Honey, honey

For Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to eat sweet foods to symbolize the wish for a sweet coming year and a sweet life overall. Apples dipped in honey are the stereotypical symbol of Rosh Hashanah, but there are other details as well—the challah is dotted with raisins and dipped in honey, other sweet fruits, like pomegranate, are eaten, and of course, there's honey cake.

According to Deb of Smitten Kitchen, honey cakes have a bad rap; they're "dry and never sweet enough". And it's no wonder; while passing by a little Jewish store/deli on St-Laurent en route to Schwartz's last Friday, I noticed a package cake sitting there on special by the windowsill and it reminded me of a Christmas fruitcake. Hardly appetizing.

Deb promised that her "majestic and moist honey cake" would change all the old misconceptions about honey cake, and for people like me, leave a good first impression.

The cake *did* come out very moist, and the combination of spices reminded me a little bit of carrot cake. And there's definitely no worry about it not being sweet enough; it wasn't until I was mixing the ingredients together that I realized how much sugar is in the recipe! One cup of honey... 1½ cups of sugar... ½ cup brown sugar... It actually made me feel glad that I'd used mostly whole wheat flour in the recipe—and it was still moist!—just because I'd used up most of the white flour making cupcakes earlier in the week! (More on that in a later post)

Though it's ridiculously good, this recipe makes a LOT of honey cake. It will make you three loaf cakes, two 9" square or round cakes, one 9" or 10" bundt/tube cake, or in my case, one 9" x 13" cake. Unless you're expecting to serve this to a big crowd, I would strongly suggest halving the recipe.

Majestic and Moist Honey Cake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 875 mL (3½ cups) mix of whole-wheat and white flour
  
• 15 mL (1 tbsp) baking powder
  
• 5 mL (1 tsp) baking soda
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) kosher salt
  
• 20 mL (4 tsp) ground cinnamon
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) ground cloves (I didn't have any so I used nutmeg instead)
  
• 2 mL (½ tsp) ground allspice
  
• 250 mL (1 cup) vegetable oil
  
• 250 mL (1 cup) honey
  
• 375 mL (1½ cups) granulated sugar
  
• 125 mL (½ cup) brown sugar
  
• 3 large eggs at room temperature
  
• 5 mL (1 tsp) vanilla extract
  
• 250 mL (1 cup) warm coffee or strong tea
  
• 125 mL (½ cup) fresh orange juice (I mixed mine from the frozen concentrate that my boyfriend bought for his chicken, and it was fine)
  
• 60 mL (¼ cup) rye or whiskey (Assure your alcoholic boyfriend that this is just 2 oz, so there will be more than enough for guests to take a shot between every course of the meal)

1. Preheat oven to 175°C (350°F). Generously grease pan(s) with non-stick cooking spray. For tube or angel food pans, line the bottom with lightly greased parchment paper, cut to fit.
   
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Make a well in the center, and add oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee or tea, orange juice and rye or whiskey, if using. (If you measure your oil before the honey, it will be easier to get all of the honey out.)
   
3. Using a strong wire whisk or in an electric mixer on slow speed, stir together well to make a thick, well-blended batter, making sure that no ingredients are stuck to the bottom.
   
4. Spoon batter into prepared pan(s). If you're worried about the cakes baking evenly, you can place cake pan(s) on two baking sheets, stacked together, but I skipped this step and even lost track of how long the cake was in the oven, but things turned out ok.
   
5. Bake until cake tests done, that is, it springs back when you gently touch the cake centre and/or a cake tester stuck in the middle comes out clean. For angel and tube cake pans, this will take 60 to 75 minutes, loaf cakes, about 45 to 55 minutes. For sheet style cakes, baking time is 40 to 45 minutes.
   
6. Let cake stand fifteen minutes before removing from pan.