Ever on the quest for a moist dark honey cake that tempts you to eat a second and third slice, I invented a new recipe this year using my favorite dark amber avocado honey and date molasses. This honey cake not only uses the quintessential Rosh Hashanah ingredient of honey but uses one of the other holiday Simanim (symbolic foods for New Year blessing), dates. Easy to make, it freezes and is super wonderful with tea or coffee. Your Rosh Hashanah guests will beg you for the recipe. I make several at once!
Serves 16 to 20
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/ 2 teaspoon salt
6 extra large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark amber honey (I prefer avocado honey)
1/ 2 cup date molasses
1 cup sunflower oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
2 tablespoons boiling water
1 cup chopped dates
Non-stick spray for Bundt pan
12 cup Bundt pan
In a medium bowl blend flour, cinnamon and salt. Set flour mixture aside.
Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Combine eggs and sugar in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk. Whisk on high speed until eggs are thick and creamy about 5 minutes. Next, switch out whisk to regular beater and blend in honey, then date molasses. Lower mixer speed to lowest setting, then add oil, and blend. Add vanilla, blend. In a separate small cup or bowl mix baking soda, espresso powder, and boiling water. Boiling water will dissolve espresso and baking soda and make it foam. Add foaming mixture to cake batter in the mixing bowl. Blend.
With mixer off, add dry ingredients (flour). Turn mixer on to lowest setting and mix in flour until just blended. Remove mixing bowl from stand mixer and stir in chopped dates with a large rubber spatula. I find a folding motion works great. Spray Bundt pan with non-stick spray, making sure to get every nook and cranny. Pour cake batter into the pan until about 2/3 full. If your Bundt pan is smaller than 12 cups you will have left over batter. Grease a mini loaf pan and add excess batter to it.
Bake the cake for 45 to 50 minutes, depending on your oven. Use a long skewer or toothpick to test for doneness. When cake is done, remove from oven, set on a cake rack. After 10 minutes invert cake onto another cake rack and remove Bundt pan. Allow cake to finish cooling on cake rack before storing in an airtight container or wrapping and freezing.
Hi Linda,
I am enjoying reading all your Rosh Hashanah recipes and I hope to try some. Everything is beautiful as always. The challah and the honey cake are really tempting me.
The rodanchas with kalavasa also looks great especially made with your homemade strudel dough. I know I have seen this before. There is a recipe in Joyce Goldstein’s Sephardic Flavors which using filo dough.
I will let you know which recipes I make. As always, thanks for the great pictures and step by step directions.
Norma
Completely agree with Norma on this, Linda. Your Rosh Hashanah recipes are wonderful reading (and gorgeous to look at, too) and of course, trying them out myself at home.
I love making new year honey cake (I’ve used the one from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood cookbook, but I’m always open to new variations on the recipe). Dates or date molasses certainly sounds like something I’m going to enjoy experimenting with this time around.
By the way, I love that Star of David cake tin. Oh…wait…now that I’m looking at it more closely, it’s not a cake tin after all, is it? Is it a plastic (or ceramic) mixing bowl? Where did you find that, Linda? Is there an on-line shop I can get it at? It’s wonderful and I want one!
ps – by the way, I’ve been meaning to tell you about a wonderful book I just bought that arrived last week – it’s called ‘Miriam’s Kitchen,’ by Elizabeth Erlich. Have you read it or heard about it? Every Jewish woman – Sephardic or Ashkenazic – should read this book. Beautiful anecdotes about family, memories, keeping kosher and wonderful recipes, as well.
Hi Greek Girl, you are right it is a cake pan mold. I purchased it at Sur Le Table, years ago. It is non-stick!
Thanks for letting me know where you bought it. Maybe they have an on-line shop that I can get one at. Or is it a actual shop or chain (like Bed, Bath and Beyond or Williams-Sonoma)? I’ll have a look on-line after I post this, and see if I can find one. I can’t stop looking at it – I love it.