Rosh Hashanah Honey Cake, Lightened

A week or two before Rosh Hashanah, I received my Recipe-of-the-month from Kathleen King, the owner of Tate's Bake Shop in Southampton, Long Island. In this edition, she presented her version of Honey Cake, a traditional sweet eaten for the High Holidays.

I'd never heard of Jewish honey cake, but in looking over the recipe, it seemed like an interesting combination of flavors. There's a full cup of coffee, some orange juice, and ground almonds in addition to the obligatory honey (a full cup of it!).

I decided to make some for my advisor, and her being sensitive to extra sugar, I kept the honey but substituted all the rest of the sugar with Splenda, and I tried to decrease the glycemic index even more by using mostly whole wheat pastry flour.

The cake was wonderfully moist and deep in flavor. I accidentally over-baked the little loaves I made by 5 minutes and you could not tell at all. Sweeten up your year with this tasty cake. Mazel tov!




Honey Cake (adapted from Kathleen King, owner of Tate's Bake Shop)

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 1 cup AP)
1/2 cup almond flour or homemade finely ground almonds
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed (I substituted Splenda and a tablespoon sugar-free maple-flavored syrup for this and white sugar)
1/2 cup white sugar (see above)
3/4 cup vegetable oil (I reduced this to 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup applesauce (I increased this to 1/2 cup)
1 cup honey
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup black coffee (I used 1 pack Starbucks Via instant coffee in 1 cup water)
1/2 cup orange juice
2/3 cup sliced almonds

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line two 9x5x3 inch loaf pans or three smaller loaf pans with parchment paper only on the bottom. Or you can use a 10-inch bundt pan, well greased.

In a bowl, sift and combine all the dry ingredients together (flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, spices, sugars).

In another bowl whisk all the wet ingredients together. Add all the wet ingredients at once to the dry ingredients. Mix until combined. The batter is very thin/liquidy. Pour batter into prepared pans and sprinkle sliced almonds on top evenly. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes if making two loaves, or ~40-50 minutes for 3 loaves. Test cakes with toothpick in center; it is done when the toothpick comes out clean.