Apple Honey Cake – A Rosh Hashanah Treat

At the Jewish New Year, otherwise known as Rosh Hashanah, it is customary to eat apples dipped in honey. This is meant to evoke sweetness in the coming year.

I remember the first time I was invited by my Jewish neighbor and friend to try some of the foods of Rosh Hashanah.  One of them was Honey Cake.  I was in Junior High School.

Just the name of the dessert, Honey Cake, gave the promise that it would be sweet, moist and delicious.  It wasn’t.  It was dry and almost tasteless.  It was a real disappointment.  I was sure it must just have been over cooked or there was some ingredient missing.  But later that week in talking with another Jewish friend at school the subject of the foods served at the “high holidays” came up.  My friend David commented, “Honey Cake is like the Jewish version of fruitcake.*  Everyone eats it because they are supposed to, but no one really likes it.”  That made no sense to me…especially when you are talking about a dessert, and at that, one that is designed to symbolically celebrate the sweetness of the coming year.

Some years later I tried it again.  It had both apples and honey in the cake and it was delicious. The apples keep the cake moist and make it sweet,  just right for celebrating the New Year.  You have apples honey and cake all in one.  If you are celebrating Rosh Hoshanah tomorrow this is a recipe you need to try.  If you aren’t you should try it anyway 🙂

Shana Tovah!

* There are dry, awful fruitcakes just as there are bad honey cakes in the world…..BUT, just as this is a very tasty honey cake, there are delicious fruitcakes too!  And I must tell you that both your chums actually really enjoy a good fruitcake at the Christmas holidays.  Sometime back we did a post abut Jackie’s favorite fruitcake.  Being a Canadian and growing up in England, it was a staple at the holidays and at weddings.

New Year’s Apple Honey Cake

1 cup white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 apples – peeled, cored and shredded
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch Bundt pan.
In a large bowl, beat together the sugar and oil. Add the eggs and beat until light, then stir in the honey and vanilla. Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice; add to the batter and stir  just until moistened. Peel and core the apples and then grate them as you would potatoes for hash browns.  Chop the walnuts into fairly small pieces.  Fold in the apples and nuts to the rest of the batter.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour in the preheated oven.  when the sides of the cake are set and pulling away slightly from the sides of the pan, take the cake out of the oven.  Even if the center still looks underdone, if the sides are pulling away take it out.  After you take the cake from the oven, it still continues to cook.  Removing it at this point will insure that your cake is moist.   Let the cake cool for 10 to 15 minutes.  Invert onto a plate and dust with powdered sugar or drizzle with honey before serving. Enjoy the sweet taste of the New Year.

(If you aren’t celebrating Rosh Hoshanah, try it with a dollop of whipped cream.)