Honey cake is, of course, a cake sweetened with honey, it’s deliciously packed with spices and it’s dairy free. It’s a tradition to serve it on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah in the hopes of ensuring a sweet New Year. The first time I tried it I really loved it… it’s totally perfect with coffee or after dinner. My version is a healthier version using lots of grated apples, wholemeal spelt flour and olive oil… and I promise you it’s a big hit. I sometimes make this as a birthday cake too and it’s perfect at Christmas with all its amazing flavours.

Recipe

Serves about 10.

Ingredients:
½ cup of golden caster sugar or white sugar
¼ cup of dark brown sugar
¾ cup of runny honey (if you are vegan you can use agave syrup or maple syrup although some vegans don’t use maple )
3 large eggs (or egg replacer from health food shops or online)
1 ¼ cup of mild olive oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
4 eating apples grated
3 cups of wholemeal spelt flour
1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon
¼ teaspoon of allspice
a pinch of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of baking soda
¼ teaspoons of salt
a little icing sugar for decoration
9 inch bundt tin

How:
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Spray the insides of the bundt tin with cake release spray (I get this on line as its a real time saver and renders everything non-stick) or coat with your own cooking oil. In middle eastern countries they use tahini to grease their cake tins which is brilliant. By the way, bundt cake tins cut down the cooking time because the central funnel ensures an even distribution of heat during the cooking process, so the cake doesn’t have to cook as long so it stays moist.
In a large mixing bowl put the eggs, sugar and honey.
With an electric mixer, whisk until pale and frothy. Then whisk in the oil.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix till all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
Pour into the bundt tin and bake for 40 minutes…or until a skewer comes out clean. If it starts to go too brown on top before it’s finished baking, put some tin foil over the top of the cake.
Leave to cool and serve it like it is or dust with the icing sugar or if you want to make a vanilla icing , mix 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract with 3 tablespoons of milk, milk substitute or water and 1½ cups of icing sugar until smooth and drizzle over the cake and you can add more decorations if you want to.

Note: I baked this in a Nordicware Magnolia Bundt tin and it worked perfectly

I shop at:
Waitrose
Sainsbury’s
Tesco
Lidl