Honey Cake
The new kitchen still lacks a springform pan or any other sort of cake pan, so it’s fortunate that loaf pans are allowed for honey cake. Smitten Kitchen reinterpreted Marcy Goldman’s recipe, and I have re-reinterpreted it here.
Makes 2–3 loaves.
Ingredients
Dry
- 3 ⅓ c. flour
- 1 ¾ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp clove
- ½ tsp allspice
Wet
- 3 eggs
- 1 c. pure olive oil (or any neutral oil)
- 1 c. honey
- 1 ½ c. sugar
- ½ c. brown sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 c. warm coffee
- ½ c. apple cider
- ¼ c. rye or whiskey
Topping
- sanding sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350° (with convection).
- Spray two 9" x 5" loaf pans (or three 8" x 4" loaf pans) and line with parchment paper.
- Mix dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Make a well and pour in the liquid ingredients.
- Mix well, using a whisk attachment on low speed (or manually with a whisk), making sure to break up any clumps of flour.
- Pour batter into the pans.
- Optionally top with sanding sugar.
- Bake on a heavy baking sheet for about an hour, to the toothpick test.
- Cool in the pan.
Serve at room temperature, ideally after at least one day sitting (covered) on the counter.
Variants
The original recipe called for orange juice rather than apple cider. You can replace the scarier liquids with more juice or cider.
You can replace the spices with pumpkin spice.
The original recipe lists a variety of pans you can use instead of loaf pans, with adjustments to the cooking time. I have a 9x6 pan that cooks for up to 45 minutes.
