The honey cake is considered the fruitcake of the kosher kitchen. That is…it is not always appreciated.
I don’t think you will feel that way about this sweet cake, though.
This honey cake is deliciously spiced with cinnamon and vanilla, sweetened with honey and brown and white sugars, and given just a wee bit of a bitter edge with orange juice. I enjoyed it to the very last bite.
This recipe is from Dobre, Dobre, a cookbook about Polish baking by Laurel Kratochvila. You can order the cookbook through your local bookstore or on Amazon here..
We’ve featured a recipe on Blue Cayenne before, so you have two interesting variations on this them to choose from. The previous honey cake recipe featured slightly different spices and a bit of whiskey. You will find that recipe here. Here is a photo of that beautiful cake.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Lekach: Extra Soft Earl Grey Honey Cake
Ingredients
- For the Cake:
- 1 1/2 C. plus 2 T. all-purpose flour
- 1 C. light rye flour
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 t. kosher salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 C. plus 1 T. strong brewed tea
- 1/2 C. plus 1 T. orange juice
- 1 t. vanilla extract
- 1/2 C. plus 1 1/2 T. sunflower oil
- 3 1/2 T. honey
- 3/4 C. granulated sugar
- 1/4 C. light brown sugar
- 3 T. sliced almonds
- For The Glaze:
- 3/4 C. plus 1 1/2 T. powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 t. honey
- 1 1/2 t. strong brewed tea
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Step 2 Prepare a loaf plan by spraying it with cooking spray and lining it with parchment paper. Let two of the sides of the parchment paper hang over the edge. The long edges will act as handles to help you remove the cake from the pan after it has been baked.
- Step 3 Combine flour, rye flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and kosher salt in a bowl. Mix. Set aside.
- Step 4 Combine eggs, tea, orange juice, vanilla, sunflower oil (I used canola), honey, granulated sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, beat until the mixture is smooth and emulsified. This will take 2 or 3 minutes. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture mixing in 1/3 of the dry ingredients at a time. Do this at a low speed and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl from time to time. You want your batter to be smooth and you don’t want any pockets of dry ingredients to be anywhere in the batter. On the other hand, you don’t want to overmix the batter.
- Step 5 Pour the batter into the loaf pan. You want to leave about one inch space at the top of the pan to allow for the cake’s rise. Sprinkle sliced almonds over the top of the batter. Bake cake for about 45 minutes at 350 degrees F. in your oven. When it is baked, the top of the cake will spring back and a skewer inserted in the cake will come out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool for about 30 minutes. Once the cake is cooled, use a knife to slide around the edges of the cake to loosen it and use the parchment handles to cleanly lift the cake out of the loaf pan.
