybun is an affectionate term meaning dear or darling. An example of honeybun is a pet name that a man may call his wife. A type of bun or pastry sweetened with honey.
Honey cake is a well known dessert made famous by the South Indian bakeries, especially iyengar bakery. This super delicious honey cake recipe is made from whole wheat flour (atta), unrefined cane sugar and uses less oil. Thus makes for a healthier option for a cake.
Introduction: My name is Dean Jakubowski Ret, I am a enthusiastic, friendly, homely, handsome, zealous, brainy, elegant person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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