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08/19/2002 Archived Entry: "Honey Cake"

Honey cake is Jewish gingerbread says Myra Binstock, a listener. An apt comparison. Both are spicy. Both are symbolic. The honey cake by dint of its sweetness is eaten to herald a new, sweet year. Gingerbread is shaped and baked into edible symbols. But I think the Jewish New Year’s honey cake is more like Christmas fruit cake, at least metaphorically. Jibbing its lack of popularity, the old joke about fruit cake is that there is only one in the world and it gets passed around each year. Honey cake is like that. Hardly anyone really likes it either, but you’ve gotten have one for the holidays.

“Do you have a good honey cake recipe?” has become an annual refrain on “Food Talk,” the question asked more frequently as we get closer to the cake’s raison d’être, Rosh Hashonah. Until this year, the answer was actually “No, I don’t have a good honey cake recipe.” I hate the rubbery texture of most honey cakes. I don’t especially love the typical spicing.

But I have become sick of my answer. In pursuit of the perfect honey cake (everyone is perusing perfection these days, even though we all know it is impossible to attain), I baked four of them this year. The one I would most likely bake if I was forced to bake a honey cake is from Levana Kirschenbaum’s new book, Levana’s Table. It contains a full cup of oil, which is what makes the texture finer, moister and more tender – almost like a pound cake. Most recipes contain as little as two tablespoons of oil for the same size cake, or no more than half a cup. Levana’s spicing is more aggressive and complex, too. She is Moroccan and her honey cake reflects her native cuisine’s love of lavish seasoning. The cardomom in the recipe adds an exotic aroma. The ginger adds a good peppery bite to the aftertaste.

A runner-up honey cake is a recipe from the revised edition of Joan Nathan’s Jewish Cooking in America. The same recipe appears in the original edition, but with different mixing directions. Either way, the result is closer to a typical Eastern European honey cake than Lavana’s, but not as rubbery. If you have questions or comments about Joan Nathan’s honey cake recipe (or others of hers), she invites you to e-mail her at nathan4221@aol.com. She is now working on the 25th anniversary edition of her book, Jewish Holiday Baking.

Levana Kirschenbaum’s
Honey Cake
Makes 1 10-inch tube cake

3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup honey (see note)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup very strong warm tea (2 tea bags steeped in 1 cup hot water)
1/2 cup ground almonds, optional
3 tablespoons sliced almonds (add only if using the ground almonds)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon an set aside.

In a food processor, process the eggs with the sugar, honey, and oil, just until combined. Beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the tea. Pulse 2 to 3 times after each addition, just to incorporate. Add the ground almonds, if desired.

Pour the batter into a greased 10-inch springform pan or tube pan. Top with the sliced almonds, if using. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Invert the cake onto a rack to cool. Turn right side up to serve.

Note: If you measure the oil for the recipe first, then use the same measuring cup to measure the honey, the honey will slide out easily.

Oregon’s Kosher Maven’s Honey Cake
Makes 1 10-inch tube cake

In Portland, Oregon, a city settled by German-Jewish tradesmen and shopkeepers in the 1840s, one woman is still remembered for her great kosher cooking. The late Runi Hyman used to provide kosher meals for transients and hungry Portlanders from the late 1920s until about 1970.

Because of her great heart she always opened her door to anyone who knocked ad asked for a meal. One day someone sent a well-dressed young man to her. The man told her he had been travelling across the country and had left a wife and three sons in the east. Ms. Hyman looked him in the eye and said, “What’s a young man with so much family responsibilities doing bumming around the country instead of getting a steady job?” That young man was singer Jan Pierce.

During World War II she cooked for soldiers. A regular ritual followed each meal. Ms. Hyman would take a snapshot of each young man. The picture would be developed and sent home to the soldier’s family.

Although most of her recipes are gone, she shared her traditional honey cake, made for Rosh Hashanah to ensure a sweet New Year but also prepared by honey-cake aficionados for all good occasions.

3 large eggs
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey
1 cup warm black coffee
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan.

Place the eggs, lemon juice, lemon rind, oil, honey and coffee in a bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on low speed until well blended.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cream of tartar , sugar and cinnamon with a fork until mixed.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the eggs mixture, mixing for about 5 minutes or until well blended. Fold in the slivered almonds.

Pour the batter into the tube pan. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.