Honey cake
Honey has a VIP role at the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashanah* (25 September), to signify a sweet new year – and who doesn’t want one of those? This cake is squidgy, dark and lightly spiced to let the honey sing. It’s perfectly tender, too, which is partly thanks to a little yogurt, but you can keep it dairy-free by using soya yogurt, which works a treat.
*Please note, the ingredients in this recipe are not certified kosher for Rosh Hashanah as sold by Waitrose.
- Serves8
- CourseCake
- Prepare15 mins
- Cook1 hr
- Total time1 hr 15 mins
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 140g light brown soft sugar
- 180g dark clear honey, such as Rowse Dark & Rich, plus 3 tbsp for drizzling
- 70g plain soya or dairy yogurt, plus extra to serve (optional)
- 110ml vegetable or sunflower oil
- 115ml strong black tea, cooled
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 220g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ orange (scrubbed), zest
- ¼ tsp allspice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC, gas mark 4, and grease and line a 900g loaf tin with baking parchment. In a large bowl, using a balloon whisk (the batter is loose, so an electric mixer might be a little splashy), whisk together the eggs, sugar and honey, followed by the yogurt, oil, tea and vanilla, until smooth.
In another bowl, use a fork to mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, orange zest, allspice and cinnamon together. In three additions, tip the flour mixture on top of the wet ingredients, whisking gently each time, until you have a bronze, blended batter.
Transfer the batter to the lined loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes-1 hour, or until a skewer comes out clean. Cover the cake after 40 minutes if it’s browning too fast. Once the cake has cooled, warm a little extra honey in a small pan, then pour over the top of the cake. It’s lovely served with extra yogurt, if liked.
Nutritional
Typical values per serving when made using specific products in recipe
Energy | 1,758kJ/ 419kcals |
|---|---|
Fat | 16g |
Saturated Fat | 1.6g |
Carbohydrates | 63g |
Sugars | 42g |
Fibre | 1.5g |
Protein | 5.3g |
Salt | 0.6g |