Tag: Honey

Jewish Honey Cake: Test 3

Source

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/219008/moist-holiday-honeycake/

Total time: 1 1/2 hours

Yield: 2 9″ x 5″ loaves or 1 12-cup bundt cake

Equipment

12-cup bundt pan or two 13″ x 9″ loaf pans
PAM baking spray
Large bowl
Whisk
Medium bowl

Ingredients

3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 cup corn oil
1 cup honey
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of one orange diluted to 1/2 cup
2 Tbsps instant espresso
1 cup boiling water

Procedure

  1. I preheated the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a large bowl, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice and cloves were sifted together.
  3. I prepared my coffee by mixing the espresso powder with 1 cup of boiling water. I still think this is a better option than normal coffee or even fresh brewed espresso because the powdered espresso lacks the acidity of the fresh coffee options.
  4. In a separate bowl, I mixed together the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee, and orange juice.
  5. The wet mixture was added to the dry, mixing slowly from the center to incorporate the flour without lumps. This resulted in quite a thin batter. Do not let this scare you, it’s completely fine.
  6. I chose to use 2 loaf pans but a bunt cake pan would work well here as well. I greased my load pans with PAM baking spray and divided the batter between the two pans evenly.
  7. The cakes were baked for roughly 60 minutes and checked with a knife to make sure the center was done baking. The knife should come out clean and the cake should not be overly wiggly.
  8. (Optional) In previous tests I found that the cake had a crust I didn’t care for. This was easily fixed by allowing the cake to sit in a sealed container while cooling.

Results

This was the best result. It had all the elements I wanted. It was deeply spiced and rich. The honey still came through though and the whole cake was moist, lovely, and surprisingly delicate.

Notebook

Honey Jewish Cake

Jewish Honey Cake: Test 2

Source

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/219008/moist-holiday-honeycake/

Total time: 1 1/2 hours

Yield: 2 9″ x 5″ loaves or 1 12-cup bundt cake

Equipment

12-cup bundt pan or two 13″ x 9″ loaf pans
PAM baking spray
Large bowl
Whisk
Medium bowl

Ingredients

3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 tsps ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 cup corn oil
1 cup honey
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of one orange diluted to 1/2 cup
1 cup strong brewed tea

Procedure

  1. I preheated the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a large bowl, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice and cloves were sifted together.
  3. In a separate bowl, I mixed together the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, tea, and orange juice.
  4. The wet mixture was added to the dry, mixing slowly from the center to incorporate the flour without lumps. This resulted in quite a thin batter. Do not let this scare you, it’s completely fine.
  5. I chose to use 2 loaf pans but a bunt cake pan would work well here as well. I greased my load pans with PAM baking spray and divided the batter between the two pans evenly.
  6. The cakes were baked for roughly 60 minutes and checked with a knife to make sure the center was done baking. The knife should come out clean and the cake should not be overly wiggly.

Results

Cutting the cloves with all spice worked like a charm. The spices are well balanced now. The addition of tea instead of the coffee was more significant than I expected. It brought a good amount of brightness to the recipe. The tea is not a bad way to go but I think I would prefer the depth and richness of the coffee flavor in this recipe. I also didn’t really like the crust that this cake developed while baking. Some tasters disagreed but for me, cake loaves should not have a crust.

Notebook

Honey Jewish Cake

Jewish Honey Cake

Introduction

This is the honey cake I grew up with as a child in Israel. Sweet, moist, and heavily spiced. Great autumn bake and compliments the apple season nicely for the Jewish New Year.

Experimental Findings

So which test yielded the best cake?

I preferred the cake with both cloves and all spice as well as the coffee rather than the tea. The cloves on their own were somewhat overpowering so cutting them with all spice is a good idea. The coffee versus tea question is trickier. I personally feel that the coffee gives a deeper, richer flavor which is what I want from this cake. That said, the tea bring some brightness which is pleasant in its own right.

What about the alcohol mentioned in the source recipe?

I chose to omit it at the time because I just didn’t have any in the house. I suspect it would be delicious and it would be worth it to give it a shot. Maybe test 4 will look into that

Tests

Jewish Honey Cake: Test 1 – Cloves and Coffee
Jewish Honey Cake: Test 2 – Cloves, Allspice, and Tea
Jewish Honey Cake: Test 3 – Cloves, Allspice and Coffee

Jewish Honey Cake: Test 1

Source

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/219008/moist-holiday-honeycake/

Total time: 1 1/2 hours

Yield: 2 9″ x 5″ loaves or 1 12-cup bundt cake

Equipment

12-cup bundt pan or two 13″ x 9″ loaf pans
PAM baking spray
Large bowl
Whisk
Medium bowl

Ingredients

3½ cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
4 tsps ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 cup corn oil
1 cup honey
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Juice of one orange diluted to 1/2 cup
2 Tbsps instant espresso
1 cup boiling water

Procedure

  1. I preheated the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
  2. In a large bowl, the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and cloves were sifted together.
  3. I prepared my coffee by mixing the espresso powder with 1 cup of boiling water. I think this is a better option than normal coffee or even fresh brewed espresso because the powdered espresso lacks the acidity of the fresh coffee options.
  4. In a separate bowl, I mixed together the oil, honey, sugars, eggs, vanilla, coffee, and orange juice.
  5. The wet mixture was added to the dry, mixing slowly from the center to incorporate the flour without lumps. This resulted in quite a thin batter. Do not let this scare you, it’s completely fine.
  6. I chose to use 2 loaf pans but a bunt cake pan would work well here as well. I greased my load pans with PAM baking spray and divided the batter between the two pans evenly.
  7. The cakes were baked for roughly 60 minutes and checked with a knife to make sure the center was done baking. The knife should come out clean and the cake should not be overly wiggly.

Results

This cake was delicious for sure but at first bite it felt like the cloves were overpowering. This intense clove flavor mellowed out by the second bite as my mouth adjusted but I would prefer to cut the cloves with some allspice to reduce that bite.

Notebook

Honey Jewish Cake