Honey cake that almost wasn’t

Rosh Hashana without honey cake is like Hamlet without Hamlet.

The Jewish New Year is next week and this will be on the table. You don’t have to be Jewish to love it and it has a lot going for it; it’s Marcy Goldman’s Definitive Moist and Majestic Honey Cake and it lives up to its name. It’s from her book, A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking.

My squeeze has no particular family recipe for honey cake, having grown up in a non-observant home, and I’m a gentile with no history here so we’ve tried a few over the years and this won for flavor, lightness and definitely moistness; many honey cakes are so dry. For that reason I do not use egg substitutes because they can be very drying, consisting as they do primarily of whites. Besides, it’s a holiday, and a very important one. Live a little.

Goldman gives several pan options. If you go the Bundt route there will be enough batter left from a 10-cup pan, like the rose pan I used, to fill one round cake pan. A 12-cup should handle it all. This is a perfect cake for beginners because it’s quite forgiving. I’m proof of that; it forgave me twice. And it was all because I rushed and wasn’t paying attention.

I was filling the pan, talking and not even thinking about cup capacity — I’ve made it as two loaves in the past — and the leaveners were already working.

“This might overflow in the oven,” I said.
“So take some out,” he said. “You want a small pan?”
“Nah. It’ll be fine. Probably. Maybe.”

He rolled his eyes and left the kitchen. I filled it to within an inch of the top — I know not to do that but I did — popped it into the oven, looked at that extra “waste not, want not” batter, decided to bake it after all and put it on the bottom rack. I checked on them about ten minutes later. Batter from the Bundt pan was like lava and dripping onto the bottom pan. I think I cursed a little as I moved the pan up to the middle rack and slid a cookie sheet onto the bottom rack to catch the continuing ooze. Blobs of batter on the oven floor were beginning to scorch.

Soon I took the small cake out to cool, went back several minutes later to check on the Bundt. It was no longer oozing so I left the kitchen happy. Well, as happy as I could be under the circumstances. About a half hour later Mr. Knife Skills went to the kitchen to nibble the little cake and called, “Are you counting on the light bulb to bake the cake?” Seems when last I checked it I turned off the oven. Instead of the oven light. Oy. Touchpads.

The half-baked cake was the consistency of what I imagine quicksand to be, but I figured why not turn it back on and see what happens. When done, it needed some edge-trimming (lava), but it’s fine and structurally sound. The deliberate shine is from having coated the inside of the pan with sugar after I sprayed it and so is some of the granular appearance of the crust in places, although half an hour in a turned-off oven is partly responsible too. So is photo magnification; you can see the smoothness of the crust on top, farthest from the lens. The one whose opinion counts most thinks it’s still fit for royalty. Majestic. And as The Poet said, All’s well that ends well.

Moist and Majestic Honey Cake

Adapted from Marcy Goldman

3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour — 465g
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup vegetable oil — 215g
1 cup honey — 336g
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar — 315g
1/2 cup  brown sugar — 100g
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup warm coffee or strong tea or Coca-Cola
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup rye or whiskey (or substitute orange juice or coffee)
1/2 cup slivered almonds [I omitted these. Thank heavens!]

This cake is best baked in a 9-inch angel food cake pan, but you can also make it in a 9- or 10-inch tube or Bundt pan, a 9-by-13-inch sheet cake, or two 5-inch loaf pans.

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350F/180C/Gas 4. Lightly grease pans or line with parchment.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda,salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well in the center, add the remaining ingredients except the almonds and stir well until you have a thick batter. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to make sure everything is blended.

Spoon into prepared pan(s) and sprinkle on almonds,if using. Bake until cake springs back lightly in the center. Allow 60 – 80 minutes for tube pans, 45 – 55 for loaf pans and 40 – 45 for sheet pans.

Move to a cooling rack and let cake stand for 20 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Goldman recommends baking this on a baking sheet. Had I done so, I would not have had lava everywhere.

Adapted from  Marcy Goldman   A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking (It’s a great book and I highly recommend it.)

Ella’s Notes: I used light brown “brownulated” sugar, 1 cup of coffee and 3/4 cups of orange juice. No liquor. For a slightly darker cake, use 1 1/4 cups coffee and 1/2 cup juice. If you measure the oil before the honey, the honey will slide out of the cup.

Related:

• Dilled Carrots  
• Ella’s Braised Brisket with Red Wine and Tomatoes

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Tagged as: Jewish holidays